Herding Cats And Clicking Links: Leading The Human Side Of It
Written By Patrick Doyle
>_The Human Operating System
Whether you are protecting a corporate network or leading a volunteer church congregation, you may be required to lead people who do not always want to follow instructions, like herding cats, and teach them to internalize safe or positive behaviors.
As an IT admin, my days are spent managing firewalls, monitoring server uptimes, and resolving various user technical issues. It is a world of logic, predictable code, and strict rules.
But for me, a few days a week look completely different. As a Ward Mission Leader for my church congregation, I lead a diverse team of pure volunteers. We visit people from all walks of life, teach life-changing principles, and try to keep everyone moving in the same direction.
If you have ever tried to coordinate a group of passionate volunteers, you know exactly what it feels like: herding cats. For a long time, I viewed my corporate IT life and my volunteer church life as completely separate worlds. In my professional role, I’m tasked with creating our internal IT security awareness training videos. As I sat down to script how to stop employees from clicking malicious phishing links, it hit me: the human operating system is exactly the same, whether it is sitting in a church pew or a corporate cubicle.
Here are three leadership lessons I learned from herding cats on Sunday that made me a better IT leader on Monday.
>_You Cannot Fire A Volunteer (Lead With Empathy)
In church leadership, everyone is a volunteer. You cannot threaten to fire someone, dock their pay, or write them up if they miss a meeting or struggle with a task. You have to learn what motivates them personally and lead with genuine empathy.
In IT, we are human too and sometimes let ourselves get frustrated. We wonder, "How could they click that link? Didn’t they read the policy? Didn’t they watch the video?"
When I started making our security videos, I tried to not use a tone of technical condemnation. Instead, I treated our customers, aka all the amazing Med One employees, like my ward missionaries: good people trying their best, who occasionally get distracted. When you lead with empathy instead of policy enforcement, people stop hiding their mistakes and start working with you.
>_Training Must Touch The Heart, Not Just The Head
In my church role, I quickly learned that giving a missionary a handbook doesn't make them effective. They need to understand why their work matters. They need inspiration, stories, and connection.
The exact same rule applies to cybersecurity. A bulleted list of "Do Not Click" rules sent via email goes straight to the trash bin.
When I create security videos now, I don't just talk about malware or compliance. I try to relate with stories. I show how a single click can compromise a single coworker's private data, can cause an entire company security breach, or disrupt the hard work of an entire team. By making the training personal, memorable, and even humorous, the information sticks. You change the corporate culture, not just a compliance box.
>_Consistency Wins Over Complexity
Both in missionary work and network security, the most sophisticated plans usually fail if they are too complex. In church leadership, we find success by focusing on the basics: consistent visits, simple messages, and clear next steps.
In IT, we often build security barriers so high that employees bypass them just to get their jobs done. True security—and true leadership—is about making the right path the easiest path, which can be extremely difficult at times. Keep your processes simple. Keep your training bitesized. Consistent, small habits protect a company far better than a 50-page security manual no one reads.
>_The Secure Connection
Whether we are teaching a new spiritual principle or explaining the dangers of social engineering, leadership is never about the system. It is about the people.
By stepping away from the server rack and learning to herd the "cats" in my community, I discovered the secret to better IT administration. When we invest in training people's hearts and minds, our networks- and our workplaces—become safer, stronger, and much more inspired places to be.