Leadership transcends titles and positions. It's a daily choice to support others, create positive culture, and lift those around you through meaningful actions and genuine care.
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Culture isn't driven by management alone. It's built through the daily actions of every person. Regardless of title, everyone has the ability to influence and shape the environment around them.
Almeida Music · In Her Own Words
Her Story
About Almeida
Almeida Music is a Senior Account Manager and Team Lead in Personal Lines insurance at North Risk Partners.
Her journey into insurance happened quite unexpectedly. In 2014, she accepted a customer service position with Wells Fargo. At the time, she wasn't even aware that the role was in the insurance industry. What started as a job quickly turned into a career that she genuinely fell in love with.
Less than a year after joining Wells Fargo, she became fully licensed in Property & Casualty insurance, and since obtaining my license in 2015, she has remained in the industry. Looking back, she never imagined insurance would become my career, but it has been one of the most rewarding journeys of her life.
What keeps her passionate about this profession is that insurance is ultimately about people. Every policy represents a family, a home, a business, a vehicle, or something someone has worked incredibly hard to build. Helping protect those assets and guiding clients through important decisions is extremely meaningful to her.
Throughout her career, she's expanded her role beyond servicing clients by taking on leadership responsibilities, mentoring team members, driving process improvements, and helping implement technology solutions. She's helped create and implement a project team that delivered positive operational results, established a retention team focused on strengthening client relationships, and served as Product Owner for the Xilo platform. She also developed numerous department-wide tools, guides, and resources that continue to support her Personal Lines team today.
What she is most proud of is creating solutions that continue to help others long after they're implemented. Whether it was helping launch new teams, developing department-wide resources, or building technology workflows from the ground up, She's always looked for opportunities to create lasting improvements that support both employees and clients.
Her goal has always been simple: leave things better than she found them. Whether that's helping a client understand a complex coverage issue, mentoring a colleague, building a better process, or creating a resource that helps an entire department succeed.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Almeida
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to a combination of curiosity, adaptability, and a genuine desire to help others. I never planned to build a career in insurance. What started as a customer service role became a profession I fell in love with because I was willing to learn, grow, and embrace new opportunities.
Throughout my career, I've consistently looked for ways to contribute beyond my job description. Whether it was becoming licensed, taking on leadership responsibilities, helping create new teams, serving as Product Owner for a technology initiative, or developing resources that support an entire department, I've always been willing to step up when I saw an opportunity to make a difference.
I also believe success is rarely achieved alone. I've been fortunate to learn from great leaders, coworkers, mentors, and clients who have challenged me to grow both personally and professionally.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
One of the best pieces of advice I've received is: "Don't wait until you feel ready."
Many of the most rewarding opportunities in my career happened before I felt completely prepared for them. Leadership roles, technology projects, creating new teams, and taking ownership of major initiatives often required me to learn as I went.
I've learned that growth happens when you step outside your comfort zone. If you wait until you're 100% ready, you may miss opportunities that can shape your career and help you discover strengths you didn't know you had.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Don't underestimate the value of your voice and your perspective.
Insurance is ultimately a people business. Technical knowledge is important, but so are communication skills, empathy, problem-solving, and relationship building. Those qualities can have a tremendous impact on clients, coworkers, and organizations.
I would also encourage young women to be curious and say yes to opportunities, even if they don't perfectly align with their original career plans. I entered insurance unexpectedly and discovered a career that has allowed me to help others, lead teams, innovate, and continuously learn.
Finally, don't limit yourself to the role you were hired to do. Look for ways to improve processes, solve problems, and contribute to the success of others. Some of the biggest opportunities come from initiative rather than job titles.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
One of the biggest challenges in the insurance industry is helping clients navigate an increasingly complex and rapidly changing market. Rising premiums, changing underwriting standards, and evolving risks can be frustrating and confusing for consumers.
At the same time, I see tremendous opportunity. Technology, automation, and data-driven tools are creating new ways to improve the client experience and help insurance professionals work more efficiently.
I'm particularly excited about opportunities to combine technology with human expertise. While technology can streamline processes and improve efficiency, clients still want trusted advisors who can educate them, provide guidance, and help them make informed decisions. The future belongs to organizations that can successfully balance both.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Integrity, service, compassion, and continuous growth.
Integrity is important because trust is the foundation of every relationship, whether with clients, coworkers, friends, or family.
Service is important because I believe leadership is about helping others succeed. Much of my career has been focused on supporting clients, mentoring colleagues, creating resources, and building processes that make a positive impact.
Compassion matters because everyone is carrying challenges we may not fully understand. Taking the time to listen, understand, and support others can make a meaningful difference.
Finally, I value continuous growth. I never want to stop learning, improving, or challenging myself. Some of the most meaningful opportunities in my career came from being willing to try something new and embrace change.
At the end of the day, I want to be known not only for what I accomplished, but for how I treated people and the positive impact I had on those around me.
I've always tried to leave things better than I found them, whether that's helping a client, mentoring a colleague, building a team, creating a resource, or improving a process. For me, success is measured by the positive impact I have on others
Her Content Hub
Articles by Almeida
Leadership Isn't a Title. It's a Choice.
Leadership is a choice, not a title—and it's available to everyone.
For much of my career, I believed leadership was something that came with a title. Managers led. Supervisors set the direction. Executives shaped the culture.
Over time, I realized I was wrong.
The most influential people I encountered were not always those sitting in leadership positions. They were the people who consistently showed up for others. They shared knowledge freely, stepped in when a teammate needed help, offered encouragement during difficult moments, and looked for ways to make things better instead of waiting for someone else to solve the problem.
Those experiences fundamentally changed my understanding of leadership.
As someone who immigrated from Bosnia, I grew up understanding the importance of resilience, hard work, and opportunity. My family's journey taught me that success rarely comes from individual achievement alone. It comes from people investing in one another, opening doors, providing guidance, and creating environments where others can succeed.
As my career progressed, I found myself taking on projects that extended beyond my day-to-day responsibilities. I helped develop resources, improve processes, create teams, and implement solutions designed to make work easier and more efficient for others. What surprised me most was that the greatest impact wasn't the project itself.
The greatest impact was how those efforts made people feel.
When team members felt supported, they became more confident. When they felt heard, they became more engaged. When they had access to the right tools and resources, they became more empowered to succeed.
That is when I learned a lesson that continues to guide me today:
Culture is not created by leadership alone. Culture is created by everyone.
Every conversation contributes to culture.
Every interaction contributes to culture.
Every decision to encourage, mentor, teach, listen, or help contributes to culture.
We often underestimate how much influence we have on those around us. A few minutes spent helping a colleague solve a problem may give them the confidence they need to tackle future challenges. Sharing knowledge may shorten someone else's learning curve. A simple act of kindness may completely change the course of someone else's day.
These moments may seem small, but together, they create the foundation of strong teams, healthy workplaces, and meaningful careers.
Today, I view leadership differently than I did when I first entered the workforce. Leadership is not defined by authority. It is defined by action.
It is choosing to take ownership.
It is choosing to be part of the solution.
It is choosing to lift others up rather than compete with them.
It is choosing to leave things better than you found them.
Some of the most influential leaders I know don't have leadership titles. They simply make the decision every day to positively impact the people around them.
That is why I believe leadership isn't a title. It's a choice.
It's a choice available to every one of us, regardless of where we are in our careers.
And when enough people make that choice, they don't just change a team.
They change a culture.
Leadership is not measured by a title, a position, or the number of people you manage. It is measured by the lives you impact, the opportunities you create, and the positive influence you leave behind.
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