Harry’s & Flamingo: “It’s Us, We’re the Problem” with Kristen Correa Blanco, Head of People

In this Episode 

What if the biggest blockers to collaboration and innovation... were the leaders themselves?

In this episode of The Leader Lab, Kristin Correa Blanco, Head of People at Harry’s and Flamingo, shares how the Harry’s team turned employee feedback into action. From overloaded meetings to unclear decision-making, they realized: the problem started at the top.

Hear how they responded with vulnerability, rolled out practical frameworks like situational leadership and DRIs, and kickstarted a cultural shift toward ownership, trust, and faster execution.

🔑 Topics covered:

• How to lead change (even when you’re part of the problem)
• Creating high-performing teams with clarity and trust
• Practical frameworks Harry’s used to build momentum

About the guest:

Kristen Correa Blanco, Head of People for Global Harry's and Flamingo. Harry’s is shaking up the consumer goods industry by putting people first and meeting real, unmet consumer needs—and Kristen is at the heart of that mission. She leads the global business unit, overseeing 400 people across the US, Canada, and the UK. With nearly 15 years of experience in fast-paced, high-growth environments, Kristen’s a trusted partner to executive leadership, driving talent and culture strategies that align with business goals and fuel organizational success. Before joining Harry’s, Kristen played a pivotal role as an HR Business Partner at Squarespace, helping shape talent strategies during a time of rapid expansion. She’s also held key roles at Equinox and New York Life Insurance. Kristen’s expertise spans coaching, talent development, change management, and advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.

"Usually if you’re feeling that tipping point, someone else is too. Saying out loud that you see something—or don’t feel great—provides relatability. It accelerates change."

— Kristen Correa Blanco, Head of People at Harry’s and Flamingo

Here's a few LifeLabs workshops the Harrys team enjoyed:

Feedback Skills Workshop

Leading Change Workshop

Resources:

Leading Change Playbook - Our Leading Change in Uncertain Times Playbook is a comprehensive resource for guiding your entire team through the change process. It covers the three layers of organizational change

Performance Review Playbook  - This playbook is designed for People Ops Leaders building or revamping their performance review systems. In it, we’ll flag common pitfalls and outline concrete steps to take right away.

Articles:

Deal Out Better Feedback at Work With The Playing Cards Method™

The rise of feedback: Why feedback skills have become urgent

Continuous Feedback: Making Every Conversation Count

Transcript

Kristen: 0:00

We had a pretty honest offsite last year where we kind of looked around the room and it's like, I'm the problem, it's me. We're the ones actually creating this like spin within our organizations where they feel like they can't collaborate effectively, like move with urgency or innovate.

Micaela: 0:15

Welcome to The Leader Lab, a podcast by LifeLabs Learning. I'm Michaela Mathry, Chief Marketing Officer at LifeLabs Learning. If you're like most senior people leaders today, You're navigating a landscape that's evolving faster than ever. In fact, 76% of HR leaders say that their managers are overwhelmed by the growth of their job responsibilities. And 73% say that their leaders and managers are not equipped to lead change. In our interviews with experienced people leaders, we're going to dive deep into what it really takes to build resilient, adaptable, and effective leaders, managers, and teams. If you are a regular or returning listener to the Leader Lab, welcome back. This podcast was started over five years ago by a dedicated group of what we call lab mates at LifeLabs Learning. The original concept of the Leader Lab, which we are going to stay true to, was that we had 11 minute mini episodes where we taught a super practical, easily applicable leadership skill. We're going to stick with that format and we will be bringing on some of our expert facilitators to teach you the tipping point skills that LifeLabs is so In addition to that, we are going to be doing expert interviews and we're bringing on senior people leaders to sit down with us and tell us about what it really takes to make change at organizations today. We're not just going to talk theory. You're going to hear how some of these really impactful leaders spend their time, make decisions, and tackle some of the toughest people challenges. Our goal is for you to walk away with a tool or tactic that you can immediately implement. Welcome to the Leader Lab. Today, I am really thrilled to welcome Kristen Correa Blanco. She is the head of people at Global Harry's and Flamingo. For those who aren't familiar, consumer brand Harry's offers high-quality men's grooming products and personal care items, while its sister brand, Flamingo, focuses on women's body care, shaving, and wellness products. Harry's is shaking up the consumer goods industry by putting people first and meeting real consumer needs, and Kristen is at the heart of that mission. She leads the global business unit, overseeing 400 people across the US, Canada, and the UK. With nearly 15 years of experience in fast-paced, high-growth environments, Kristen is a trusted partner to executive leadership, driving talent and culture strategies that align with business goals and fuel organizational success. Before joining Harry's, Kristen played a pivotal role as an HR business partner at Squarespace, helping shape talent strategies during a time of rapid growth and expansion. She's also had key roles at Equinox and New York Life. insurance. Kristen's expertise spans coaching, talent development, change management, and advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. Welcome to the Leader Lab, Kristen. Thank you. We are so excited to have you here today. We've got a lot to dive into, especially around a lot of the amazing work that you did at Squarespace, as well as Global Harry's and Flamingo. But first, we realized that when we talked last week, we have somewhat parallel lives in that we have children the same ages. So you, is it right? You've got a one-year-old and a two-year-old? Yep.

