A page in the January 2022 print edition of Professional Security magazine tells of the talk on leadership by the American security figure Bonnie Michelman, to the annual conference of the National Association for Healthcare Security (NAHS). A touching moment came at the end when some in the audience of mainly NHS hospital security managers applauded. It was an irrational thing to do because Bonnie could not hear; she was sitting in Massachusetts, and her talk had been recorded anyway. But the applause was the audience’s only way to show they appreciated her talk, from a fellow hospital professional who has worked through the covid pandemic. She spoke of things all could aspire to, even if we cannot always carry out everything she described. Bonnie is someone so formidably qualified and experienced that you have to assume she has given up sleep. Here, rather, are five things for any security person (in Britain; the qualification is important), whether they are one of a team, or work for themselves, besides as a team or other leader; six things (among others, probably) that will help someone to keep an doing the job competently enough to stay in work, and keep finding it enjoyable enough to be glad to get out of bed each morning (or afternoon, if on shifts).
1)actually do security
Not as straightforward as it sounds. At the start of the covid pandemic the Guardian featured obsessive hand washers; how would they manage, now that the official advice was to wash your hands often, to avoid transmission of coronavirus? But the truth is that such obsessive behaviour does not necessarily make for clean hands; it’s a ritual, and need not lead to actually clean hands. More related to security is what Barbara Ehrenreich related quite early on in her book Nickel and Dimed: Undercover in Low-Wage America. She lived and worked among Americans barely managing by doing low-paid work; such as contract cleaning. She learned how to do the job in private houses off a video. She learned later that what the firm taught was not actual cleanliness but gave the impression, and smell, of cleanliness. Apparent and real cleanliness are not necessarily the same. So it may be with security. Without audit or ‘mystery shopper’ or other checks, the buyer of contract security implicitly trusts that the contractor will provide what’s in the contract; that the contractor is the subject matter expert, and knows best. If a well-turned out security officer in a hotel or foyer has clean shoes, they look the part, but how well will they react in an emergency? Do they know what’s going on in the building so as to direct visitors? The value of cleaning or security is only tested when something goes wrong – a pandemic; or a burglary, terror attack or something non-security, such as a fire or flood or lost child. It’s no time to find out.
2) investigative skills
Broadly we can divide into two – you have to have some innate character, such as curiosity; and have some knowledge and the ability to apply that character in you – such as knowing how to use Microsoft Word and an internet search engine. Take the example on Linkedin recently of a security leader – who Professional Security happened to meet, at the NAHS gathering in Birmingham – who has since posted complimentarily about the magazine. Then someone posted a line asking where to get the magazine. That questioner meant well (and obviously shows signs of good taste); it’s better to admit ignorance than to stay ignorant; but surely it was a simple enough matter to search for himself, for the magazine on Linkedin, and the magazine’s website? It goes to show that skills that some in the police and private security may assume are in nearly everyone – the ability to go beyond asking questions and to investigate, to come up with answers – is not so widespread.
3)show initiative
It’s a quirk of human nature – but can cost lives – how people behave in a herd; if a fire alarm goes off in an office or shopping mall, people look around; they are in truth searching for how others are responding, and are seeking a clue for permission to break routine and evacuate. Just as someone has to lead and follow the fire drill, so it may be the security person in the building, a first aider or a receptionist, someone usually low in the building hierarchy, to take the decision to press the alarm button. It’s difficult, just as it is for any soldier or security patroller on guard duty to switch from a state of nothing happening, to being alert to any noise; or, the absence of the usual – it’s gone suspiciously quiet. Yet the body cannot be alert all the time. If an alert turns out to be a false alarm, the one who pressed the button has to be prepared for possible consequences, including the ignorant complaining of inconvenience. These are things not taught on the five-day course to apply for a Security Industry Authority (SIA) licence.
4)professionalise – with purpose
The turn of a year is a traditional time to take stock; perhaps it calls for becoming more qualified, going on a course? Institutions are ready to take your course fee money, and give you a start date in February. Bear in mind two competent, articulate, long-standing security managers in well-paying responsible posts known to Professional Security, each with master’s degrees in security and risk management gained some years ago. One man reflected that the MSc did not make a difference to his career; the other recalled that by changing job and asking he was able to double his salary. The morals of the story; with all learning, it’s not so much the content, but how you apply it; and all the best learning is self-learning; or, in life you get out what you put in.
