Redefining Leadership: Insights from Kimberly Magnus

Kimberly Magnus is a VP II at Circana, author of Unleashed, leadership coach, and frequent WIFI speaker. In this guest article, she shares practical insights to help you align your values, lead with empathy, amplify strengths, and embrace the power of everyday leadership. 

When people think about leadership, they often picture titles, authority, or major decisions. But leadership is far more personal. Leadership happens in everyday moments. It’s how you show up, what you pay attention to, and how you influence others through your choices and interactions. Leadership is accessible to every single one of us. 

Over the last few years, I spent significant time reflecting on milestones of my own career. That reflection led me to write the book Unleashed. While I now believe leadership is a privilege, I didn’t always feel that way. My hope is that whether through my book or this article, you’ll find insights that help you serve yourself more intentionally, so you can empower high-performing teams and maximize your influence within your organization and across the industry you serve. 

Below are a couple of practical tips that might spark a few operating principles of your own and help you in your leadership journey. 

Align your values with your behavior 

Many leaders feel constantly busy yet struggle to articulate what they are actually busy doing. Often, that busyness is the result of unclear values. When you don’t know what matters most to you, it is easy to spend your time being reactive or fulfilling someone else’s priorities. You might even feel overworked yet underutilized.  

Clarity around your values acts as a compass for decision-making. Your values should guide how you spend your time, energy, and attention. I recommend revisiting your values regularly because as you grow, they evolve. When your behaviors align with your values, your leadership follows with purpose, transforming busyness into meaning.  

Guiding question: What is your top value and what actions can you implement to support it? 

Lead with empathy  

What you focus on determines your reality! I heard this once and realized how powerful it is. When leaders always pay attention to what is wrong — such as mistakes, gaps, or frustrations — that becomes the dominant narrative.  When leaders look for what is right, they create trust and confidence- building momentum.  

Empathetic leadership does not mean lowering standards. It is choosing to understand people first so you can lead with clarity, care, and accountability. What leaders focus on shapes culture. When we assume positive intent and lead with curiosity, people feel seen and trust grows. That is how empathy unlocks performance.  

Guiding question: What are you choosing to focus on? Is your day-to-day narrative uplifting, contagious, and motivating?  

Amplify strengths 

You don’t have to be all things to all people. One of the most liberating leadership lessons is recognizing your own “genius” which, simply put, is the work that energizes you and allows you to contribute at your best. 

Equally important is understanding the genius of your team. High-performing teams are not made up of people who think and work the same way. They succeed because differences are valued and leveraged. When leaders intentionally build complementary strengths, natural tensions become sources of innovation rather than frustration turning tension into traction. Great leadership isn’t about comparison. It’s about contribution. 

Guiding question: Do you know what type of work gets people on your team excited? Are you shining a light on their strength areas? 

Leadership is influence, not a title or a position 

Leadership is not reserved for a select few. Leadership opportunities exist everywhere!  It is available to all of us, one intentional choice at a time. Regardless of title, you influence people in everyday conversations, meetings, and interactions. Most days, leadership looks like planting seeds, not hitting home runs. 

Don’t underestimate those micro-moments. Your daily actions are influential and compound over time, shaping culture, trust, and outcomes. When you lead with integrity, curiosity, and generosity, your influence extends far beyond what you can see in the moment. 

Guiding question: What is something you are passionate about and how can you take one small action towards it? 

Closing thoughts: You are the CEO of your life. You have influence on yourself by being intentional in knowing your values. You can have a tremendous impact on those around you by practicing empathetic leadership. You can maximize influence of many initiatives by taking small micro-moment actions that happen every day and planting those seeds, one seed, one interaction at a time. I hope you feel inspired to step forward into a leadership style that energizes and mobilizes you.