Do You Have What It Takes to Be a Security Manager?

September 25, 2019

Ready to take your security career to the next level? With determination and effort toward developing the right skills, a security management job may be within reach. Focus your attention on acquiring and increasing the following skills.

Security knowledge

It’s important to begin with a broad range of expertise in security risks and best practices. The right skills and experience can help you make smart decisions about who to hire and how to develop their abilities as security guards. This will also go a long way towards earning the respect of your subordinates.

Risk assessment skills

The ability to recognize potential threats can help you compensate for risks on-site. If you have been able to develop a sort of intuition about security risks – often working with minimal information – it can improve your hiring and training practices. This expertise can come into play with everything from the skills you look for in a new hire to scheduling days off and breaks.

Ability to delegate

This is an underrated management skill. As a security professional, you know how to identify risks and respond to threats. But you can’t be everywhere and shouldn’t try to be. Provide your team with training and support to operate effectively and independently. Having a manager looking over your shoulder is frustrating and can cause a security guard to become lax, knowing you will pick up whatever they miss.

Communication skills

Your primary job is to guide your team to become successful security guards. Keeping open lines of communication is the best way to achieve this. You can train them more effectively and provide them with constructive feedback. It’s important this communication is a two-way street. The guards you supervise should not be afraid to come to you with concerns or requests for additional training as needed.

Leadership skills

This quality may seem like an obvious one to look for in a manager, but there is a difference between being a leader and being a boss. A boss tells employees what to do, and they will either do it or they won’t. Leaders motivate people to get things done and do their best. As a result, employees will often go above and beyond for true leaders.