the characteristics of a personal security guard

the VIP protection services are complexed and intensive line of work.

the secrecy around it gives a glamorous halo to those who work at it – the personal security guards .

countless TV series and movies in Hollywood dealt with the character of the personal security guard and made it glamorous and important like no other, but in real life, underneath all the glam the guard handles difficult challenges and in order to succeed at this line of work , he must have several characteristics.

Those characteristics are professionalism, discretion and determination.

Each one of them has a significance contribution to the work of the personal security guard.

Professionalism is  a cornerstone in the day to day work of the guard, usually he’ll be a special forces veteran , trained in warfare, weapons and tactics.

Transiting form the army to the private sector, he’ll have to acquire additional training in order to change his offensive orientation to a defensive one.

It’s a complete change of his former conduct as the aggressor , because now he need to inspect his surrounding and his role in a “defensive” vision.

Hindering the threat in advance is  the most important work of the guard, therefor constant risk assessment is imperative.

He must identify the threat in advance and avoid taking his client to a non secured location.

If he has the slightest doubt, he must warn his client , and if the client insists ,he must find a solution to keep him safe in any way , call for back up , change the route, etc.

The guard must maintain high level of fitness and alertness to everything around him, he have to spend quite time in close combat, aerobic and anaerobic training.

These are key indicators to his ability to react fast in any scenario.

Although shooting practices are part of his routine , and he knows how to operate different weapons , the main objective of the guard, as we’ve said before , is to identify the threat and thwart it without the use of any weapon.

There is a famous say that sums it in one sentence: The moment you fired, you’ve failed.

The second characteristic is discretion.

The guard escorts his client 24/7 , everywhere he goes (meetings, fares, hotels, offices) and

As a result of that, he’s exposed to a lot of personal and business secrets of his client.

It’s a valuable information that the guard must save to himself and under any circumstance share it with anyone. The client is sacred  and he mustn’t expose him in any way.  

The guard and the client are not friends in any way, a distance must be maintained so the professional judgement of the guard won’t be impaired.

On the other hand, the client must have full confidence in his guard, so he can keep his day to day routine and speak freely in his presence.

The ethical code that guides all the guards is: All we’ve seen and heard , we’ll take to the grave.

The last characteristic is determination and it’s expressed in the most important moment in the guard’s work – “a moment of danger”.

If the guard won’t be determined and hinder the threat till its total end, all his professionalism and discretion have no value at all.

In this line of work there is no place for half work , and when a guard enters “fighting mode” he must protect his client at any cost and get him safe and sound from the situation.

During this defensive act, he must maintain the client’s feeling secured and safe , while staying calm and neutralizing the threat, in order for the client to trust him and keep working with him.

In conclusion, professionalism , discretion and determination are the cornerstones on which the personal security guard rely on his challenging day to day job.