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Interview with Gavin de Becker

Called the Slowest Pulse in Hollywood, Gavin de Becker has a cool style of executive and celebrity protection that has gained him the trust of Hollywood stars, CEOs and even U.S. presidents.

By Sarah D. Scalet

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Can you cultivate intuition in other people, or can you only encourage it?

Everybody has it. The question is: Do you listen to it? If you think of a mind as a large cast of players all wrestling for attention, intuition is one of the easier ones to silence because it's quiet. It's not like fear (which is a very loud voice) or logic (which is a very arrogant and sort of demagogic voice). It is subtle.

And the outside voices? Whether it's a Hollywood star or a high-powered CEO, how do you handle a big ego?

One thing I strongly recommend is to present a menu of options to your corporations or your clients, and then let them choose. You can be an advocate for one option if you wantthat's finebut ultimately you're bringing the client into the decision-making process.

In the corporate world, senior executives will often scurry to avoid making decisions; they want the CSO to make the decisions. But I don't give them that luxury. Americans tend to look for someone to blame later on, and I am saying to my brothers and sisters in security, don't make it you. Don't volunteer for that job. In order to do that, we need to subdue our egos adequately to accept their choice. I have seen many people fail in the CSO position by getting married to a particular option and not presenting alternatives. Thus, when that option does not yield the fruit that was expected, there's no question about whose baby it was.

I imagine this method also helps the egos of people you're dealing with, because you're not telling them what to do.

That's true. They're less resistant. You don't feel like you have to sell quite as strongly when they participate in the process.