Evaluate Mission, Values, and Success

Caroline Wong joined Dr. Rebecca Wynn on the Soulful CXO. She is the Chief Strategy Officer at Cobalt. She has extensive experience in communications and cybersecurity, including leadership roles at eBay and Zynga. She is passionate about boosting the number of women in the field and advocating for workplace equality. She has a podcast, Human of InfoSec, and teaches cybersecurity courses through LinkedIn Learning.

Evaluating mission, values, and success is crucial to making important decisions in our personal and professional lives.

Identifying What is Within Our Control Requires Self-Reflection and Introspection.

Evaluating mission, values, and success is crucial to making important decisions in our personal and professional lives. Wong shared her approach to evaluating opportunities and extracurricular activities based on these factors.

She begins by emphasizing the importance of aligning oneself with an organization's mission and purpose. This alignment is crucial because it determines whether an individual can genuinely believe in and support the work. She asks herself if the organization is solving a real business problem and has a solid way to solve it. This evaluation ensures that she invests her time and energy into endeavors with the potential for success and impact.

The second factor she considers is the people involved. It is essential to understand why individuals have chosen to do what they do and what they value. She seeks alignment in values to only work closely with individuals whose values differ from hers in acceptable ways. She creates a supportive and harmonious work environment by surrounding herself with people who share similar values.

Dr. Wynn and Wong acknowledge that evaluating mission, values, and success can be challenging. They highlight the importance of going beyond a company's or its people's outward appearance. Instead, advising individuals to approach opportunities as if they were interviewing the company. This mindset allows the person to assess whether the company's culture and values align with theirs. Rebecca emphasized the need to trust one's gut instincts and avoid positions that may harm one's well-being and personal growth.

Economic circumstances sometimes limit choices, but Wong encourages individuals to prioritize their mental and emotional well-being. Dr. Wynn suggested that it is best to avoid or leave work situations that destroy one's soul and make one feel unhappy if possible. Their advice is particularly relevant today, where work-life balance and mental health are increasingly recognized as crucial components of overall well-being.

Wong also offered a humorous yet thought-provoking joke metric to assess company culture. While not a definitive measure, it highlights the importance of considering factors such as divorce rates, marriages, and babies within a company. These indicators can provide insights into the work-life balance and support for healthy organizational relationships.

In addition to the joke metric, she suggests requesting references when considering a job opportunity. This approach allows individuals to gain insights from current or former employees about their experiences with the company. The willingness of a company to provide references and the enthusiasm with which they do so can be telling signs of a positive work environment.

The show’s insights remind one to trust one's instincts, seek support, and prioritize mental and emotional well-being when making important decisions in both personal and professional life.

Listen to the full episode for insights on security metrics, DevSecOps alignment, and the importance of diversity in cybersecurity and technology.  Additionally, Wong shares how her father's guidance led her to study engineering, despite her initial interest in dance and psychology. She talks about her experience as an intern at eBay, which introduced her to information security. Don't miss this insightful episode! 

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