Marc E. Polymeropoulos - Clarity in Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the CIA

2021 Marc Polymeropoulos

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ISBN 978-1-4002-2387-9 (eBook)

ISBN 978-1-4002-2386-2 (HC)

Epub Edition April 2021 9781400223879

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021934467

Printed in the United States of America

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After crosses and losses,

men grow humbler and wiser.

Benjamin Franklin

CONTENTS

ARE YOU LOOKING for a leadership book filled with academic concepts, eloquent and research-based notions, and lessons imparted by an intimidating and egocentric leader who knows exactly how to be successful because hes never failed?

If so, please keep looking. This book isnt for you.

Im not the stereotypical CIA officer of the movies or books. I dont carry a leather-bound briefcase filled with high-tech spy gear, drive an exotic sports car, carry a gun around town, or stand six feet tall wearing a sharp blazer with a menacing expression on my face.

My voice is loud, and my laughter is even louderbeing of Greek heritage, thats the only tone we have, and we embrace it fully. And I have a terrible tendency to interrupt, which drives my friends and family crazy. Im working on fixing that, but its a tough row to hoe for a type A personality. Im that guy wearing a T-shirt and pair of jeans, driving in my Jeep Wrangler with thirty-five-inch tires and a lift kit, who volunteers to mow the lawn at the local high school baseball field where his son plays. Im that guy who melts every time his little girlnow a fine, grown womancalls to update him from college on how her day is going. The guy who excuses himself while on the phone with a journalist from the Washington Post because he has to go put the laundry into the dryer or do the dishes. Self-importance and ego are not part of my vocabulary.

If I had to choose a theme song to play in the background of my life, it wouldnt be the fast-paced, loud, and energetic tempo of the Mission: Impossible soundtrack. It would be a reassuring, comfortable, and familiar country song by Kenny Chesney that talks about pickup trucks, dirt roads, and the importance of family. Youre not going to find me in a freshly pressed polo shirt at the golf courseI dont even play golf. Rather, Im that guy in the RV at the Daytona 500 or sitting in the bleachers with my family at our beloved Washington Nationals baseball games. Dont waste your time looking for me at the most pretentious and overpriced restaurant in the nations capital, because Ill be at my favorite dive bar in northern Virginia, the Vienna Inn, eating chicken wings and drinking beer with my buddies. A baseball hat with the Vienna Inn logo that I wore in Afghanistan for an entire year hangs on the wall. Go see for yourself; its really there.

Yet I do have a refined side, which comes out at times. I have two degrees from Cornell University and have traveled the world twice over. I have briefed in the situation room at the White House, sat with kings and prime ministers, belong to a country club (mainly for the bar by the pool), have a twenty-year-old Rolex I can pull out on demand, and have attended more fancy diplomatic receptions than I care to remember. Im an immigrant born outside this country and proudly worked for the CIA for twenty-six long years, before my body finally gave out and I had to retire.

So, what are you going to find in this book? I will present you nine leadership principles told through my personal stories at CIA, stories that I have never publicly revealed before and that will become your secret weapons to rise to the top of the ranks in whatever profession you are in.

So, welcome.

I promise you will enjoy the ride!

I N HIGH SCHOOL travel baseball, parents lie and brag about their sons, coaches assuage the crazed parents to try and keep the peace, and social media is the epitome of wild exaggeration, where every young catcher has a 1.9 pop time and a fifteen-year-old pitcher throws a 90-mph fastball. But the players themselves know the truthwho really is solid both in the locker room and on the field, or who has a team-first attitude and who is only in it for themselves. At CIA, the same applies. We lie for a living, especially to foreigners. On the other hand, we must never lie to our colleagues, drawing a fine line of acceptable behavior. The truth, your integrity, is what sets you apart, as you so often operate on your own, with no supervision other than your conscience or your God or both. A clear mind, from practicing honesty, will allow you to sleep at night.

AND YE SHALL know the truth and the truth shall make you free. This is the biblical verse, John 8:32, etched in the stone wall of the lobby at the Central Intelligence Agency headquarters at Langley, Virginia. It was former CIA director Allen Dulles, son of a minister, who wanted these words to become the motto of the CIA as they mirror the main core value of what the agency stands for: discover the truth and share it with the president, no matter what the implications would be for politics or political party. It is a professional ethos that includes the core values of service, integrity, excellence, courage, teamwork, and stewardship and that is talked about often and is deeply ingrained in every CIA officer from the very first steps they take into the CIA headquarters.

These words are sacrosanct to me. I have lived by this ethos for twenty-six yearsmy entire career at CIA. My name is Marc Polymeropoulos. I was an operations officer by trade and one of CIAs most highly decorated field officers of my generation. I failed far more than I succeeded, and my ability to handle adversity was, ultimately, a key reason for my success. I am the recipient of the Distinguished Intelligence Medal, the Intelligence Medal of Merit, the Intelligence Commendation Medal, and the Distinguished Career Intelligence Medal. Thats a lot of shiny hardware sitting on a shelf gathering dust in my basement, earned with blood and sweat from beating the pavement conducting tough street operations in some nasty places and against some truly fearsome adversaries.

My last position was overseeing all CIA clandestine operations in the Europe and Eurasia Mission Center. For the majority of my career, my specialty was working in the Middle East, both across the Levant and the Gulf, and also in the conflict zones of Iraq, Afghanistan, and North Africa. When I retired from the senior intelligence service ranks, my equivalent military grade was a four-star general. I have led thousands of the men and women of the CIA for the last two and a half decades in numerous clandestine operations and covert actions. Due to the very nature of my job, I have spent my life in the shadows. None of these operations were attributed to me or my teams at the agency, but the results of our work landed on the front pages of the