Grant Gibson of CIBR: Lessons I Learned From My Military Experience About How To Survive And Thrive During A Time Of Crisis

Collect yourself. First step is to calm down and not panic. Odds are your team, the public and others are watching you and watching how you respond. Take a minute to collect yourself and lead with confidence.

In this interview series, we are exploring the subject of dealing with crisis and how to adapt and overcome. The context of this series is the physical and financial fallout that resulted from the COVID 19 pandemic. Crisis management is one characteristic that many successful leaders share in common, and in many cases it is the most important trait necessary to survive and thrive in today’s complex market.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Grant Gibson.

After exemplary service in the US Marines as a critical Communications Chief and pioneering IT instructor, Grant entered the civilian world as an instructor at MyComputerCareer where his distinguished performance soon placed him in the role of Campus Director in Columbus, OH. There, Grant piloted the school’s first online cybersecurity program hosting the online classroom at his facility.

Grant’s continued leadership in cybersecurity and his Marine experience led him to the position of Executive Director of Military Programs where he continued to expand both his technical expertise and the school’s outreach to all branches of the US Military. In 2019 Grant assumed the leadership role at CIBR Ready during its start-up phase. He was also appointed to the Training & Certifications Sub-committee of the National Institute for Standards & Time’s (NIST) Initiative on Cyber Security Education where he provides a voice of leadership to emerging Cyber technology education standards in the US.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would love to get to know you a bit. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood “backstory”?

I grew up in the 1980s, and was heavily influenced by its pop culture, trends and of course the transition between the real and digital world. My dad was in the Navy, so I spent my childhood in several places, including Idaho, New Jersey and Florida.

My first real introduction to technology was actually the launch of Nintendo. As a young kid, I had never experienced anything like it before and was enthralled. To me, the game changing technology was intriguing, exciting and really jump started my immersion into the digital world. Then not long after we were introduced to computers and started living life online. Being brought up in the 1980s influenced my goals, interests and life.

Can you share a story that exemplifies the unique work that you are doing at CIBR?

The influx of cyber attacks over the last year proves the growing need for businesses to be prepared. At CIBR (Cyber Institute for Battle Readiness) it’s our goal to ensure organizations and individuals are ready to meet tomorrow’s cyber security challenges.

With that, we’ve been hard at work providing services to organizations to help navigate the challenging cyber security landscape by creating an individualized, meaningful pathway towards protecting businesses. Of course we’re always looking for ways to better help organizations, so we’ve been executing a lot of beta testing. Taking the time to listen to feedback we can continue to make our resources simple and easy to use. While most might not think it’s unique, we take pride in listening to our clients and paving the way for healthy cyber practices.

Can you tell us a bit about your military background?

I actually joined the U.S. Marine Corps a little later than most, in my mid-twenties. From the jump I felt like I was playing catch up to those my age since I came in already ranked lower than most. I was thrilled when I was placed in the communications field, I knew it was the right fit for me and was excited to start my military career.

From there I grew professionally and became a Communications Chief. I was even able to utilize my leadership and Marine experiences in my transition to civilian life. It led me to the position of Executive Director of Military Programs at America’s leading IT networking and cybersecurity technical colleges, MyComputerCareer. There, I continued to expand both my technical expertise and head the school’s outreach to all branches of the U.S. Military.

Can you share the most interesting story that you experienced during your military career? What “take away” did you learn from that story?

While at one of my first duty stations, I was approached to join the bomb squad. At first I said no, but the more I thought about the opportunity the more appealing it became. I was ready to be challenged and be used as an asset.

For two deployments I served on the bomb squad, which served to be good life experience. The fact that my day-to-day was unpredictable and spur of the moment made me more detail oriented. When we came across a bomb (sometimes more than three in one day) it was crucial to look at all factors that contributed, the surrounding problems. Obviously the goal was always to diffuse the bomb and get everyone home safe, but to be truly safe, I had to look at the bigger picture.

It taught me to zoom out and look at the situation in a larger context when analyzing risks. You have to keep your peripheral vision in check to succeed and lead your team, and that’s been carried into all aspects of my life.

Did you experience or hear about a story of heroism, during your military experience? Can you share that story with us?

My first deployment I was sent to the Sunni Triangle in Iraq. I was one of the first ones onsite to relieve the team and pretty nervous. Prior to all this I had an interview with one of the Captains in order for me to learn my role and establish contact. He shared with me a story from just three months prior. While on patrol in their truck, he and his team were attacked. The car flipped and every member of the team was injured badly. My Captain immediately jumped into action and began shooting at the enemy, protecting his team and facing the crisis head on. While instinctively one can look at the situation and just see the car on fire, he got out of the truck, saw people were firing at them and then while on fire himself he charged them, eliminating the threat.

It was not only a story of heroism, but again, proof of how to act in a crisis.

Based on that story, how would you define what a “hero” is? Can you explain?

A hero looks at a crisis and doesn’t get defeated by it, no matter what they’re experiencing, they have the wherewithal to find and be a solution. In this instance it was to keep people safe, but some heroes just simply make things better for people. They don’t collapse under the pressure, instead look for the way out and find a solution.

