At Security LeadHER 2024, Lida Citroën, CEO of LIDA360, highlighted how to authentically build trust, articulate your value proposition, define your leadership strategy and become visible to make your voice heard.

ASIS International and the Security Industry Association (SIA) recently closed out a successful second annual Security LeadHER conference, a unique event dedicated to advancing, connecting and empowering women in the security profession. The sold-out event took place June 24-25, 2024, in Phoenix, Arizona, bringing together more than 400 security professionals from seven countries.

Security LeadHER 2024 – a day-and-a-half program featuring industry-leading subject matter expert presenters – offered inspiring keynotes, educational sessions and networking opportunities on a variety of topics in leadership, career development, negotiation, allyship and more. One highlight was “Breaking Barriers: A Woman’s Guide to Leading With Influence,” a dynamic presentation from Lida Citroën, CEO of LIDA360.

“Each day, women around the world wake up and realize their potential isn’t fully utilized, their contributions are stifled, and their voices are not heard,” said Citroën. “Many of these same women take brave and bold steps to change their lives and build their reputation, career and legacy in ways that make the rest of us marvel at their confidence, ingenuity, and success. Now is your turn!”

Citroën shared 10 key rules of leading with influence:

1. Be courageous and push past fear. Courage doesn’t happen for you or to you. You need to find the strength to be the leader you’re meant to be.
2. Be real, and let others see the true you. Realness is not the same as telling people everything about you, as you’re allowed to keep some thoughts and experiences private. People relate to leaders who are real, and real people are flawed. Being able to show those flaws is key to having influence.
3. Be credible to authentically earn trust. When your actions and values align, and you walk the talk in all you do, others trust and rely on you.
4. Be of service to have lasting impact. Being of service to others takes the focus off yourself and onto who you serve and what they need from you.
5. Be inclusive of others wherever and however they are. Someone with influence brings others in, listens to them, learns from them and knows where their own expertise and others’ overlaps and where it diverges.
6. Be consistent in who and how you are. Influence is not about perfection, but it is about consistently showing up as the same person with the same values and passions (both online and in person).
7. Be agile to learn and grow. To have influence means having a learning and agile mindset and being open to changing markets, new needs, new audiences and new technologies where your influence must live to thrive.
8. Be a storyteller to share your “why.” Storytelling enables you to connect your history and vision to others by highlighting shared values, goals and experiences and showing your humanity in ways that inspire others to act.
9. Be visible to stand out. It’s time to get in front of the room, come out from the shadows, speak your mind, share your ideas and confidently assert your voice.
10. Be a brand to make lasting impact. Building your sense of identity with intention means you’re driving how others experience you. Building and living your personal brand gives you the platform and criteria for leveraging your voice and influence in more meaningful and impactful ways.

“Women today must create powerful and strong personal brands that are influential and impactful, honoring their gifts, authenticity and talents to become recognized and perceived the way they desire,” said Citroën.

See more highlights from Security LeadHER here.

Security LeadHER 2025 will be held June 9-10 in Detroit, Michigan. For more information and updates on Security LeadHER, please visit https://securityleadher.org.

Security LeadHER keynote speaker, author and executive coach Henna Pryor highlighted ways to speak up, be courageous and foster personal and professional growth.

Last month, ASIS International and the Security Industry Association (SIA) closed out a successful second annual Security LeadHER conference, a unique event dedicated to advancing, connecting and empowering women in the security profession. The sold-out event took place June 24-25, 2024, in Phoenix, Arizona, bringing together more than 400 security professionals from seven countries.

Security LeadHER 2024 – a day-and-a-half program featuring industry-leading subject matter expert presenters – offered inspiring keynotes, educational sessions and networking opportunities on a variety of topics in leadership, career development, negotiation, allyship and more. One highlight was the Day 2 opening keynote from Henna Pryor, a two-time TEDx and global keynote speaker, workplace performance expert, author and executive coach, on the topic “Awkward and Upward! Your Surprising Secret Weapon for Taking More Risks at Work.” Pryor highlighted how – in our increasingly online world – we are losing the skills of relating to others, building trust and connection and enduring the critical friction and messiness we get from being in proximity to each other.

“The weakening of our social muscles is slowly destroying our ability to take smart risks at work – like collaborating with colleagues, initiating tough conversations, speaking up and sharing ideas,” Pryor said. “We want our ideas to be heard, but we don’t always speak them into the room.”

If you deliberately practice dealing with awkward situations, you can move past your fear, continue learning and find success. In an inspiring and dynamic presentation, Pryor shared tips for moving from wishful thinking to execution when it comes to embracing discomfort and taking risks in order to succeed.

Pryor recommends using the acronym “SUCK” when practicing working through awkward or uncomfortable situations in the workplace:

S: Look for the SMALL.

• Look for “awkward” in a small, safe space.
• Engage in “bad idea brainstorms” to foster creativity.
• Embrace and seek out “small talk.”

U: And just a bit UNCOMFORTABLE.

• Expressed social discomfort has benefits. Your lack of perfection puts other people at ease.
• When you’re uncomfortable, detach emotion from though by asking, “Is there really evidence to support that thought?”
• Befriend the butterflies – they are an opportunity for your social muscles to get stronger.

C: To cross the CRINGE CHASM…

• Identify the awkward moments with higher stakes (not threatening ones, just enough to bring a little heat).
• Celebrate your “training” instead of the outcome.
• Celebrate each time you use the jump muscle (for example, draw a star in your notebook each time you engage in a tough conversation, no matter how it went!).

K: KEEP PERSPECTIVE as you go!

• Remember, when you feel awkward, that you’re not at the center of other people’s worlds and that they aren’t thinking about what you do as much as you are.

 “New learning pathways, new neural pathways only have a chance to happen when we do something, get feedback, and do it again,” Pryor said. “It’s the only way that they grow. And the only way to build those pathways is getting down and dirty in the awkward.”

See more highlights from Security LeadHER here.

Security LeadHER 2025 will be held June 9-10 in Detroit, Michigan. For more information and updates on Security LeadHER, please visit https://securityleadher.org.

As part of this year’s Security LeadHER conference, we want to rally our amazing community of “leadhers” and give back! To make this happen, ASIS and SIA are supporting Dress for Success Phoenix and the Bra Recyclers by accepting donations on-site during Security LeadHER 2024!

Here’s how you can be part of our efforts to give back to these two great organizations!

Dress for Success

Dress for Success Phoenix empowers women to achieve economic independence by providing a network of support, professional attire and the development tools needed to help women thrive in work and in life.

How You Can Help

The organization is encouraging us to bring the following items to match their current needs:

• New travel toiletries
• New or gently used handbags

The Bra Recyclers

The Bra Recyclers raises awareness about the social and environmental benefits of recycling lingerie. They believe that by working together with retailers and consumers, they can make a positive impact on the planet.

How You Can Help

Bring the following to participate in The Bra Recyclers’ efforts:

• New or gently used bras
• New underwear

Donations will be accepted on-site at Security LeadHER 2024, with central drop-off locations while you’re at the Sheraton Phoenix Downtown for the conference.