Kristen: 3:23

One, and two and a half one and two girls yes and it is an adventure tell

Micaela: 3:27

me about like what your experience has been having kids and being in a senior leadership position when

Kristen: 3:34

you have a kid it's a fast reality check of like what's really important and dependent on your time and energy so biggest adjustment has been it's not work-life balance it's like how to actually prioritize and like use my time well when at work and when with the girls

Micaela: 3:51

I was curious about are there any policies that you've implemented as the employee profile at Harry's has sort of like grown with the organization to support caregivers? Yes.

Kristen: 4:02

So we've evolved our policies as we've grown and aged as a culture. Seven years ago when I started at Harry's and we were about 125 employees, I think our two co-founders and CEOs, Jeff Rader and Annie Katz Mayfield, did a really good job kind of setting things up for when the business started to kind of age and grow in terms of tenure and I think it was because where they were at in life like growing their families and seeing how much it meant to have like a leave policy that was generous and we were taking care of caregivers whether primary secondary birthing non-birthing recently to give you an example so we had started with 16 weeks of paid parental leave and we recently increased that last year 20 weeks for birthing parents and there's like a real difference those I know four weeks may not seem a long time in the grand scheme but for a thing parent where your body and your mind is still very much adjusting. It made all the difference.

Micaela: 4:58

And if you've had kids, the difference between a four month old and a five month old is actually really substantial, right? Absolutely. All right. Awesome. Let us jump in and we're going to shift gears. I would love to hear a little bit about your career. And I'd be curious to hear a little bit about what brought you to the PeopleOps space.

Kristen: 5:18

My siblings and I were the first to go to college in my family. And I think that's important to note because going into college, graduating was a big deal. And also I had pretty limited understanding of like what possibilities were in terms of professions. My brother is like a police officer. My sister's a teacher. And so I went to school thinking I'll be a nurse. You know, something that like you're used to hearing, like see the professions out there and on TV. And that was what my parents kind of instilled in me as well because they weren't involved in the corporate world either. So I think what was and how I kind of got to where I am today is because Because after I graduated from University of Delaware, I knew I didn't want to go and do what I went to school for. So my degree was in nutrition and dietetics, and I had a minor in biology. I was like, I'm going to go back to school because I don't really know what I want to do. So I was going to get an accelerated degree in nursing to complement the dietetics background. And I had a semester off. And my best friend, shout out Veronica Tucker, she changed my trajectory. She was the recruiting coordinator at New York Life Insurance. And she was like, we need a temp. to basically like get coffee and snacks for execs and meetings. And I was like, great, I'll do that. I show up on my first day and they were like, actually, we don't need you to do that. We need you to help support a global training initiative that is mandated by the CEO for a new way for us to think through performance management and get leaders basically up to speed on how we're going to do performance reviews and how to have feedback conversations. I'm like 22. Have you ever

Micaela: 6:51

had a performance review at this point in

Kristen: 6:52

your Never in my life at the time, I think in a way was just like naively confident that I could definitely do that. No idea why. And I thought it was fascinating because I just graduated college. And so I was like, this is basically school for adults. Like I didn't know that existed in a corporate world. Because again, I had no idea like human resources was even a job. I thought people in a corporate office building just did like business, whatever that meant. So it was an immersive experience that I just, learn to love. So I worked with really talented learning and development professionals there. From there, I said, I'm not going to go back to school to get that degree, which I knew I wanted to stay in HR. So I found a generalist opportunity at Equinox because I was like, I know I love learning and development. Let me see what else like HR is all about.

