“You’ve got to get over the W-word (Wimp) if you want to take care of yourself.”
That’s a heck of a way to start a conversation, but it caught my attention. Who offered this wisdom?
Matt Domyancic, a former member of a Northern Virginia SWAT unit, all-American linebacker, and strength coach for two Division I football programs. A guy who still looks like he could run through a wall. Matt is now a chaplain for police and fire agencies in the Los Angeles area and is focused on providing wellness care. In my search for leaders who inspire, I have yet to meet someone who motivated me as much as Matt. His power of personality is only matched by his overpowering empathy and kindness.
Matt’s example also provides a perfect impetus to make the case that our intelligence community and my old outfit, in particular, the CIA, require a radical change in the way we provide wellness care to our officers. Matt’s informal wellness program involves therapy, mentoring, maintaining a journal, breathing, meditation, nutrition, small group sharing, and exercise, including yoga. He is hands-on, dedicating his time and energy (free of charge) to help police and firefighters desperately in need of care. If you call Matt to chat, you will be lucky to reach him, as he is on the road in the LA area virtually seven days a week. And when granted an audience, prepare for an hour or two of deep discussion; there is no 50% in anything that Matt does. He reminded me of the world-class care that I received at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for my treatment for traumatic brain injury. Wellness is a mindset that one must adopt as part of your everyday life. And most importantly, it works.
The CIA, where I worked for 26 years, has no such sustained program stressing proactive and sustained wellness. This is a serious mistake and can be easily rectified with congressional involvement (meaning actual funding) and the CIA’s new leadership team. While it is both morally and ethically sound to take care of our wounded warriors after they have been injured, Matt’s concepts encourage first responders to implement these methods into their daily lifestyle as early as at the beginning of their careers. This includes practices such as holding off-duty retreats where first responders can normalize this behavior with their peers.
For the CIA, such a program would start as soon as an employee first walks into the main building and views the hallowed Memorial Wall with 133 stars. The wall honors officers killed in the line of duty. The entrance also carries a famous biblical quote etched in stone that states, “and ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” Is it not a fundamental truth that we must provide the best level of assistance to those who stand on the ramparts protecting our great nation?
We should also recognize how proactive wellness care gives a lot to an organization.
First, it reinforces a sacrosanct unofficial pact between employer and employee. At the CIA, you volunteer to go into harm’s way with an expectation that the agency will back you when in need. Private sector corporations such as Google, Microsoft, and Accenture have signed on to this wellness concept, and it drives impressive employee loyalty. Why not the same for the CIA?
Second, wellness care prolongs careers. That would have outsize value for the CIA, where it costs hundreds of thousands of dollars to train a case officer. If proactive care can add additional years to a career or sustain increased engagement because employees are more mentally and physically available, isn’t that worth the time and money invested? Simple math dictates that this is a no-brainer.
True, radical change causes bureaucratic pushback. No doubt there will be many who resist this call for a new look at wellness at the CIA. During my time as a senior officer, I once attended a voluntary three-day workshop that was titled “Energy for Performance.” It was fantastic, but I also saw many of my colleagues roll their eyes and not take it seriously. Three days is just a drop in the bucket. Most importantly, changing attitudes on wellness has to come from the top. If I were CIA Director for one day, I would work with Congress to provide sufficient funding for a wellness program such as Matt’s that runs year-round. Access to a full spectrum of wellness care would be readily available for all employees, from our case officers to our analysts and support staff. I would hold accountable my senior staff, including Mission Center Chiefs, to not simply promote this program but even to make it mandatory for some job categories such as operations officers and paramilitary officers where the burn-out rate is so high.
One last thought on the W-word, directed at those who would scoff at wellness training.
At Walter Reed, in my view, a mental mecca for wellness and mindfulness, I engaged in meditation, yoga, and therapy sessions with colleagues from the special operations community. These are the toughest humans on the planet. If our unconventional warriors can adopt these practices without worrying about the stigma of the W-word, surely the CIA can as well. And just look at Tom Brady, winning a Super Bowl at the age of 43. He employs an extraordinary wellness regime that has sustained him well beyond the shelf life for NFL quarterbacks. When he says, “Your body is your asset,” we should all take notice!
Marc Polymeropoulos is a former CIA senior operations officer. He retired in 2019 after a 26-year career serving in the Near East and South Asia. His book Clarity in Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the CIA will be published in June 2021 by Harper Collins.
