Building a Risk-Based Culture Without Fear

In my last article, I wrote about the choice every security leader faces, to police or to influence.

I’ve found that same tension shows up in how we approach risk.

For years, I’ve seen security teams (yes, I’m guilty of this) rely on fear, uncertainty, and doubt to get attention, and honestly, it works, for a while.

Fear drives urgency. It helps get budgets approved and projects moving.

But it also creates distance, defensiveness, and fatigue.

Over time, people stop engaging with security because they want to, they do it because they have to.

That’s not resilience, that’s compliance under pressure.

Fear creates silence, not safety

When people are worried about getting it wrong, they go quiet.

They don’t raise issues, they hesitate to ask questions, and they find workarounds to keep things moving.

In that kind of environment, risk doesn’t disappear, it just goes underground.

What I’ve seen work better is a shift toward clarity, context, and confidence, a culture built on understanding risk, not fearing it.

Clarity replaces uncertainty

Risk isn’t a feeling, it’s a way to make decisions.

Rather than warning everyone about everything that could go wrong, it helps to focus conversations on what matters most.

Not every vulnerability or control gap deserves the same attention.

When people understand why something is important and how it ties to the business they make better trade-offs.

When everything feels critical, nothing is.

Context builds confidence

Fear tells people what to avoid, a risk-based approach helps them decide what to do.

It connects security decisions to business outcomes, uptime, trust, delivery, reputation.

That context turns security from a blocker into an enabler.

The goal isn’t to eliminate fear entirely; a little healthy tension keeps us sharp.

But the focus should be on understanding, not anxiety.

Confidence drives ownership

In a healthy culture, people don’t hide mistakes, they bring them up early because they trust what happens next.

That kind of trust only exists when security leads with empathy, not intimidation.

Security’s role isn’t to own every risk. it’s to help others own it confidently, giving them the visibility and context to make informed choices.

That shift, from fear-based compliance to confidence-based accountability, is what maturity really looks like.

What a risk-based culture looks like in practice

A risk-based culture may start in a boardroom but isn’t effective until it's embedded in everyday decisions.

• It’s engineers understanding which risks truly matter to uptime.
• It’s project/product teams weighing customer trust alongside speed.
• It’s leadership accepting that not every risk needs to be eliminated, some just need to be owned.

And it’s replacing slogans like “Security is everyone’s responsibility” with genuine shared decision-making.

Because when people are part of those decisions, they don’t just follow policy, they believe in it.

The end of fear as a tactic

• Fear might get short-term results, but clarity and confidence build something that lasts.
• They take longer to grow, but they create resilience people believe in.
• Real maturity isn’t about eliminating risk.
• It’s about understanding it, accepting it, and managing it, without fear.

Founder Insights are shared by Overcyte's Aaron Gayton

With deep domain knowledge in Industrial Control Systems (ICS)and Operational Technology (OT), Aaron has spent over 20 years helping mission critical organisations secure their infastrucutre and their people.

His passion lies in adopting a risk-based approach, breaking down traditional barriers between IT and OT, and positioning cybersecurity as a strategic business enabler.

His deep understanding of industry-specific challenges, coupled with his experience in business transformation, uniquely positions him to lead both the product and technical teams at Overcyte.