Homeland Security figure honored for outstanding leadership
Jan. 7, 2009
Story and photo/
Petty Officer 2nd Class Luke Pinneo
An excellent leader creates other leaders.
Mark McCabe, a Coast Guard civilian employee, is an excellent leader.
As the chief of resource and performance management at the Coast Guard First District in Boston, he was awarded in November the Secretary of Homeland Security's Award for Excellence. Broadly speaking, the annual award recognizes individual success within the department.
In McCabe's case, it was his ability to lead others to success.
"I think the largest thing was that he put me in a position to succeed," said Coast Guard Ens. Jeremy Pichette.
Before Pichette became a Coast Guard officer, he worked for McCabe for nearly two years. Fresh out of college, he was put in charge of managing the district's energy budget.
McCabe always held him accountable.
"He would always give a deadline, and follow up," he said.
As the head of resources, McCabe and his staff oversee all of the Coast Guard facilities from Maine to New Jersey. Whether new windows for a guard shack, or a cutter in need of a new dock, the funding approval rests with McCabe.
Often, it required him to travel to requesting units to do spot checks. Many times, he'd invite Pichette.
"It wasn't necessary for him to take me," said Pichette.
But he did, Pichette said, to give him a chance to get out of the office to ride ships and visit stations, opportunities to see the Coast Guard that he might not have had otherwise.
McCabe said that's just part of his basic management philosophy. "You want people to understand what they're doing on a day-to-day basis," he said.
He said the administrative lackluster of managing the district's facilities and budget via phone calls and e-mail is a mission that can be undervalued in a high-octane, life-saving organization.
"In what we do, no one's going to die if we don't get your e-mail done," he said.
All the more reason, he said, to take Pichette into the field and enrich his understanding of the bigger picture.
"My job is about helping the people who come through here, and helping them to see this office as a stepping stone," McCabe said.
Seeing the Coast Guard face-to-face helped Pichette firm up his long-pondered decision to join the service. McCabe, a retired Coast Guard officer of 20 years, helped Pichette prepare his application package for Officer Candidate School and conducted practice interviews with him. Pichette applied and was accepted on his first try.
"It's noteworthy that he got in on his first try," said Rich Klein. "Most people have to apply more than once - I did," he said.
Klein, also a retired Coast Guard officer, worked for McCabe as well, from 2007 until the fall of 2008, when he left the district for a higher position at another Coast Guard base. He was the one who nominated McCabe for this year's Secretary's Award, for his stewardship of Pichette and more. The citation Klein wrote lists accomplishments ranging from helping other members succeed in their personal and professional goals to securing an extra $10 million to repair a crumbling dock for a Coast Guard cutter in Newport, R.I.
Klein said McCabe reached out personally to senators and congressmen and provided data that showed how decrepit the pier was.
"He was really the sheppard of that whole project," Klein said.
Klein remembers years ago, when he was a junior petty officer struggling to juggle more than one task at a time. He said his supervisor explained he was, "learning how to spin two plates."
"Mark has 12 plates spinning at any giving moment," Klein said.
Of those dozen or more priorities McCabe juggles, one is passing the service's long-standing tradition of leadership on to a younger generation.
Pichette, having traded his shirt and tie for a blue uniform, is now stationed aboard the Seneca, a 270-foot cutter out of Boston. As the ship's morale officer, he is now a supervisor. He said if someone commits to a task, he holds them accountable to what they say and always follows up to ensure they are successful.
Even though he is one of the ship's youngest officers, he is already grooming the next wave of Coast Guard leaders.
McCabe, still spinning plates at the district, has another full year to look forward to. With a ballpark $50 million budget to manage in 2009 and an almost entirely new staff, he'll be busy helping them reach their full potential. Not to mention, he still has to rearrange a shelf to make room for his award.
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