Peer pressure from dead people
That's what most leadership culture really is.
I'm Rúna Magnúsdóttir. I grew up in Iceland — a country that rebuilt itself from financial collapse by gathering its citizens in a room and asking them what they actually thought.
I was in that room.
It shaped everything.
I've been coaching leaders and founders, speaking on stages, and building tools for conscious leadership since 2007.
Not because I had it all figured out — but because I kept seeing the same thing: brilliant, capable people running someone else's operating system.
Doing what they were told leadership looked like. Paying a price they hadn't consciously agreed to.
—> My work is about making that visible.
—> The boxes we inherited.
—> The patterns we mistake for personality.
—> The energy we suppress because no one told us it was an asset.
In 2024, I broke five bones in a cycling accident.
I spent months in a wheelchair, unable to coach or travel. I used my own tools on myself.
They worked.
That's how I know they're real.
I built Beyond Boxes Index™ because I couldn't reach everyone who needed this.
Now I don't have to.
Awards & Recognitions
TechWomen4Boards Transformational Leadership
Finalist 2025
MSN Top 10 Leading Speakers to Follow 2025
US Reporter 15 Visionary Leaders 2023
WEF Excellence in Entrepreneurship 2022
Leadership of the Year, Network for Transformational Leaders 2019
EU-WIIN Capacity Builder Award 2011
TIAW 100 Women Making a Difference 2009
💬 WHAT PEOPLE SAY
(WHEN I’M NOT IN THE ROOM)
“That one presentation helped shift an entire UK psychology service into success. You were years ahead.”
— Dr. Jeremy Monsen, Principal Educational Psychologist, UK
“She doesn’t teach leadership. She transmits it.”
— Karl Friðriksson, Director of Future Studies
“Rúna reveals your blind spots with grace — and helps you lead with them.”
— Thordís Lóa Þórhallsdóttir, former Deputy Mayor of Reykjavík
