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www.HartfordBusiness.com June 12, 2017 • Hartford Business Journal 17 BIZ BOOKS How leadership styles shape a business "H ow Builder Personality Shapes Your Business, Your Team, and Your Ability to Win" by Chris Keunne and John Danner (Harvard Business Review Press, $30). An entrepreneur's leadership style affects the way the business operates. The authors' research found four distinct per- sonalities that approach business-building (i.e. find- ing solutions, team-build- ing, dealing with customers and stakeholders, achieving scale) from different per- spectives. Here are some of the pros and cons of each: 1. "Drivers" see business ownership as personal vali- dation. They have an innate ability to "see what's missing" and can convert ideas into products. But, they often fall so in love with their creation that they won't listen to others. Their hands-on approach means they're prone to micromanagement. "Letting go" often presents a problem because those they initially hired liked leaving the deci- sion-making to the driver. 2. "Explorers" ask questions about prob- lems in need of a solution. They have "twin drives of curiosity and confidence to seek and develop a better approach." When they understand how a system works, they want to improve it. They hire like-minded sys- tem-thinkers, which effectively creates "delegation through collaboration." Explorers often look at employees as part of the firm's operating system, rather than individuals, which can create morale problems. Low morale eats away at collaboration. 3. "Crusaders" see the unmet need of others and create a mission-based company. They attract passionate employees and customers. Lacking a "why to how" infrastructure to measure operational efficiency and assess financial decisions, Crusaders may be doing the right thing the wrong way because they make decisions based solely on the mission. They are willing delegators, but they're averse to conflict so underperformance isn't dealt with quickly. 4. "Captains relish the building process itself almost as much as the businesses they build." It's not so much about growth as it is about being great and unique. When it comes to managing, they are "orchestra conductors comfortable with yielding the spotlight as circumstances dictate." Captains must set limits on delegation lest they become detached from critical decisions. They must also realize that con- sensus building postpones decisions. The message: If you learn to lead, you'll learn to build. • • • "Talking to Crazy: How to Deal with the Irrational and Impos- sible People in Your Life" by Mark Goulston (AMA- COM, $24.95). You've met the bully, the manipulator, the victim, the know-it-all, the backstabber, the whiner, the gossiper, etc. Dealing with these person- alities can drive you crazy — unless you employ Goulston's methods for dealing with them. Here are a few: 1. "Keep your own crazy at bay when you're under attack." Becoming defensive only adds fuel to their fire. They win; you lose. Pausing before you respond calms your emotions and provides a moment to frame a response. By maintaining your poise, you disarm the crazy — yours and theirs. 2. "The belly roll." Don't attempt to take charge of the conversation. Instead, roll- over and let the irrational person lead the conversation. Sounds counterintuitive; it's not. "Increasing the person's power lessens his need to act out." If the person sees you as non-threatening, the attack stops and real conversation starts. 3. "Time travel." You can't change their past or yours. The future beckons. Simply asking "What do you want me to do or not do?" starts a conversation. As it pro- gresses, weave your expectation for her/ him into it. 4. The "butter up" works well with know- it-alls. Identify the areas where the person excels and play to them. Guide the conver- sation to how the person could grow those skills. By seeing you as a mentor, the person may be open to tak- ing your advice. The Bottom Line: Learn to manage the crazies in your life, or they'll manage you. n Jim Pawlak is a nationally syndicated book reviewer. Jim Pawlak EXPERTS CORNER WannaCry cyber attack highlights need for proactive data security By Matt Kozloski T he recent WannaCry cyber attack affect- ed targets all over the world including major companies such as FedEx. The computer virus most notably temporarily shut down portions of Britain's healthcare system. Could something similar happen here? While thankfully no surgeries were inter- rupted stateside like they were in the UK, companies in Con- necticut were affect- ed. What can we take away from one of the largest cyber attacks in history? Patch promptly Though widespread, WannaCry is easy to defend against from a technical standpoint. It's a form of ransomware — it scans for vulnerable systems, infiltrates them auto- matically, and then locks them until a ran- som is paid. When a new weakness in Windows software that can be exploited this way comes to light, Microsoft releases a "patch" to close the gap. These are those lovely soft- ware update alerts you see all too often on your screen. Microsoft released a patch to protect against WannaCry weeks before the mal- ware spanned the world, but those who didn't install the patch (or who use old versions of Windows that are no longer supported by Microsoft such as Windows XP) were sitting ducks. Ultimately, Microsoft did release a patch for outdated versions of Windows — something it essentially never does — which speaks to the severity of the situation. Installing patches can be a pain, espe- cially if you have a lot of machines, but you can use tools like Windows Group Policy and Windows Server Update Services, included with Windows, to automate this. There's always the option of offloading the task to a managed service provider and letting that provider handle all the updates. It could have been worse It's not uncommon to encounter business- es in Connecticut using out-of-date operat- ing systems. Smaller medical practices, for instance, are focused on providing care, not securing their environments. They often don't view themselves as a target, but an indiscriminate cyber attack like WannaCry can potentially affect anyone with the vulner- ability that enables it. While the most basic cybersecurity mea- sures can fend off WannaCry, malware tar- geted to specific companies or industries can be more difficult to block. Phishing — the longstanding hacker prac- tice of tricking people into giving up their passwords — has gotten more sophisticated in recent years with hackers spoofing popular websites, or researching their targets to send malicious emails that are very believable. Once software patches are in place, an excellent next-step toward strong cyberse- curity is to hold training sessions for staff on a regular basis to keep them up to speed on best practices and what to look for. In addition to patching and training, hav- ing a backup system in place to restore data gives you more options in the event that you do get hacked. If your data is locked by a ransomware attack and you can restore it from backup, you've dodged most of the pain the cyber attack was meant to cause. Plus, you can't assume that paying the ransom will work — hackers have been known to keep the money and the data — and you don't want to be fund- ing hackers anyway. A proactive approach is key One reason WannaCry was so effective is because it uses a hacking tool that was devel- oped as a weapon. Information used by the hackers in the cyber attack was gleaned from a National Security Agency leak. If nothing else, the origin of WannaCry is an indication that every company must take ownership of their own cybersecurity. Despite the best intentions, entities like Microsoft and the NSA can't fully protect busi- nesses against hackers without active partici- pation from the businesses themselves. That can mean enlisting the help of an IT partner or allocating responsibility internally to make sure someone is accountable for protect- ing the organization's data and is adequately resourced to do so. n Matt Kozloski is vice president of profes- sional services at Kelser Corp., a technology consulting firm in Glastonbury. Matt Kozloski ▶ ▶ If you learn to lead, you'll learn to build.