The leader must be strong all the time. The leader cannot afford to make mistakes, let alone fail in front of their team. Is that really true? Nick Gicinto, a cybersecurity leader with over 25 years of experience, who has worked for the CIA and has built security systems from scratch at Tesla and Uber, fully hiring teams for these projects, will talk about the importance of being vulnerable to build trust within a team.

1. The strength of being vulnerable
Nick Gicinto
William Jewell College, SET University

2. Husband
Father
Brother
Son
CISO
Professor
Entrepreneur
Friend
Coach
Leaderx
Who am I?

3. Strong
Brave
Decisive
Direct
Courageous
Innovative
Fearless
Steady
A Winner
What was I taught to be?

4. The Viking mindset embodies qualities of
resilience, strategic thinking, and efficiency.
By adopting this mindset, we can transform
our approach to prioritization and achieve
remarkable success
ERWIN VERWEIJ
I WAS TAUGHT TO BE A VIKING
Either you’re a Victim in life — a sucker
or a loser who’s always being taken advantage
of and can’t hold your own — or you’re a
Viking — someone who sees the threat of
being victimized as a constant, so you stay in
control, you dominate, you exert power over
things,
and you never show vulnerability.
BRENE BROWN
“ “

5. The Viking-or-Victim worldview divides the world into winners and losers,
and has very little room for vulnerability. The worldview is useful in life-
threatening or traumatic situations, but prevents connection when the emergency
is over
BRENE BROWN
WINNERS AND LOSERS
“

6. Let me tell you a story…

7. Michael Jordan was a Viking
I disagreed with him one time.
I think he punched me in the face.
Steve Kerr
That disagreement happened during a scrimmage
at training camp when Kerr took offense to something
Jordan said, and he didn’t refrain from expressing his
true feelings.

8. The 1997 NBA Finals

9. Game Four

10. Game Five

11. Game 6

12. Steve Kerr
Career Points: 5,437
All-Star Appearances: 0

13. Game 6

14. Michael Jordan’s Career
Most Buzzer Beaters
in NBA History (9)
Game winning shots: 24
Career Points: 32,292
All-Star Appearances: 14

15. Why Did Jordan
Pass the Ball?

16. Brené Brown
Brené Brown is an American professor,
author, and podcast host.
Brown is known for her work on shame,
vulnerability, and leadership, and for her
widely viewed 2010 TEDx talk.
She has written six number-one New York
Times bestselling books and hosted two
podcasts on Spotify.

17. Vulnerability is not winning or losing;
it's having the courage to show up
and be seen when we have no control
over the outcome. – Brené Brown
Have the courage to be vulnerable.
What does she say?

18. Vulnerability
WHAT IT’S NOT:
1. Weakness
2. Soft
3. Naive
4. Meekness
5. Judgemental
WHAT IT IS:
1. Courageous
2. Brave
3. Empathetic
4. Strength
5. Curiousness

19. Example

20. I define vulnerability as uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure.
With that definition in mind, let’s think about love.
Waking up every day and loving someone who may or may not love us back,
whose safety we can’t ensure, who may stay in our lives or may leave without
a moment’s notice, who may be loyal to the day they die or betray us tomorrow
—that’s vulnerability.”
Brené Brown

21. Why Did Jordan
Pass the Ball?

22. Michael Jordan was a Viking
It made me look at myself and say, ‘You
know what? You’re really being an idiot
about this whole process.' I knew I had
to be more respectful of my teammates
Michael Jordan
“

23. When Phil drew up the play at the end,
everybody in the gym, everybody on TV knew
[the ball] was coming to me. I looked at Steve
and said, 'This is your chance,' because I
knew Stockton is going to come over and
[double team me] and I'm going to come to
you.
Michael Jordan
“

24. Be a Viking. Be a Victim.
or
Be Vulnerable.

25. Thank you!
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