He also mentored many people in his former workplaces. As he prepared to leave Sumo Logic, he mentored his deputy CISO by putting his “feet in the fire.” He worked with the deputy CISO to create documentation for the board, hold staff meetings, and co-present to the board. “Automating myself out of a job – to me that’s mentoring. Coaching, on the other hand, is more about goal setting and planning a career path. Both are equally needed.”
Mentoring is about the ‘what’ while coaching is about the ‘how’
Like others, Upen Sachdev, principal partner at Deloitte, rose from the technical ranks to direct security, compliance and risk management for a large global brand, after which he was a CISO for seven years at another large global brand.
Sachdev found help with mentors as he ascended in his career. But while working with clients at Deloitte, he saw a gap in business leadership skills among what he calls the “next generation of CISOs.” So he helped create Deloitte’s CISO program with his peers, which Deloitte offers at no cost to selected candidates from the Deloitte client base.
