Leading with Insight: How Psychology and Communication Shape Enterprise Security with Blake Hodges

Blake Hodges, Deputy CISO at Albemarle, brings a rare blend of military discipline, enterprise leadership, and disarming honesty to the world of cybersecurity. His path from Army cyber operations to consulting, defense, a global nonprofit, and now one of the world’s leading lithium manufacturers gives him a vantage point few technologists ever experience.

In this conversation, Blake pulls back the curtain on what he’s learned across those worlds: why the most expensive tool won’t fix a broken culture, how communication and emotional intelligence beat complexity every time, and what really determines whether a system becomes beloved… or quietly sabotaged.

He also shares a line that lingers: only IT and drug dealers call their customers “users.” It’s funny with a sting — a reminder that adoption starts with humanity, not hardware.

We explore everything from the lithium supply chain powering modern batteries to the shifting expectations of today’s technologists, who now need sales acumen, stakeholder fluency, and the confidence to explain value without hiding behind jargon. Blake’s perspective on where AI is headed — and why IT may soon function as “HR for AI” — offers a grounded roadmap for the next decade of transformation.

🎧 Tune in for a thoughtful, practical conversation about culture, communication, and why technology only works when people do.

Ready for more human-centered stories from the leaders shaping our digital world? Subscribe to Humans of Tech on your favorite platform and check out our merch store here: https://humansoftech.axomo.com

Transcript

Cold Opens And Travel Fatigue

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Ever wonder what tech leaders would say if they had no prep and no redoos? Welcome to Humans of Tech. I'm Caroline. And I'm Kelly. We're keeping humans at the center of technology through quick, authentic conversations with people shaping the industry.

SPEAKER_02 0:22

Hello. Hello. Look at me drinking this. This is not an advertisement for this whatever thing I'm drinking. Elderberry and zinc. I'm overdosing on them because I have a cold that I'm trying to take out.

SPEAKER_01 0:35

I have those in gummy form. Um and they always get me, you know, when you're checking out at the airport and there's like 10 things that are always near like the checkout. It's like, you need this to boost your immunity. Like, I do need that because I'm about to hop on the plane with a bunch of strangers. So like sold.

SPEAKER_02 0:50

My body gave out on me this weekend. My body was like, you're done. You've been traveling too much. You're gonna be sleeping for the next 48 hours. So you need it. Sleep.

Meet Blake: Army Cyber To Industry

SPEAKER_01 1:01

Um, so we have Blake jumping on with us today. Yes. So Blake and I go a little far back. Um, he was one of the first connections that I had in um Charlotte to tech. And so um, you know, he's quite the interesting guy. He never went to college. So he went right into the army and he ended up doing like cyber operations for a while for the army, which is really awesome.

SPEAKER_02 1:28

And then badass. I don't know what it is about that kind of a role that like feels we need we need a movie.

SPEAKER_01 1:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:35

Combat. I don't want to see combat people, I mean people who are doing cybersecurity in armies.

SPEAKER_01 1:40

What does that look like? I have no idea.

SPEAKER_02 1:41

But they're behind a computer for sure.

SPEAKER_01 1:44

Yeah. But it sounds so I feel like it's a little dark. And then they're just like I don't know. I just pick, I can visualize it, but we'll have to ask them.

SPEAKER_02 1:54

Actually, can we skip our regular programmed and ask them what it's like to be in the to do cyber in the army?

SPEAKER_01 2:02

Yeah, I mean we t we absolutely can. And what's interesting too is now he's uh at a company for manufacturing, and what they do is pretty much take like um pool resources from the ground, they refine, um, and then they sell off the supply to make lithium, lithium is probably, I think their biggest.

SPEAKER_02 2:22

That's the one when you know they when you're checking in your bag, they say, you know, please do not have lithium batteries in your suitcase.

SPEAKER_01 2:30

That's that's the one the one that's needed for, I believe, like electrical vehicles and things like that. So he'll be able to tell us more in a second. Hey Blake.

SPEAKER_00 2:41

Hey, good to have to meet.

SPEAKER_01 2:44

Nice to meet you. I was just telling Caroline, um, you know, your background as far as army, right? Cyber operations, and then kind of, and I said you never went to college, but then went right into the army, right? And then into Albemaro, where you've been for going on almost seven years.

SPEAKER_00 3:02

Yeah, I've got some other experience in there.

From Consultant To Nonprofit To Albemarle

SPEAKER_00 3:05

Um uh so jumping all the way back, I started with an IT consultant um probably 12 or 13 years ago, then moved into a defense contract or British aerospace. Uh, that was uh around 10 years ago. And then I moved to a global nonprofit. So think about that. I went from a consultant to defense contractor to global nonprofit, and then took a sidestep over to Albemarle as an analyst, and then yeah, for the past seven years, give or take, I've been working my way up the the corporate chain here.

