Zac Broomfield

3 Practical Leadership Strategies to Retain Cyber Talent

The core message of the visible portion of this session is that cyber talent retention should be treated as a leadership and work-environment challenge, not only as a recruiting pipeline problem. Daniel Shore and Zac Broomfield, co-founders of MultiTeam Solutions, introduced a workshop built around new research on stress, burnout, and intentions to leave in the Dutch cybersecurity community. Shore emphasized that the findings are early, limited, and should be handled with humility: the recommendations are research-backed but not presented as universal or final solutions, and they may work differently across organizations of different sizes and types. The speakers grounded the session in a study conducted with the municipality of The Hague, focused on the role of leaders in cybersecurity stress, burnout, and talent retention. The research began in February 2025 and had recently concluded; it included 86 anonymous survey respondents from across the Dutch cybersecurity community and three follow-up focus groups to add context to the quantitative findings. Shore also thanked the municipality of The Hague, ONE Conference, and named collaborators who supported the work, while explaining that the broader mission of their work sits at the intersection of cybersecurity, leadership, and high-pressure work environments in the U.S. and Dutch communities. The key research findings presented were that supervisor support and perceived competence both correlate with lower stress, burnout, and likelihood to leave. Shore described supervisor support as coming from direct supervisors and said the data showed an inverse relationship: when cybersecurity professionals felt more supported, they reported less stress, burnout, and intention to leave. He also noted that the data supported the sequence of stress leading to burnout, which can then lead to likelihood to leave, while acknowledging other factors such as compensation, benefits, and job alternatives. To prepare the audience for practical reflection, Shore used the “This is Water” parable to explain why people often cannot see the work conditions they are immersed in. He connected that idea to cybersecurity teams that may struggle to recognize support needs, competence, progress, or success during imperfect incident outcomes. The visible transcript ends as he frames the major motivation: the current scope and scale of cybersecurity turnover is not inevitable, and leaders can raise awareness of what might be done differently to improve retention.