Do you think your experience in the military helped prepare you for business or leadership? Can you explain?

Yes, absolutely. Throughout my years in service it became instilled in me that it all comes down to the health of your team, which in turn determines your success. The internal team is just as important and a true leader takes care of their team.

Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?

I’ve had the privilege and pleasure to encounter many people that have impacted me professionally and personally. There is one person that comes to mind though, and that’s John Fulton, a lieutenant colonel who I served with while in the U.S. Marine Corps.

At the time he was a Captain and I was his Private. He was actually the same age as me, but carried himself in such a way that made everyone respect him. Most of the qualities that I carried into my civilian life, like maturity, leadership and responsibility, were instilled by him.

During a field exercise, a member of our team lost a pair of night vision goggles. As a result, the team as a whole received a physical exercise punishment to take responsibility for the mistake. We were all paired up and instructed to carry our partner on our back and run for a mile. I ended up having to carry someone who weighed two times more than me.

Fulton saw me struggling and approached me, taking my partner off my back and carried him the rest of the way. It showed me the importance of teamwork and leadership. A leader is a reflection of their team, and having involved, supportive leadership really makes a difference in the morale and productivity of the team overall.

How would you define a crisis?

A crisis is something that interrupts your ability to move forward, which can be in your professional or personal life, and can manifest in a lot of different ways. It’s something that makes you immediately stop what you’re doing and deal with it in order to impede forward.

Before a crisis strikes, what should business owners and leaders think about and how should they plan?

Business leaders first need to understand what the risks are and be as specific as possible. Once you understand the risks, you’ll find out what is most important to you and can make a plan to protect the most important assets. In crises, time is of the essence, so having a clear set of priorities is paramount.

In your opinion or experience, what’s the first thing people should do when they first realize they are in a crisis situation? What should they do next?

It’s a tried-and-true formula, but the first thing to do is not to panic, especially if you’re the leader. During a crisis everyone is looking at you, and panicking will get the team nowhere. You have to establish your calm and level-headed presence as a leader. You cannot be apathetic or pass this off; this is your chance to lead. The second thing to do is either create a plan or execute on a plan.

What do you believe are the characteristics or traits needed to survive a crisis?

The ability to not panic, think logically and have emotional intelligence.

When you think of those traits, which person comes to mind? Can you explain why you chose that person?

Immediately, I can say Dan Pryor who is Chief Operations Officer at MyComputerCareer, an accredited online and in-campus technical college. I had the opportunity to be an instructor at MyComputerCareer, growing my role to Executive Director of Military Programs, and Dan was a great leader and mentor to me. He was a true leader who knew how to maintain stability in a crisis, no matter what was going on. He never panicked and any time he or the organization was approached with a challenge he asked questions first and formulated a plan. I still think about the ways he handled challenging situations and try to emulate that approach to stay calm and gather information to know how best to act and lead.

Did you have a time in your life where you had one of your greatest setbacks, but you bounced back from it stronger than ever? Can you share that story with us?

To be honest, my transition from military to civilian life was challenging. Up to that point, all my experience in leadership was in the military world, where corrective action looks really different from the civilian or corporate worlds. I had to relearn and restructure the way I interacted with people at work. It took a few years to strike that balance on being overly accommodating or lenient vs. overly firm or overbearing. Looking back I was able to create my own way of leading and my military experience gave me a unique style that suits my position in leadership in cybersecurity.

Based on your military experience, what are 5 steps that someone can take to survive and thrive in these situations? Please share a story or an example for each.

1. Collect yourself. First step is to calm down and not panic. Odds are your team, the public and others are watching you and watching how you respond. Take a minute to collect yourself and lead with confidence.
2. Ask questions. Before you make any decisions, you have to understand what is going on around you and what the actual problem is. Ask any and all questions in order for you to formulate the best plan of action.
3. Get involved. Just because you are the leader does not mean you can sit in an ivory tower and look down on your team. Be a team player and make sure they have the support they need.
4. Communicate. This is probably the most important step, and one you should keep coming back to as the crisis plays out. You must communicate internally, externally, whatever that keeps the line of communication open. In a crisis miscommunication can be a fault that hurts your team the most.
5. Reevaluate. Once the problem or crisis is resolved, go back and go through all the steps again. Take inventory of what you could have done differently, what worked and how to avoid another crisis like it again.

If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?

I wouldn’t be an IT and cybersecurity expert if I didn’t say something to make our online lives more secure. I would abolish passwords. The fact that we still use passwords to secure data makes us vulnerable. As our digital footprints grow day by day, maintaining passwords itself is a tedious job. Plus, most people use the same passwords across multiple personal and work platforms, share passwords with other people or use very basic passwords. With data breaches and hacks, this is a huge exposure risk of a hacker gaining access to widespread information and personally identifiable information leaked.

How can our readers follow you online?

Readers can follow me at https://www.linkedin.com/in/grantgibson1

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We wish you only continued success in your great work!