Recently we mentioned how intertwined executive protection and business protocol/ etiquette are. Today we look at a specific example that is all too common.
Executive Protection and Business Protocol
One of the important aspects of executive protection is how improper business protocol and etiquette can impact an executive protection assignment. And we bring this up because it all comes back to training. A training that leaves out proper business protocol puts you in jeopardy.
How Executive Protection and Business Protocol clashed on assignment.
We were out on an assignment where there were executive protection agents from more than one agency, and are on a private jet somewhere over Europe on the way back to California. And the client we were charged with protecting is pacing around the cabin looking for a magazine. Looking behind the bar, moving the snacks. “Where is my magazine?”
Real life: You get on a commercial flight and there are public magazines for anyone to look at.
Executive Protection: This is not the case and you never help yourself to ANY client belongings.
By now, you can guess who had been reading the magazine. The client spots the magazine rolled up and stuffed between the airplane seats where the executive protection agent (from another agency) is sitting. And he never said a single word.
This agent, who lives in California, was kicked off the plane at a stop in Spain.
Fired. (and it’s likely it was a long trip back to the states for a good agent, left untrained in executive protection and business protocol.)
And for good reason. You don’t touch client belongings.
It’s the little things like this that trips up executive protection agents in the real world. Even if you have been protecting the same client for 20 years, they are a client, not a friend, and you do not break protocol.
Ever.
This should have been covered in training.
We touch on business etiquette in our basic training and cover it fully in our “all-in-one” training.
Choose Wisely
There are many places to go for executive protection training. There is only one executive protection school in Florida that is certified and approved every year by the Department of Education. ESS Global Corp.
If you have read the ESS Guide to Executive Protection Training, and you have determined it time to get started, ESS Global Corporation has an Executive Protection Training in Tampa Florida September 9th. This training is an intensive 3-day training designed to get your career off to a solid start.
Updated 12-15-16 2018 Event Calendar is up – Also as of 12-13-16 ESS Global is approved by the VA to accept GI Bill Benefits!