Fortified Health Security’s T.J. Ramsey on Screening For Team Dynamics over Certifications

The Story This Time

The transition from technical excellence to leadership excellence often requires unlearning the habits that made you successful. T.J. Ramsey, Sr. Director of Threat Operations at Fortified Health Security, learned this lesson first in Iraq when incomplete analysis nearly endangered troops, then climbed from vulnerability analyst to director by mastering every service line he now oversees. His approach to building security teams reveals why some organizations maintain elite performance with lean resources while others struggle despite heavy investment.

T.J. discusses his framework for making rapid decisions under incomplete information, why he screens for personality traits before technical skills, and why the hardest career transition isn’t learning new skills but learning when to stop using old ones. He also offers his approach to differentiating mentorship for CISO tracks versus business leadership paths, and why monthly one-on-ones with every team member reveal what annual reviews never will.

Stories We’re Telling Today

• How incomplete analysis under time pressure can have life-or-death consequences that demand exhausting all available information before providing answers
• Challenging the stereotype that technical excellence alone qualifies someone for management roles in security
• Building teams around desired outcomes rather than filling predetermined roles
• Multi-stage interview processes where the final conversation focuses on emotional intelligence and self-awareness rather than technical acumen
• Why the transition from manager to director represents the hardest career step for most security professionals
• The principle that 80% answers delivered on time beat 100% perfect answers delivered too late — and ensuring you actually possess that 80% threshold
• Differentiated mentorship approaches for team members pursuing career tracks
• Why healthcare security demands reframing from data protection to patient safety, making security failures not just compliance issues but direct threats to human welfare
• How monthly one-on-one meetings with every team member reveal career aspirations and enable targeted development conversations

Too busy; didn’t listen:

• T.J. Ramsey’s military intelligence background taught him that incomplete analysis under pressure can endanger lives, which now shapes his decision-making framework of ensuring 80% confidence before acting rather than waiting for perfect information that arrives too late.
• T.J.’s hiring philosophy prioritizes screening for personality traits and self-management capabilities over technical certifications, recognizing that technical skills can be taught but toxic traits or dependency on supervision cannot be fixed.
• The hardest leadership transition is moving from manager to director, especially going from the person who ensures success to the person who trusts others to deliver results.
• Security in healthcare isn’t just data protection. It’s patient safety, fundamentally changing how security leaders frame risk, prioritize resources, and measure the impact of their programs beyond compliance metrics.
• Monthly one-on-one meetings with every team member enable leadership to differentiate mentorship approaches for those pursuing CISO roles versus business leadership tracks, recognizing these paths require different developmental strategies.

Skip to the Highlight of the Episode

13:10 - 13:24 “They present themselves like a rock star, but when the rubber meets the road, they turn tail and run. Literally. It’s incredibly disappointing. So I learned to really understand what it means to take a resume with a grain of salt.”