SPEAKER_02 3:42

You have the viewpoint of technology from so many different angles.

SPEAKER_00 3:48

Yeah, from extreme scarcity at a nonprofit all the way to very well resourced. Um, don't tell my my board that, but a very well-resourced comparatively um uh organization, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_02 4:02

Um do you have a preference?

SPEAKER_00 4:05

Uh, you know, I think somewhere in the middle towards well-resourced, probably is where I'd where I'd prefer. But there's something to be said about working for scarcely resourced environments and how much that that teaches you. I think, you know, it it teaches you that the most expensive product may not be the best always. Um maybe it's the most properly implemented or the one that's the most understood by the technical staff that's that's working it. So um you kind of get a feel for um what's needed and what what's not.

SPEAKER_02 4:38

Um I have a question actually. Did you uh do you find that uh the different types of organizations draw in different kinds of people to work for them? Like did you have to change the way you work with your peers depending on where you where you are?

SPEAKER_00 4:55

Yeah. Um so just full transparency, and you can look it up on my LinkedIn profile button.

SPEAKER_02 5:01

Oh, I'm on your LinkedIn profile.

SPEAKER_00 5:05

Looks very similar to how I look today, I'm sure. Um no surprise at all. I need to update that.

SPEAKER_02 5:11

But um you don't have a beard anymore. Come on.

SPEAKER_00 5:15

No, no, past um past director at Albemarle, you're supposed to shave

Culture Shifts Across Organizations

SPEAKER_00 5:20

your face. So I have to start. Uh so um back to the question though. Uh TWR was the nonprofit, and they're a global Christian nonprofit. Okay. So everyone's values and morals are are just about the same there. And when you go to a secular organization, as to be expected, people have vastly different moral compasses and respond to uh you know situations in in different ways. So that is something to get used to for sure.

SPEAKER_01 5:51

That's a question, Caroline. We haven't even asked the random one.

SPEAKER_00 5:56

I'm ready for it. I'm glad we jumped in.

SPEAKER_01 5:59

Well, well, Caroline was like uh Alemar was the one that makes you or like um lithium ion batteries. When you hear about that, it's like take it out of your suitcase to get on the plane, right?

SPEAKER_02 6:11

And I never really quite understood what they were talking about. I always just said no. And I was actually, I have this one suitcase that I it was gifted to me. And there's a a a phone battery thing stuck on the outside that I never use. I don't I I wouldn't even pretend I have I don't even realize it's there. And last week I'm getting on a flight and they're like, You have a the battery. I was like, no, I don't. Like, yes, you do. Take this out now.

SPEAKER_00 6:39

It was probably in a way, if I'm guessing right, but there's a couple of them that I think yes, I think it is in a way.

SPEAKER_02 6:44

You're right. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 6:45

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:48

It's supposed to be useful. I haven't really I have I'm not I I call myself a late adopter, even though I'm in technology. Um I'm not an early adopter of things, I'm a late adopter. It sits there uncharged, and I my phone's usually running out of battery. So it's great.

SPEAKER_00 7:00

Uh yeah. Usually it takes one European trip where there's no chargers in sight and your battery on your phone is dying, and you start to get desperate. And then having one of those things is great.

SPEAKER_01 7:11

Yep. That's my list. Um, Caroline, do you want to pull the random question? Oh, yes.

Lithium Batteries And Everyday Tech

SPEAKER_02 7:18

Hold on. I wasn't I wasn't prepared for this. Let me find my bowl. Hold on, here it is. I didn't know I was gonna get to do it. All right. So we're gonna pull a random question. Um and you just answer it, you know, authentically.

SPEAKER_00 7:33

Oh, that was a long string of paper.

SPEAKER_02 7:35

I know. What's one thing you never thought you'd be doing in your career, but now love?

SPEAKER_00 7:46

Um I think there's a there's a psychology aspect to IT that when I first got into technology, I I didn't think that psychology and more the the human experience, not to draw from the name that you guys have, but um I didn't recognize early on in my career just how much that would that would impact. And um if you

The Random Question: Psychology In IT

SPEAKER_00 8:16

if you adopt it and make sure that you you read up on it, study, uh the the psychology piece can actually be one of the the most important ones when you're when you're dealing with technology. Because if you think about it, um IT is one of the few fields that calls their their customers. Um well, IT and drug dealers both call their their customers users.

SPEAKER_02 8:43

I never thought about that.

