Before you start working with engineers, make sure you have support of execs, learn what are the business objectives in your company, what are the points of focus for management and then adjust your latter engagements basing on the data you collected. It’s hard to provide a generic recommendations because each organization and each exec is different, so you need to learn how to approach them on individual basis. No leadership, no time, no budget, no resources = no security improvement + your burnout.