Executive Coach
Jeff Snyder Coaching

Jeff Snyder

Jeff Snyder –
Most Influential People in Security 2021

Jeff Snyder, Executive Coach at Jeff Snyder Coaching and Founder and President of SecurityRecruiter.com, proudly described himself as a recruiter, coach, husband, father, entrepreneur, great friend and risk-taker.

He dedicated his life to inspiring and motivating people to become the best version of themselves. He encouraged security leaders to continue their leadership development to aspire to be great leaders, lead by example, and align their work with their unique personal strengths.

For more than 30 years, he worked with companies and job seekers as part of his recruiting and coaching business to find top talent for security leadership, investigative and business intelligence roles across the U.S. and worldwide. Similarly, security leaders around the world entrusted Snyder with their professional needs for many years. Prior to his role as Executive Coach at his coaching business, Snyder held Executive Coach roles at Marshall Goldsmith and Bradford &Galt, Inc.

His job placement experience, dating back to 1990, opened interview doors globally for security leaders, helping them obtain roles as Chief Executive Officers, Chief Security Officers, Chief Information Security Officers, Chief Information Officers, Chief Operating Officers, and more.

Before his passing earlier this year to ALS, Snyder told Security, “As I reflect over my entire career, it is difficult to pick between the things I am proud of, be it gambling on what is now cybersecurity back in the late 1990s, or taking the risk of starting a coaching business or stepping into public speaking without any prior experience.”

He was most proud of his public speaking skills, as it led him to dozens of cities, and many times, with return invitations to the same cities. He explained, “I was privileged to share my knowledge and experience with both cybersecurity and corporate security audiences from around the globe. I met people through public speaking who became recruiting clients, as well as coaching clients. It proved to be a move that also led me to an invitation to co-host a podcast in 2020 with a world-class CISO.”

Snyder told Security that every day that he was fortunate to continue waking up, he had one objective. “That objective is to create value for those who place their trust in me to help them generate their most fulfilling, powerful and productive performance.”

Tapping into his knowledge and experience, he offered career and leadership advice for security professionals. “To become the person the business wants, needs and expects, security leaders must first understand what the business places value on. The business, in this case, is any part of the company that is not the security organization,” he said.

After decades of researching what employers truly want, it became clear to Snyder that employers, more often than not, need security professionals who are business people that happen to specialize in security, risk, privacy, compliance and threat. Employers, he said, routinely look for security talent who communicate effectively, as well as have the potential to influence, partner with and collaborate with the business.

“The path to becoming who and what the business expects includes learning a variety of technical skills that have been validated through certification and experience. At least as important, if not more important, are the business skills and soft skills employers need,” he explained. “Future security professionals need to start with developing crystal-clear self-awareness. You must understand exactly who you are, who you are not, and how you are coming across to other people. Once you understand your unique makeup, which can be identified through CliftonStrengths and Emotional Intelligence evaluations, it is your job to develop your unique abilities to align with the business’ expectations.”

There are different ways to foster this development, according to Snyder, “either by engaging someone gifted to coach in the areas of CliftonStrengths and Emotional Intelligence, turn to a variety of experts, or read and study multiple materials that come with the CliftonStrengths and Emotional Intelligence evaluation results.”

Throughout his career and journey, Snyder was a constant source of inspiration and motivation for many security leaders. His knowledge, presence and kind soul will be missed by his colleagues, industry friends and associates.

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The Most Influential People in Security 2021