About Green Shoe
Human performance belongs in the cybersecurity conversation
Green Shoe exists to help the people and organizations defending critical systems sustain high performance over time.
Why Green Shoe
A name for performance with agency.
In Hans Christian Andersen's The Red Shoes, a young woman puts on shoes that compel her to dance. Once they begin moving, she cannot make them stop—even after she is exhausted. Freeing herself ultimately requires a devastating sacrifice.
Green Shoe reimagines that story for the modern workplace.
Cybersecurity professionals can become caught in systems that demand continuous performance: another incident, escalation, deadline, or transformation. Even when their capacity is depleted, the environment keeps telling them to dance.
Green Shoe represents the alternative: the ability to perform without surrendering control—to recognize when recovery is needed, regain agency, and move forward in a way that can be sustained.
Green Shoe helps people develop those capabilities while helping leaders and organizations examine the systems that keep people performing past depletion.
“Performance should not require people to sacrifice themselves to escape the shoes.”
Founder profile
Steve Shelton
Founder and Chief Resilience Officer
Steve Shelton is the Founder and Chief Resilience Officer of Green Shoe Consulting, a research and leadership development firm dedicated to helping leaders intentionally build trust under pressure so people and organizations can sustain high performance.
After more than two decades in cybersecurity software leadership with organizations including Symantec, RSA, and Proofpoint, Steve experienced firsthand the demands of leading in high-pressure environments. Those experiences inspired him to earn a master's degree in Human Performance Psychology and dedicate his career to understanding how leaders can sustain performance without sacrificing their health, relationships, or effectiveness.
Today, Steve leads Green Shoe's annual State of Stress research, works alongside CISOs and executive leadership teams, and develops evidence-informed leadership education focused on communication, resilience, decision-making, recovery, and organizational trust. He is the creator of the Human Mean Time to Recovery (H-MTTR™) framework and Green Shoe's Growth, Resilience, and Optimization Engine (GROE™), both designed to help leaders build sustainable performance habits.
Steve is a sought-after keynote speaker whose presentations combine research, practical leadership strategies, and engaging storytelling to help leaders perform at their best when the pressure is highest.
Mission
Advance a more sustainable, resilient cybersecurity profession through applied research, education, technology, and community.
Founder-led practice
Steve Shelton brings cybersecurity leadership experience and human-performance research together through Green Shoe's education, research, and advisory work.
Research and industry partners
Partnerships and affiliations are presented only when approved and supported by clear, current information.
The ecosystem
Research informs education; education connects to GROE; future community work creates opportunities for shared learning and research participation.