Former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Peter Pace tells APCO members that to have a successful workplace leadership must come from every member of the team.

While we all understand what role the boss has in leading an organization’s employees, rarely is there serious discussion of the employees’ responsibility to lead the boss. One man who understands that supervisor-employee relationship extremely well is Peter Pace, the 16^th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, appointed by former President George W. Bush.

Tuesday morning as part of the APCO International Conference & Expo Distinguished Achievers Breakfast, Pace gave an intriguing and insightful look at leadership from two perspectives: the supervisory role and the non-supervisory employees.

Pace is a former United States Marine Corps general who became the first Marine officer appointed as chairman, and the first Marine officer to be appointed to three different four-star assignments.

In his address to a packed audience of APCO members, Pace used the terms senior leader for supervisors and junior for other employees. He said senior leaders need to foster an environment where junior workers know they are appreciated, and are willing to do whatever’s necessary for the good of the team. Senior leaders, he said, should take at least five minutes daily to talk to a junior member of the staff about something other than work-related issues to keep a positive, caring environment.

Pace reminded the audience that he once held a very powerful job that came with an enormous amount of responsibility, but no authority to issue an order. He issued orders on behalf of the President of the United States and in the name of the Secretary of Defense. And, he said, that’s the way it should be.

“This nation should never have anybody in uniform, even a nice guy like me, with the authority to move any ship, any plane, any troop, any place in the land and give them orders to do anything. That is the purview of the elected Commander in Chief and his designated and confirmed Secretary of Defense.”

However, in the general workplace, Pace said it’s imperative for supervisors and those in non- supervisory roles to find a balance that includes both sides being involved in the decision-making process.

Pace said when deciding on whether to take a job, questions should include: what does the company do, what’s the vision like and does the managerial staff reflect the kind of manager you would like to become someday?

Pace said it’s also important for supervisors to take a hard look internally at the company.

“Have you looked at yourself lately?,” he said. “Have you Googled yourself (the company)? If you were a junior person would you want to join that staff?”

In a successful workplace, competent leaders encourage their workers to make decisions, and if mistakes are made, they teach and encourage, not berate, Pace said.

“The junior person has to have the courage to speak, the senior person has to make it possible,” Pace said, adding “What we need our subordinates to do is tell us our baby is ugly if our baby is ugly.”

Pace recounted an event from early in his military career as a 22-year-old serving in Vietnam, when he briefly ordered those under his command to retaliate after a fellow soldier was killed. Had he not retracted that order, dozens of women and children would have been killed, he said. His initial impulsive reaction frightened, even stunned him, and he vowed never to put himself or his men in a moral dilemma of that magnitude again. The same should be said of anyone in a senior leadership role, he said.

He said every employee must “set a moral compass” and refuse to waver from it.

“We are each going to be challenged morally when we are least emotionally prepared to deal with it,” Pace said.

He added: “Most people don’t come to work in the morning saying let’s do something immoral.”

Pace said supervisors should demand that those who work under them help them to keep their moral compass straight.

How might a junior employee attempt to challenge a supervisor about something that could be seen as immoral?

“You could say something like ‘We can do that, but I think the outcome might be this. Is that what we intended’? . . . Take three seconds to think ‘If I do this will I be proud of myself tomorrow’?”

“Someone once told me if you have integrity, nothing else matters,” Pace added. “I also like to think if you don’t have integrity, nothing else matters.”

Pace told the audience of public safety employees that the nation is facing two essential threats right now: nuclear weapons and cyber attacks.

“Nuclear weapons changed the relationship between nations, so are cyber weapons changing the relationships between nations,” Pace said. “Nuclear weapons were used 70 years ago, and thank God they’ve never been used again. Cyber weapons are used thousands of times every single day.”

Pace said having your credit cards stolen and your identity used is a “nuisance” and “a pain.”

“But it’s much more real when somebody turns off the electricity in your hometown for 30 days,” he said.

Pace told the public safety employees to go back to their respective hometowns and start a serious discussion about what they “must protect”, and then figure out how best to do that.

“We can’t protect everything,” he said, “and we can’t protect everything forever.”

Pace ended his 45-minute talk with a heartfelt thank you to the men and women that serve in the public communications sector – the APCO attendees.

“I sincerely thank you for what you do for the safety of your fellow citizens,” Pace said.