Rob McKenna

Rob McKenna

Rob McKenna, Ph.D., is the CEO and founder of WiLD Leaders Inc. Named one of the top 30 industrial/organizational psychologists alive today, Dr. McKenna is passionate about developing leaders and about transforming the way we see the people in our organizations. He previously served as the chair of Seattle Pacific University’s Industrial-Organizational Psychology program, and his contributions to the global Free Methodist Church include serving on the board of Friends of Immanuel University.

By Rob McKenna

Over the past year, I went on an intentional tour of deeper conversations with my friends who are in senior leadership roles across every context you can imagine, including business and ministry. The stories I heard both inspired me and broke my heart.

If there is one thing they all shared, it was that they had experienced both massive failures, setbacks and pain, as well as incredibly redemptive moments. That’s what they shared with me as their friend, but it was obvious that they don’t often share that whole story with very many people. It isn’t that they are hiding something, but more about the risk of being misunderstood being too great. The moments they shared with me gave me insight into something that has become such an important reminder. When we ask a leader to be vulnerable and unveiled, we must remember that leading people is a deeply personal and nuanced journey that offers both an incredible burden and a kingdom-level opportunity.

And We, Who With Unveiled Faces

One of my favorite scriptures is 2 Corinthians 3:18, which says, “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”

How does it feel to imagine yourself completely unveiled before God? For me personally, it overwhelms me every time. What Paul is describing is that if we are willing to come clean with God and remove the veil of perfection we sometimes try to wear, that is when the transformation in us truly begins. For leaders, that unveiling is hard. It means showing it all to the Lord — everything; that first sin and your most recent. That resentment, shame, selfishness, closed-mindedness, stubbornness, and those repeated mistakes.

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“What would change if you could unveil yourself before God?”

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I have met enough leaders to know that the stories of divorces, broken relationships with children, greed, employees they’ve let down, and so many more challenges don’t make them weird. They make them real. So consider this with me. What would change if you could unveil yourself before God? He likely already sees it all anyway. But what would change if you didn’t hide the scrapes, scars, shame, and mistakes, and took off the veil? Imagine the possibilities.

The Courage to Remove the Veil

Vulnerability is defined as an openness to being hurt. There’s no way around that. Vulnerability is not the same as connection, although it may be necessary to create it. Using vulnerability as a pathway to relationships with a discounted definition of its costs ignores the reality that there could be very real consequences for opening ourselves up in every situation. I am not for a moment questioning the power of increasing levels of vulnerability and the courage it takes to muster it, but I am suggesting that in our broken world, opening ourselves to the possibility of hurt should be approached with thoughtfulness and care. 

Vulnerability isn’t just an openness to being hurt. Sometimes, even more frightening, is the openness to being misunderstood. And it happens so quickly for leaders. When we played the game of telephone as kids, it didn’t take 20 iterations to screw up the message. It usually took one. Imagine how quickly our story may get distorted when we share even the smallest part of it. Vulnerability may be key to our understanding of each other, but what it opens is more like a dynamic and moving maze than it is like a hallway.

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“God is the source of our ultimate redemption, but we each have a role to play.”

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When we produce developmental solutions or answers to our deepest questions that are based on a reality of personal hurt and brokenness, but assume we are interacting with a well-intentioned and a complete world around us, we miss the reality that relationships with others are keys to both our redemption and our misery. But I have faith that there is hope. It’s some powerful combination of thoughtfulness, intention, sacrifice, vulnerability, courage, humility, and a willingness to edit that is likely the solution to our search for a better and more whole version of ourselves as people and as leaders. God is the source of our ultimate redemption, but we each have a role to play. 

The Power of Vulnerability

Lifting the veil in a courageous posture of vulnerability is so powerful and so important for leaders. If you have ever felt the magical and transcendent moment in any meeting when someone shares something that is obviously challenging to share, you know what I mean. We need it so desperately to ground our reality and humanity. We’re drawn in herds to anyone who opens the door to their own pain and suffering. We relate to it. Our souls long for someone who will remind us we are not alone — especially the most surprising people who, on the outside, appear to have it all together. These moments, where someone has the courage to lift the veil that so many keep firmly in place, are powerful.

For leaders, the action of unveiling is incredible, and it doesn’t even have to be something earth-shattering to have that impact. Some of the most powerful moments I’ve experienced with leaders — pastors or CEOs — is the moment they show their team what they are still learning. Most leaders in our world don’t do that, or they say they are lifelong learners but share very few specific examples that give us confidence that they are still learning just like the rest of us. But, when they do share what they are actually still working on in themselves, it gives the rest of us permission to edit, to change, and to courageously lift the veil on our own real experience.

The Apostle Paul clearly states that unveiling is a necessary process in which the glory of God is made fully apparent to us. We know it’s true because we’ve experienced it and because Scripture calls us to it. What would change for you and for others if you were more unveiled?

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Rob McKenna

Rob McKenna

Rob McKenna, Ph.D., is the CEO and founder of WiLD Leaders Inc. Named one of the top 30 industrial/organizational psychologists alive today, Dr. McKenna is passionate about developing leaders and about transforming the way we see the people in our organizations. He previously served as the chair of Seattle Pacific University’s Industrial-Organizational Psychology program, and his contributions to the global Free Methodist Church include serving on the board of Friends of Immanuel University.