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Peter Pace Advises: Find Managers Who Think, Talk, Act, and Lead Your Way

General Peter Pace issued one command to business leaders during his keynote speech at the Management Conference at the Hyatt Regency on May 18. “When you have the opportunity to choose where you will work, take time to get on the Internet, go visit companies, and talk to the folks who work there,” said Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the U.S. Department of Defense. “You ought to get into the company whose leadership includes the kinds of individuals who think, talk, act, and lead the way you would like to be led.”

Once a business executive chooses a home, “grow where you are planted,” he said. “I have come to trust other people’s judgment about where I best fit,” Pace said. “Put simply, there are more good jobs than there are good people. If you grow where you are planted, you will continue to get good jobs.”

The keys to leadership are making decisions, mustering courage to speak your mind, and following your own moral compass, he said. “I’ve come to appreciate the courage around a conference table where very powerful people are having a discussion,” Pace said. “When the discussion is going toward one kind of solution, somebody says, ‘I see it differently.’ That takes enormous courage. In combat, if you’re wrong, you die. At the conference table, if you’re wrong, you have to live with it.”

In organizations that foster such a dialogue, individuals who speak their minds are respected even when they are wrong, he said. “That is because folks know that if you invite so-and-so to a meeting, he or she is going to tell you what they’re thinking and you’re going to benefit from that independent thought, even if you don’t always agree,” Pace said.

The business world exerts enormous pressures to do things in which a person might not believe, he said. “When you walk into a meeting and you know a topic is going to be discussed, if you have the opportunity to think through who you are walking in the door and who you want to be walking out the door, you have a much better chance of knowing when your moral compass is being tested. The problem with those kinds of challenges is that they come when you least expect it.”

Among his personal biases for leadership, above all else Pace recommended that business leaders take care of those in their charge. “I am a walking, living example that you don’t have to be the world’s smartest person to be successful,” he said. “What I have learned along the way, in retrospect, is that by trying to take care of the folks in my charge, they have taken care of me. An organization that knows its leader cares will always freely give more than anybody could ever demand.”

Sometimes it’s difficult to determine how to take care of people, Pace said. “You don’t just walk up to them and say, ‘Hey, what do you need?’” he said. “I think it’s just a matter of getting out, walking the factory floor—walking whatever floor it is—talking to the folks you work with, beside, and for, and just being available. During the course of discussion along the way, things that people need will become evident. If you can take action on those needs without their having to ask, you will create a climate inside of which great trust and friendship can develop. It energizes an organization more than anything I know.” 

In response to an audience member’s question about the military’s discharging soldiers who reveal their homosexuality, Pace said he believes it is important the United States provide the opportunity to serve in the military to all Americans, but he follows the letter of the law regarding its policy towards gays, commonly known as “don’t ask, don’t tell.” Pace said he learned much during meetings with student groups during his visit and believes it is beneficial for him to share time in forums outside Washington DC, such as the Management Conference. Dean Edward Snyder praised Pace and the university community for engaging in a healthy debate on a variety of issues during Pace’s visit.

—Phil Rockrohr