What Actually Gets You From Security Pro to Security Leader

Key points

• Employers scanning CISO job postings value communication skills and knowledge of regulatory frameworks more than mastery of specific security software, according to an analysis cited by CSO Online.
• Chad LeMaire, CISO at ExtraHop, warns that presenting purely as a technical expert can become "a career ceiling" rather than a competitive advantage.
• Anant Adya of Infosys says the ability to build trust across departments, covering legal, finance and product teams, matters as much as formal authority.
• An MBA or equivalent business experience, such as managing budgets or working in operations, is increasingly seen as useful preparation for the CISO role.
• Mentorship and willingness to admit mistakes openly are cited by multiple senior CISOs as underrated factors in career growth.

What does a CISO actually do all day?

A Chief Information Security Officer (CISO, pronounced "see-so"), the executive responsible for protecting a company from digital threats, is not the person expected to write code or fix a server. The role is closer to a business strategist who happens to speak fluent technology.

That distinction matters. An analysis of CISO job postings found employers want strong communication skills and familiarity with regulatory frameworks, the government rules governing how companies must protect data, far more than they want someone who can operate a particular security tool. Technical depth remains necessary, but it's the foundation, not the ceiling.

"The strongest CSOs and CISOs are the ones who can confidently translate technical risk to business priorities," says Chad LeMaire, CISO at ExtraHop. "Presenting solely as the most technically skilled person in the room may actually hold CISOs back."

Our August story on what the modern CSO role actually looks like reached the same conclusion: security chiefs who keep talking about firewalls while their peers talk about revenue keep getting ignored.

Why do communication and politics matter so much?

Because a CISO can't protect a company alone. They depend on developers, legal teams and senior leadership to act on their recommendations. Influence carries more weight than any title.

"A CISO needs to know how to be both a good politician and a good business partner," says John Harbaugh, CISO at BlueVoyant. "You can be an exceptional security specialist, but if you cannot build trust with those groups, create shared accountability, you will struggle in a CISO role."

That includes owning mistakes publicly. LeMaire advises aspiring CISOs to say clearly what they got wrong. "The strongest CISO candidates are often the ones who can clearly say what they got wrong," he says. Accountability and business maturity, he adds, strengthen a candidacy rather than undermining it.

Ira Winkler, CEO of CruiseCon, makes a sharper point about presentation. When raising venture capital, an investment banker told him to stop using the filler word "honestly." The word was giving listeners the subliminal impression he was otherwise not telling the truth. Small habits, poorly examined, have real costs.

Should aspiring security leaders get an MBA?

Not necessarily, but understanding how a business makes money isn't optional. Winkler puts it plainly: "If they want to be a peer of the CFO, CIO, COO, then they should have the same educational base." An MBA is one route; managing a budget or working in operations are others.

Adya of Infosys flags a specific area worth attention right now. "AI agents, APIs, and machine identities," meaning software programs, programming interfaces that let systems talk to each other, and digital credentials used by automated tools rather than humans, "are growing quickly inside enterprises. Knowing how to govern what they can access and do will become a valuable skill."

Find mentors before you think you need them. LeMaire credits two people he met at the start of his career, more than three decades ago, with shaping how he leads. "Leaders develop leaders," he says. Adya adds a useful corrective for ambitious professionals fixed on the next promotion: focus on excelling in the role you hold today.

Every CISO quoted here says the same thing a different way: technical credibility opens the door, but the job is won and kept through trust.