The newly elected Pope, Leo XIV (born Robert “Rob” Prevost) has already made global headlines. But I’m going to sidestep the theological headlines and point to something far more personal. Something familiar.
We both studied STEM fields. We both went to Villanova. We’re both baseball fans.
I’ve never met the man, but I can picture him. A math major walking across campus in his 20s, maybe heading toward Mendel Hall with a graphing calculator in hand. Possibly swinging by Wawa for his favorite hoagie, the kind of ritual every Villanova student seems to have. (Maybe a Shorti with turkey and provolone? Extra pickles? Who knows.)
But once you imagine someone making that kind of choice, you’ve stopped seeing them as “leader on high” and started seeing them as a person. And that makes a difference.
Because here’s the truth: relatability is a leadership superpower.
The Myth of the Inaccessible Leader
In most industries, especially those that involve power or prestige, there’s an old model of leadership: be polished, be perfect, and stay on a pedestal. Make pronouncements. Avoid vulnerability. Maintain distance.
And yet, every time we meet someone who breaks that mold — who shares something familiar, funny, or flawed — we don’t trust them less. We trust them more.
That’s the paradox. People assume that maintaining authority requires emotional distance. But distance creates doubt. Doubt that a leader understands what it’s like for the people they lead. Doubt that they see the world through a shared lens. Doubt that they care.
Leaders who are relatable remove that doubt.
Why This Moment Feels Different
Back to Rob Prevost, who became Leo XIV. He grew up in a working-class suburb outside Chicago, and before his long arc through Peru, Rome, and the Vatican, he earned a math degree and a law degree, studied at Villanova, and lived the kind of ordinary young-adult life that leaves footprints in dining halls and lecture notes and local hangouts. He didn’t drop out of the sky speaking Latin and wearing robes. He figured out who he was one awkward semester at a time. Like the rest of us.
I don’t know what decisions he’ll make in his new role. But I do know this: I’ve never felt like I could visualize a Pope in street clothes before. I’ve never pictured one with earbuds, walking across campus or catching a ballgame. Suddenly, I can.
Does that change what I expect from him as a leader? Not exactly. But it changes how I feel about listening.
That small, personal connection, real or imagined, is what opens the door to engagement. It’s what gets people to stop scrolling, lean forward, and think, maybe this leader gets it.
The Business Lesson Hiding in Plain Sight
You don’t need to be a public figure to benefit from relatability. In fact, in small and mid-size businesses, it’s even more powerful.
Think about your team, your clients, your vendors. None of them need you to be flawless. They need you to be real. They need to know you understand the pressures they’re under. They need to feel that you’ve been there.
Here’s the twist: relatability doesn’t mean oversharing. It’s not a confessional. It’s not about making your every childhood memory part of a marketing campaign. It’s about selectively revealing enough of your story to remind people you’re human.
Maybe it’s the story about your first disastrous sales call. Maybe it’s what you learned as a struggling manager during the chaos of 2020. Maybe it’s your go-to order at the local diner. The point is to give people an emotional handhold.
When you do, you change the dynamic. You’re not just the one issuing orders, solving problems, or sending invoices. You’re someone they know. And people are more likely to follow, trust, and support someone they know.
Relatability + Vulnerability = Credibility
There’s another layer here: vulnerability.
Being relatable sometimes means showing the soft spots. The places where things didn’t go as planned. The admissions that you, too, have days where you’re tired or unsure or frustrated. Ironically, this makes people see you as more competent, not less.
That’s because vulnerability, when paired with competence, signals confidence. It shows you’re secure enough to be honest.
Think about the leaders you trust most. Chances are, they’re not the ones who always act like they have it together. They’re the ones who own their journey, flaws and all, and invite you along.
One Easy Way to Start
If you’re not sure how to become more relatable as a leader, here’s one easy place to start: tell a small story.
It could be in your next team meeting. In a LinkedIn post. In a customer conversation. Tell a story about something that happened to you that most people can relate to… your first job, your worst boss, a time you made a mistake and fixed it.
Stories disarm people. They lower defenses. They don’t just transfer information; they transfer emotion.
And once you do that, you’ve stopped being the person “on high.” You’ve become someone worth following. Or at least worth listening to.
Final Thought
The odds of me having anything in common with a Pope were, let’s say, not high. But here we are. STEM background. Villanova connection. Shared love of baseball. And maybe a favorite Wawa order I’ll never know.
Do those similarities mean I’ll agree with every decision he’ll make? No. But they change how I perceive him, and that’s no small thing. It reminded me that relatability doesn’t require much – just one or two human connections.
So if you’re in a leadership role, whether you manage a team of three or run a company of 300, ask yourself: What’s one thing you can share that reminds people you’re real?
Because at the end of the day, being relatable doesn’t make you smaller. It makes you stronger.
