254: Get Out of Your Comfort Zone and Learn Soft Skills with Chani Simms

<p>Phil’s guest on this episode of the IT Career Energizer podcast is Chani Simms. She is an award-winning cybersecurity leader and keynote speaker with more than 17 years’ experience in the IT industry.  Chani is an advisor and a specialist in helping organizations to understand, implement, and manage information security and privacy requirements.</p> <p>She is also the founder of the SHe CISO Exec. Global platform. </p> <p>In this episode, Phil and Chani Simms discuss how to ensure that you are always learning and why being dropped in the deep end is often a good thing. They also talk about workplace bullying and what to do about it.</p> <p>Chani explains how being afraid to fail holds most people back and how to overcome that fear.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>KEY TAKEAWAYS:</strong></p> <p><strong>(9.13) TOP CAREER TIP</strong></p> <p>Try to push yourself out of your comfort zone all the time. It is the only way to ensure you are always learning new things</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>(11.34) WORST CAREER MOMENT</strong></p> <p>At one stage, Chani was bullied in the workplace by her program director. It had never happened to her before, so she did not know how to react. She was afraid of the consequences of standing up for herself, so she finished the project.</p> <p> </p> <p>In the podcast, Chani explains what happened next. She also shares some advice about what to do should you find yourself in a similar position.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>(15.46) CAREER HIGHLIGHT</strong></p> <p>Founding Meta Defence Labs with her friends and colleagues is Chani´s career highlight, to date. They set up the company because they realized that for every project security came last, which meant that they were never able to do things properly. Setting up their own company enabled them to work the way they wanted and do things the right way.</p> <p> </p> <p>For Chani, that experience was a springboard into what she is currently doing. In the podcast, Chani shares more of her entrepreneurial journey and how she ended up providing training fo