SPEAKER_00 8:45

I'm thinking that yeah, so you you kind of have to understand that there's there's a need there. Um and and if there is no need and you can't communicate what the need is for the technology, then the adoption will be very little at an organization. And you can deploy the most um comp uh not complex, but the most proficient system uh possible, you know, and no one's ever seen um you know an IT landscape like what you have. But if you haven't communicated the value to the end user user, um then there's zero adoption. And if there's zero adoption, then then we have no jobs. So uh that you know, communication, maybe even a little bit of sales, um, that that psychology behind you know the the IT aspects um is really what I found to be most and most important.

SPEAKER_02 9:40

I think that's almost a uh new in the last decade need in IT. Because before, I mean, we yes, there were users, but organizations didn't consider themselves as IT companies like they do now, right? I think Nike considers them, considers themselves an IT organization. Everybody thinks, not thinks, but everyone has kind of rebranded themselves as like as a software company.

Communicating Value And Driving Adoption

SPEAKER_02 10:05

So all of a sudden, IT has gotten a seat at a table that they didn't really have maybe a decade ago. It was seen as the cost, the cost center. At least from my perspective, you're more than welcome to um not agree with me on that one. And so, like some of those skills are the skills that were traditionally taught to just the business track folks, the marketing, the the traditional leaders, the sales directors, the CEOs, but you now need CIOs and IT managers and CISOs to be able to speak that language because they are also now part of the board meetings, right? When maybe traditionally they they weren't.

SPEAKER_00 10:46

Yeah, there's there's a lot of companies that have switched from manufacturing and um all sorts of industries into data companies. So you look at the the Facebook's or Mettas of the world, the Googles of the World, um, yeah, their their marketing strategy is to give away free products. And in turn, they receive all the data, and then intern that makes them into some of the world's most valuable organizations today. And you know, that that has become apparent in the past 10 years. Just you know, you can look at the stock market today and see who has the highest market cap, and those are the the technology companies. And um that's like I said, it's become apparent, but I think we're gonna see a shift sometime in the near future um as AI comes out, uh uh similar to how when social media first came out, which are the first companies that used data in the way that they used them, and that peripherated proliferated into other kinds of companies. Um, you know, people took, I would say, around five to ten years to perfect using social media. At first, you get the like photo shots where the camera's like down here and you're looking up someone's nose and they put a couple of like rainbow-colored filters on the back. Um, nowadays you see, you know, there's kids out there that that make social media posts that um enterprise marketing teams would be jealous of.

SPEAKER_01 12:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:19

And

IT’s Seat At The Table

SPEAKER_00 12:20

so they've they've really come to adopt that uh in those those kinds of companies. So looking into the future, I think maybe even AI is gonna be similar where it takes us five to ten years to really figure out as a culture how to adopt that technology. And we're gonna go from using AI similar to the the social media stuff where you're taking strange angled photos. Um, you know, we're gonna use AI in awkward ways at first, and then eventually it'll turn into um something that that that people appreciate a bit more. Um, and that's just the natural cycle of it. Um, yeah, us IT folks are really just gonna be the HR for AI in the future, I think.

SPEAKER_01 13:03

Wow. Yeah, and data is currency too. Like I feel like anyone who has more data is more valuable because then you in the sales and marketing world, like you can you have the emails. That is that is current, that's more than like a sale. If you have the like it's so interesting as like that kind of shift happens. Um, but it's so interesting, like around like the H you you're coming around the HR, um, you're becoming HR team, but it's it's like that's it's so interesting.

SPEAKER_00 13:31

Uh yeah, yeah. We're gonna have to rein it back at some point, I think. But um, for right now, some of the data governance and ways in which they rolled out AI have been sufficient enough, I think. Um, you know, people are are healthfully scared of it. I think you know, Elon and other figureheads going on on TV and telling us warning us about the dangers of it, um, have led to some successful rollouts so far. No Skynet yet, but um, yeah, it's all seems to be trending positively.

Data As Strategy And Market Power

SPEAKER_02 14:05

Well, before we sign off, I will then recommend this book that I'm reading. Have you read this one yet?

SPEAKER_00 14:11

No, but I have read Emotional Intelligence 2.0, uh, which I think might be a similar book, but probably a similar style. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:19

Um so yes, for I did the video, but for the people listening. So it's the Harvard Business Reviews, 10 must reads. It's the one called On Emotional Intelligence. It's it's great, actually. It's wonderful so far. So um, well, thank you for joining us. Yeah. We're gonna stop the recording now.

SPEAKER_00 14:39

Awesome. Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_02 14:41

Thanks for hanging out with us on Humans of Tech.

SPEAKER_01 14:44

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Closing Notes And CTA

SPEAKER_01 14:50

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