Add EP Value for Female Principals by Being Considerate
Female executives, celebrities, and public figures generally face significantly more public and press scrutiny than men. Their appearance, mannerisms, and tone are frequently critiqued, often outnumbering opinions about their policies or professional actions.
The last thing many successful women want in their stressful environment is to deal with an overbearing or restrictive executive protection (EP) team. But when a female principal needs a security presence, a little added consideration can go a long way to ensure the protection is accepted and valued.
Consideration is twofold. One part is having a good security sense for when something feels off—such as quickly identifying stalking behavior. But another part is serving as a trusted confidante who can ensure that the principal’s professional and personal needs are being adequately and safely met.
Jessica Ansley, director of operations at International Protection Group, says that some of these considerate tendencies come more naturally to female protective professionals. These security practitioners already know what it feels like to be the center of unwanted attention or to have a sense of dread about a fixated person in a crowd, adds Ansley, who is also an instructor at the Executive Protection Institute. This enables female EP agents to pick up more quickly on the principal’s cues, facial expression, or other signs that they feel unsafe or need support. But men can learn some of these signs and nuances, too.
“Most men have access to a female in their life, whether it be their mother, their sister, their daughter, or their wife,” she says. “Think of how you would feel if that were your mother, daughter, sister, wife, and treat them how you would want others to treat them. Have that compassion and understanding… It’s okay to build rapport and a respectful relationship with the person that you’re protecting because without that human element, you’re just robotically going through the motions, and you may be causing more concern in your protectee than you intend to.”
Reputation
Mixed sex pairs of people are often assumed to be in romantic relationships—both by passersby and by the press. This can be particularly damaging for female principals’ reputations.
“As a male protector, when you’re with a female, you have to give some space,” says Jerry Heying, CPP, president and CEO of the International Protection Group LLC and the Executive Protection Institute. “Otherwise, sometimes people may think that you’re a couple.”
He recommends following a simple parameter: stay close enough to protect the principal but not so close that she has to introduce you.
Having a female protector for a female principal can negate a lot of those perceptions, he adds. Two women walking into a hotel together blend in, especially compared to a wealthy woman traveling with a man.
“We are less obtrusive as female,” Ansley says. “Most do not suspect that a female is going to be the one jumping in front of everything, being the protector, getting the person out of harm’s way, so we can be more covert… We can blend in more as part of the office staff or the entourage. It allows some of those protectees to live in a more reserved, less flashy life.”
Heying adds that “the purpose of executive protection is to avoid trouble. This includes a lot of pre-planning, not just having muscles, and recognizing where there might be difficulty.”
In higher risk cases or during travel, the EP team might assign a female protector to walk with the principal and a male secure transportation driver who could join them. A group of three would be less easily misconstrued by observers.
Drivers can also help EP professionals safeguard the principal’s modesty. If the driver parks too close to the curb, a woman in high heels might have trouble stepping out gracefully. The driver can park a little further from the sidewalk so the principal can step down to the street first, Heying says. The EP agent can also shield the principal when she exits the car in case her dress gets disarranged, so photographers cannot see and capture anything inappropriate.
Health and Medical
Women have a variety of medical concerns that men usually don’t have to deal with. Being cognizant of those potential conditions is essential to keeping the principal comfortable and focused on her work.
This can include morning sickness and other signs of early pregnancy, which the principal may want to keep private. It also includes providing extra space, downtime, and creature comforts during the principal’s period, if that’s her preference, she adds.
“You become the absolute trusted confidante,” Ansley explains. “Most people are not in that inner circle. If this is a new relationship between protector and protectee, you may not have that intimate knowledge. If you’ve been long-term or if you’re longer than a couple of months with someone, you tend to understand those cues, pick up on the social etiquette, and understand that you need to be a little bit more respectful toward certain things or give them a bit more space.”
Some women—especially older women—are acutely aware that people might view them as frail or weak. EP professionals can help refute that reputation by ensuring the principal has access to handrails to get on or off stages so she can handle stairs confidently in front of cameras, Heying says.
In addition, he’ll discretely offer his arm to principals getting out of vehicles so they can choose if they want assistance or not, depending on how they are feeling or how they want to be perceived at the time.
“Be aware of those potential issues, concerns, and problems, and address those discretely so you do not add additional embarrassment to the principal,” Ansley says.
Bathrooms
Male principals attending an event might have no problem using a private back-of-house or staff bathroom. But these facilities often lack amenities that female principals want to maintain their appearance, comfort, and confidence during an event, such as adequate lighting or good mirrors, Heying says. They can also be far away from the venue itself, making the logistics of getting to the bathroom promptly a challenge.
Addressing this issue includes knowing your principal and taking proactive steps to meet her needs. For a principal who had given birth several times, Heying says it was important to know where the nearest bathroom was and to let the principal’s assistant know how long it would take to reach before or after a speaking engagement. For other principals attending longer events at hotels, it can be useful to request a private hotel room that the principal can use as her bathroom and break room.
If that’s not an option, though, EP professionals may want to evaluate public restrooms at the venue. Are they high-traffic, multi-stall rooms? Are there single-stall, lockable rooms available? How will the EP agent verify the safety of those rooms before use? Can he or she stand guard outside the door and control access?
In those situations, it’s easiest to have a female EP agent available who can go in and perform a subtle check of the room before the principal enters. But male agents can knock, announce themselves, and take a quick look into the room. Or they can deputize one of the principal’s female staff members or assistants to go into the bathroom with her.
“They’re not exactly a protector, per se,” Heying says. “But if there was a problem, they could step out and say to me, ‘Jerry, we have a problem,’ or ‘there’s a female inside giving the principal a hard time.’”
Adding Value
EP teams are likely performing advance work before major engagements and travel, Heying says. It takes very little additional effort to note details and elements that will make a huge difference to the principal, her team, and her overall preparedness for the spotlight.
This includes noting the color of the drapes or walls in the ballroom where the principal will be giving a speech so her team can coordinate her wardrobe choices accordingly, he says. For shorter principals, the EP professional can verify that the venue will have a step at the podium so the principal can stand confidently and be seen.
“Those aren’t necessarily security concerns, but it’s about facilitating the needs of the female protectee,” Heying says.
Trusted EP professionals are often called upon by families and individuals for years, in part because of the added value they can bring.
“We’re not just there in case they need protection; we’re there bringing added value,” Heying says. “We assist them, saving time.”
Those personal touches make a difference, Ansley adds.
“It’s the little things that make them a customer for life, make them want to build that rapport and confidence in you because you’re worried about those little things for them to allow them to just be themselves,” she says.
Claire Meyer is editor-in-chief of Security Management. Connect with her on LinkedIn or email her directly at [email protected].
