How We Lead: At the Seams

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This OpEd was originally published in S.C. Media.

December 22, 2025

Author: Cory Simpson, CEO, ICIT

Leadership moves organizations forward. It carries responsibility from where things stand to where they are going, often before every variable is known. Decisions made in motion shape what teams inherit, what risks persist, and what priorities carry into what comes next.

As the year closes, cybersecurity leaders are finalizing budgets, setting priorities, and committing to plans that will define 2026. These decisions are made amid sustained pressure. Threat activity intensifies during periods of transition and year-end activity, as online commerce surges, travel increases, and systems operate under reduced staffing—demanding focus, discipline, and steady judgment. Cyber defense remains continuous, requiring leaders to manage risk while guiding teams through compressed timelines and competing demands.

This terrain is familiar. For those who have stood watch—whether in uniform or otherwise—the calendar has never dictated responsibility. Leadership takes form when pressure concentrates and continuity matters. This is where leadership lives: at the seams between one year and the next, between strategy and execution, and between professional duty and personal presence.

Since the launch of How We Lead in June 2025, this series has focused on leadership as a set of disciplines—presence, character, intellect, humility, empathy, and resilience—applied deliberately under sustained pressure. This moment brings those disciplines together. Multiple responsibilities arrive at once, calling for leaders who prioritize clearly, steward energy, and lead with intent.

Standing watch at the seams

Standing watch requires attention to strain—where systems and decisions begin to degrade and people shoulder more than they can sustain. Leadership presence matters at these points because small failures compound quickly when demand remains high.

For many leaders, this period of the year demands vigilance. Systems remain active. Networks stay exposed. Teams maintain coverage under constant pressure. Leadership shapes how that pressure is carried and how risk is managed across people and operations.

This rhythm is familiar to those who have served in uniform. Standing watch through holidays is part of service. Responsibility carries forward regardless of the calendar. Leadership in these conditions is measured by steadiness—disciplined execution, clear priorities, and awareness of early signs of strain.

The cybersecurity community operates under the same conditions. Year-end activity expands the attack surface. Online transactions increase. Travel places additional strain on systems. Staffing is thinner. Adversaries understand this terrain and exploit it. Leaders standing watch must look beyond dashboards. They must recognize when response slows, coordination degrades, and teams begin carrying more than is sustainable.

Across both communities, leadership presence serves the same function. It allows leaders to detect degradation early—in systems and in people—and to act while there is still room to correct course.

This is how missions are protected and trust is maintained.

Standing watch at the seams requires intention. It calls for leaders who understand the terrain, monitor for strain, and intervene early. Watching the seams is how leaders protect teams, missions, and the people who carry the work forward.

Presence beyond the watch

Care for people is a constant leadership obligation. Periods of sustained strain reveal whether leaders are honoring it.

Extended demand places weight on people long before failure becomes visible. Fatigue accumulates. Stress compounds. Leaders who pay attention recognize these signals. They understand that performance and endurance are linked, and that caring for people is part of sustaining the mission.

This is where Humility, Empathy, and Resilience come together in practice.

Humility reminds leaders that responsibility is shared. It shows up in listening, in sharing the load, and in recognizing limits before they are exceeded. Empathy sharpens awareness—seeing who is stretched, who is carrying more than they say, and who may need engagement before strain deepens. Resilience provides steadiness, reinforcing habits that enable leaders and teams to absorb pressure and continue moving forward.

Caring for people reinforces standards. Teams perform best when leaders attend to more than output—when they look out for the humans behind roles and responsibilities. These actions are consistent, often quiet, and always consequential.

Leadership presence matters beyond the workplace as well. Families feel the weight of sustained demand. Leaders who steward energy, set boundaries, and remain present reinforce trust at work and at home.

This is the heart of leadership, expressed through daily practice. Looking out for people. Supporting them through pressure. Creating conditions where they can endure, perform, and return whole.

Carrying leadership forward

Leadership at the seams requires intention. It demands disciplined execution and care for the people responsible for delivering results. It calls for leaders who recognize early signs of strain, make decisions that set conditions, and act before pressure becomes failure.

For many, this includes standing watch while others rest. That responsibility carries stress and sacrifice, borne quietly and without pause. Leaders do not remove that burden, but they shape how it is carried and support the people holding the line.

This is the purpose behind How We Lead. Leadership is practiced daily, often quietly, and always through people. Pressure and transition do not change that obligation. They reveal whether it has been built into how leaders lead.

Leadership continues through decisions that set conditions and through care for others. Leadership carries forward.

Cory Simpson

Cory Simpson is a national security and cybersecurity executive with more than two decades of experience across government, elite military organizations, and the private sector. He leads DC-based organizations that bridge policy and technology, often advising companies across the tech ecosystem—including competitors—to advance modernization, strengthen security, and serve the American people.

About ICIT

The Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology (ICIT) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, 501(c)3think tank with the mission of modernizing, securing, and making resilient critical infrastructure that provides for people’s foundational needs. ICIT takes no institutional positions on policy matters. Rather than advocate, ICIT is dedicated to being a resource for the organizations and communities that share our mission. By applying a people-centric lens to critical infrastructure research and decision making, our work ensures that modernization and security investments have a lasting, positive impact on society. Learn more at www.icitech.org.

ICIT CONTACTS:

Parham Eftekhari

Founder and Chairman

parham@icitech.org 

Cory Simpson

Chief Executive Officer

cory@icitech.org