Jen Kem’s Unicorn Leadership: Building Teams That Spark Innovation

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Jen Kem on The Unicorn Team, the ULTA Leadership Assessment and Building Teams Around Energy

Jen Kem is a business strategist with a background in Silicon Valley tech marketing and the author of The Unicorn Team, which introduces the Unicorn Leadership Type Assessment (ULTA). In her conversation with Anika Jackson, Jen Kem explains why energy, not time, is a team's most valuable currency, how to have hard conversations about fit, and what she means by working "fancy lazy."

What shaped Jen Kem's approach to leadership?

Family, culture and a long interest in why people behave the way they do. Jen Kem grew up in a Hawaiian plantation town, with Filipino immigrant grandparents who valued autonomy, education and exploration. At seven, she announced she wanted to be general counsel of Coca-Cola International. Her parents invested in her education and travel. She never fit a mold, and she focused instead on what makes people buy, behave and belong. That interest carried her from tech marketing to brand leadership and entrepreneurship.

What is the Unicorn Leadership Type Assessment?

The ULTA identifies nine leadership types and encourages leaders to work from their natural style rather than forcing people into rigid roles. Jen Kem found, while launching major platforms and consulting on brand strategy, that strategy alone does not drive results; people do, and specifically how their natural energies are arranged on a team. When roles match energy, she says, teams reach "unicorn energy," a flow state where productivity, innovation and connection improve. She reports that companies using the framework have landed six-figure contracts and revived stagnant teams by realigning the people they already had.

The framework includes tools for hard conversations:

• A 100-day assessment to determine whether a team member is truly a fit, without dragging out mismatches.
• The Hierarchy of Contribution, a deliberately blunt metaphor (jackass, donkey, workhorse, unicorn) that asks leaders to be honest about the role each person plays, as a starting point for change rather than punishment.
• The "Same Page Process," which helps teams with different viewpoints agree on implementation.

How does Jen Kem view AI and publishing?

As ways to free people for more meaningful work. Jen Kem sees AI taking over repetitive tasks so people can focus on empathy, storytelling and emotional intelligence. She urges creators, especially from underrepresented communities, to publish meaningful content now, because what goes into the digital world shapes what AI learns.

Her own book took more than three years to publish, which showed her how slow and exclusive traditional publishing can be. She now advocates hybrid publishing, which pairs traditional distribution with the speed and control of self-publishing.

Behind all of it is her "fancy lazy" philosophy: work hard on the right things and build a business that gives more than it takes. Success should feel good, not just look good. Family anchors that view, from naming her family vineyard after her grandmothers, Generosa and Magdalena, to teaching her children to lead themselves before leading others.

Key takeaways

• Energy, not time, is a team's most valuable resource.
• The ULTA identifies nine leadership types so people can work from their natural strengths.
• A 100-day assessment keeps poor fits from dragging on.
• AI can take repetitive work off people's plates; underrepresented creators should publish now.
• Hybrid publishing combines traditional distribution with self-publishing speed.

Jen Kem's book The Unicorn Team is a practical guide for leaders who want to build a team that works.

Listen to Anika Jackson's full conversation with Jen Kem on Your Brand Amplified.