Secrecy is omnipresent in social action, and happens frequently at workplace. This research proposes a reactive model of perceiving leader’s secrecy that depicts when and how perceived leader’s secrecy influences his/her image and follower’s subsequent leader-directed behaviours (leader-directed helping behaviour and leader-directed voice behaviour). We aim to make at least three contributions to the existing literature. First, we introduce a novel angle to understand and explore the effect of secrecy by integrating relational perspectives. Secrecy, as a phenomenon rooted in social interactions, not only influence secret keeper’s psychological and physiological states, but also secret perceiver’s, and eventually re-define and reconstruct their relationship. Second, we contribute to impression management literature by showing the violation of leader’s desirable image and the behavioural consequences induced by perceived secrecy. Finally, we contribute to social identity theory by exploring the moderating effect of leader member exchange social comparison, as well as investigating the contingent effect of group membership on perceived leader secrecy and follower behaviours.