What Makes an Effective Leader with Former CIA Clandestine Service, John Sipher

John Sipher joins us on this week’s episode of the podcast. John is the Co-Founder of Spy Craft Entertainment which is a production firm providing content and talent to the entertainment industry. John is also a foreign policy and intelligence expert and social media influencer. His articles have been published in the NY Times, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Politico, and pretty much everywhere you get your news. He retired in 2014 after a 28-year career in the CIA, and served many overseas tours. He also served as a lead instructor in the CIA’s Training School and was a regular lecturer in the CIA’s Leadership Development Program. He also has a sports background as he was a Captain of the Lacrosse Team at Hobart College.

In this episode, we discuss how he thinks about pressure (6:10), shifting against your country vs. government (11:30), his upbringing (13:15), education and his parents (19:15), why they were so successful at Hobart Lacrosse (21:30), what he learned as a captain (23:10), the different ways of leadership (27:00), advice he’d give to himself as a captain his senior year (33:40), how you build trust (36:10), what a good mentor does (41:30), level 5 leadership (46:30), what led him to his career (50:30), why the CIA (52:50), what surprised him about being in the CIA (55:30), what it’s like to be undercover (1:01:40), being undercover vs being out front (1:08:00), what he misses about being in the action (1:14:20), what he doesn’t miss about the CIA (1:18:40), what he does to make sure he’s at his best (1:20:00), and what he’s up to now (1:25:10)

Thank you to John for coming on the podcast. We encourage you to check him out on Twitter @john_sipher and go to his company’s website https://spycraftentertainment.com/.

I wrote a book called “Shift Your Mind” that will be coming out in October 2020, and you can pre-order on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Additionally, I have launched a company called Strong Skills, and I encourage you to check out our new website https://www.strongskills.co/. If you liked this episode and/or any others, please follow me on Twitter: @brianlevenson or Instagram: @Intentional_Performers.

Thanks for listening.

-Brian