What does it really mean to lead from a place of wholeness and why does trust feel so elusive in today's organizations? In this episode, Adam sits down with Dr. Rob McKenna, author of Whole Leaders, Wild Trust, for a conversation that challenges everything you thought you knew about leadership development.

Dr. McKenna explores why the most effective leaders aren't the ones who have it all figured out, but the ones who are willing to show up fully; with their strengths, their struggles, and their humanity intact.

He unpacks the idea of "wild trust": the kind of deep, unguarded confidence that teams extend to leaders who are genuinely known, not just professionally polished.

Whether you're leading a team of five or an organization of thousands, this episode will leave you rethinking how you show up and what it truly means to be trusted.

Learn more about Dr. McKenna: https://www.wildleaders.org/

Pick up a copy of Dr. McKenna's book: https://a.co/d/046Ru6Kb

Podcast produced by Sound of a Rose

The data is hard to ignore: mid-level leaders are the most stressed and burned out professional demographic — more burned out than individual contributors, more than senior executives. And yet most organizations treat manager development as an afterthought. Meanwhile, the generation coming up behind them is looking at middle management and quietly deciding it's not worth it.

This episode is for the senior leader. The executive. The person who's climbed out of the valley and is now looking down at it.

Adam shares a personal story from May 2009 — a breaking point in the valley, and what the senior leaders around him did and didn't do in response. What that moment revealed wasn't that they didn't care. It's that they'd navigated the valley themselves, but had no idea how to explain what they'd learned. They couldn't transfer what they couldn't articulate.

We walk through three signs your middle managers are struggling — and why what looks like a character problem is almost always a systems problem. Then we make the case for what senior leaders actually owe the people in their valley. Spoiler: it's not a pep talk, a mandate to push through, or a sink-or-swim moment. It's a repeatable framework and a leader willing to hand it down.

If your team's vision lives or dies through your middle managers — and it does — this one is worth your full attention.

Purchase The Fog of Work:

Amazon: https://a.co/d/08JMiDaj

Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-fog-of-work-adam-tarnow/1148527628?ean=9781394368136https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-fog-of-work-adam-tarnow/1148527628?ean=9781394368136

Every middle manager knows the feeling: things show up on your annual review that never appeared on your to-do list. You're expected to boil the ocean every day. You're held responsible for outcomes that depend on people, circumstances, and decisions that are never fully yours. It's not a personal failing — it's the defining tension of life in the middle.

In this episode, we share what might be the single most useful idea in The Fog of Work — a simple, three-step framework for finding clarity and action in exactly those moments. We call it the fog-clearing sentence, and it's the punchline the whole book builds toward. Not a pep talk. Not a call to push harder. A repeatable system for extracting what you can do from situations that feel completely out of your control.

If you've ever walked out of a meeting with your boss wondering how you were supposed to deliver something that was never really in your hands — this episode is for you.

Download a free Control Your Controllables Worksheet here: https://adamtarnow.com/fogresources

Purchase a copy of The Fog of Work

• Amazon: https://a.co/d/0e3k3Wag

• Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-fog-of-work-adam-tarnow/1148527628?ean=9781394368136