Ctrl + Alt + Lead: Rebooting Cyber Culture with Human Skills | Amanda Kollmorgan | BSides312 2026

Target audiences: Everyone Takeaways: Attendees will learn practical ways to foster teambuilding, conflict resolution, psychological safety, build mentorship pipelines, and communicate with clarity under pressure. Session Description: Technical skills might open doors in IT & Cybersecurity, but leadership, communication, and mentorship sustain growth and impact. As the field becomes more complex and critical, we must rethink how we build and lead teams. This talk highlights the soft skills that turn strong technicians into effective collaborators, trusted advisors, and emerging leaders: from coaching junior analysts to translating between the SOC and the C-suite. --- About Amanda Kollmorgan: Deputy State IT Director, WI Department of Military Affairs Amanda Kollmorgan is the Deputy State IT Director for the Wisconsin Department of Military Affairs. Amanda is passionate about developing people-first teams, mentoring future leaders, and fostering innovation through collaborative leadership. With nearly 20 years of military and civilian experience, she brings a well-rounded expertise in cybersecurity and IT strategy. Recorded live at BSides312 2026. --- Chapters: 0:00 Welcome and the Human Side of the Firewall 1:05 The Handout and Discord Follow-Up 1:35 The Delta: Certifications vs. Leadership Training 2:35 Growth Models and People Development 3:40 The Roundtable With Director Coker 4:00 The Gap Isn't Entry Level - It's Middle Management 4:35 About Amanda: Deputy State IT Director 5:25 The Wisconsin Cyber Response Team 5:50 19 Years, From HIMARS to Cryptographic Key Management 7:35 Not a Flex - What Actually Moved the Needle 8:40 We Used to Hide in the Server Closet 9:15 What "Strategic Enabler" Actually Means 10:20 Digital Transformation Pulls You to the Table 11:20 The Job Changed, the Development Model Didn't 11:55 The Accidental Manager 12:30 Count the Technical Requirements, Then the Human Ones 13:00 Promoted for Crushing a Red Team, Miserable in Six Months 13:40 We Don't Applaud the Calm Post-Incident Review 14:05 We Document What's Broken, Not What's Evolving 15:10 The Conversations We Never Train For 16:15 An Eight-Hour Course vs. a SANS Course 17:20 Your Best Leader and Your Worst Leader 18:25 Why That Reaction Is Instant 19:30 The Roundtable: What Stopped Me Cold 20:35 The Nursing Workforce Parallel 22:45 Thirty Applications for Every Entry-Level Job 23:00 Why Middle Management Is the Most Impactful Layer 24:00 The Military Version: A Mass Exodus of E6s and E7s 25:00 Promoting the Unprepared and Calling It a Fix 26:00 When That Layer Thins, the Organization Wobbles 26:35 Four Phases: Gap, Band-Aid, Cost, Cycle 27:40 People Leave Managers, Not Pay 28:10 The Cycle Perpetuates Itself 28:45 It's Solvable If We Stop Pretending 29:15 Numbers Behind the Void 30:20 The Post-Mortem Is Almost Always Communication 30:50 Mentorship Is the Load-Bearing Wall 31:25 One Person Can Ripple Through the Community 32:00 Structured vs. "Find a Mentor" 32:30 You Don't Have to Be Senior to Be a Mentor 33:00 The Person Who Asked Me to Mentor Them 34:40 The Competency Pyramid 36:50 Does Your New Hire Know Why Their Work Matters? 37:55 Every Layer Rests on the One Below 38:20 Audit Your Own Development Plan 39:00 Your Start-Tomorrow List: Six Moves 40:05 Feedback That Goes Up, Not Just Down 40:40 Get Uncomfortable: The Conversation You're Avoiding 41:10 Don't Fear Conflict 42:15 Pick One. Thirty Days. 42:30 Scaling Up: Psychological Safety 43:20 Model It From the Top Down 43:50 Reward the Person Who Flags the Problem 44:25 Put Soft Skills in the Hiring Rubric 45:30 Technical Skills Open Doors, Soft Skills Build Careers 45:50 The Platform to Invest In Is Your Team 46:35 Q&A: AI and Entry-Level Roles 47:40 Q&A: Resources for Conflict 48:45 Q&A: Spotting a Toxic Culture in Interviews --- Mentioned in this talk: - Stephen Covey - Patrick Lencioni's team dysfunctions - Forming / storming / norming / performing Full BSides312 2026 playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZnyzZE8j8jw