5)finance speak and savvy
One of the best-received UK books on private security in recent years has been The Rules of Security by Paul Martin. In many ways it is an outstanding book. However its flaw we pointed out in our review on publication in 2019. It is that finance nowhere comes into it. Whether because the writer in his career in public service never had to argue for a budget, his otherwise insightful picture he painted was unrealistic. For in private business, it’s not only security departments that get refused budget for new kit that the head of department argues is necessary. Businesses have to make do with old IT, or office desks or fraying carpet, and then suffer the consequences, whether computer crashes or cyber hacks or people tripping over and banging their head. The ones in charge of finance have a point; new equipment alone does not make for better, or good security. Consider that the tech at the Hillsborough ground in 1989 was modern for its time; it did not save the 96. Wembley Stadium likewise has all the security tech and lay-out of a modern stadium; video surveillance, turnstiles, a control room; plenty of defensible space, blind spots and sharp corners minimised; but as the scenes of disorder, analysed by the Casey Review, made plain, the security for the Euro final in July struggled to cope with malicious opening of fire doors, or irresponsible rushing of turnstiles by the ticketless. Security managers may use such near misses or disasters to push through requests for budget. Better still – before an embarrassing loss, or tragedy – to avoid giving the finance chief the chance to refuse a proposal, which then makes the finance department look good. Better to recruit other departments as allies. The video surveillance upgrade you would like comes with heat mapping and other analytics, that can be used for marketing, to see how customers behave in store, which products they linger in front of and for how long? Make a combined bid for that kit and finance then has to justify why it’s standing in the way of two departments benefiting the business.
6)a sense of reality
This may apply most to those in security who work directly for the powerful, rich and famous; bodyguards to politicians, diplomats, executives, entertainers. They have the wealth or power to be detached from reality if they choose; or, their fame and position may demand that they have become detached. The security person cannot share that unreality. It works two ways. The security person, providing a service, has to guard against threats, whether the obsessive stalker, the crank, the cyber-attacker or the burglar, so that the VIP does not worry about those. Also, the security person ought to free the client from unnecessary anxiety, whether for their own safety and well-being (physical and online) or for their ‘family’, whether children or entourage that they care about. That may well require the security person to protect people from their own complacency. To give another parliamentary example; the January 2022 print edition of the magazine will report on how most parliamentarians have not helped themselves with their personal security, even after the murder in 2016 of the MP Jo Cox. A sense of reality may be the ‘art of the possible’, to use an old political term. So often, security cannot easily be excellent in an otherwise mediocre or failing organisation. Without making a judgement on the Houses of Parliament’s physical security, it is well documented that the physical building is in a poor state of repair; witness the scaffolding around Big Ben (pictured).
7)compassion and pity
Hence some compassion may be in order; for those doing the job of security and other services around you; for yourself; for the unappreciative people you protect; and even the adversaries. For they are all thinking humans like you. You may think they are foolish or wicked, and they may be. But take the example from the November and December print magazines, of anti-arms trade protesters demonstrating outside security expos. The protesters outside the 3CDSE show at Great Malvern succeeded in disrupting entrance. It’s not proposed that you sympathise with whoever protests or whatever the protest is about. But how can you mitigate the unknown threat? You can only tell apart the quiet fanatic from the noisy but amenable protester by contact. Provided everyone abides by (written and unspoken) rules of behaviour, Britain runs on such democratic compromise; it has to. We can all think of numerous countries where Security could respond to such a demo by calling for the police, who would take the protesters away, and put plastic bags over their heads until they learn not to protest again. Such dictatorships or kleptocracies do not like people to investigate; to show initiative; and as for finance, one-party police states tend to be the most corrupt. In other words, to work in security in those lands will require compromise of a different sort in the decent-minded person. To be a Briton or anyone working in security in such places requires other things than these seven.