Micaela: 7:40

Do you remember in that first job, like what was it? What was sort of like your aha moment where you're like, oh, I

Kristen: 7:45

could do this? I remember explicitly. So I was like the coordinator of the people who actually like were doing the strategic work of this initiative but they were so gracious to me I was in like all the meetings for context the moment that I was like this is it and I'm not going to go back to school was when I got to actually go in like the train the trainer portion of what the trainings would actually be and see how they were teaching facilitators the frameworks and activities and how to engage the groups in that training and I was like this is so cool this is going to be fun this is going to be a way to like have people connect And I just thought, wow, I didn't know this even existed. And then two, this was like exactly what I felt resonated with me and like what I like doing genuinely outside of what I thought work could even be.

Micaela: 8:39

And I like what you said about connection building. I think about this a lot within the L&D space and just like the working world today. I think folks are craving moments of connection, whether you work virtually or you're in person learning and development is a channel through which people connect right because you're getting vulnerable when you're learning you're like naturally in a vulnerable state because you're like oh there's something I don't know and the other people in the zoom room or in this physical room also don't know it and so you're all sort of having these moments of vulnerability where you're trying to practice we do group coaching and practice at life labs and it's like those are really powerful sessions because yeah folks are sort of opening up about things that they don't know and what they're learning was your role as a at Equinox also in learning and development or what kind of was the next step for you?

Kristen: 9:27

It was an HR generalist role that sat on like the people outside of the house and included components of learning and development. Like I owned onboarding. We still were doing paper I-9s in 2010 or 11. So a lot of the backend administration of getting folks set up in systems. And my role was truly a generalist there. I did a lot of employee relations. We had acquired other businesses at the time. And so I got to experience that and how to bring cultures together. And so it was truly like running and touching kind of all of the sub functions and benefits. And that's when I also realized like I kind of wanted to go deeper on the business partnering side and connecting people to the business while working at a company that I felt like I could have more of an impact because it was pretty large, if you can imagine. So we supported from like the employee relations and business partner side, we supported the corporate office and all of the clubs. So it was like very different. sort of employee groups and thousands of employees.

Micaela: 10:26

At Equinox, the sales folks were consumer facing. They were like in the actual clubs. Gotcha. And very different than sort of the corporate side of the house. What did you kind of notice? Like if you had to coach on how to give feedback, what was something distinct between if you think about like the corporate side and then the more customer facing people?

Kristen: 10:44

So in terms of the corporate side, it was probably more similar to like when I moved on to Squarespace and Harry's because it's just more of the employees that are sitting in the same office and we're all kind of working together on shared initiatives. So I think the coaching there was more around like individual development and sort of like mobility within their role or within their function. Whereas like the club level employees, some of them were aspiring actors or this wasn't like their end all be all fully committed long term career goal. And so there's just different ways that I had to modify like the way in which I coach and understand understand kind of what they want to do in the long term, but also reason with like expectations of while you're here. So there is a balance of like support for like what we need while you're here at work and then how we can help support you. And

Micaela: 11:34

what you were getting at earlier around like what motivates people, I think is so unique and something that people, ops and HR professionals, like really are in tune with in a way that you're kind of typical, like middle managers, not right. Like I think managers oftentimes are more focused on like, well, here's what the business needs. I just need this to get done. And it's sort of like how you get people there is the secret sauce of managing people while sort of weighing the both and. All right, let's shift gears a little bit. I'm really curious to kind of hear about your experience at Squarespace and then we'll get into Global Harry's and Flamingo as well. I want to talk about leading change. I think a lot of our audience can relate to how challenging it is just to be a leader in a world of constant on most relentless change right now. You were at Squarespace during a time of rapid growth. So they went from, I believe it was 125 employees to over a thousand in just three years. Can you tell me a little bit about your experience there, what it was like to lead and support leaders during such quick growth?

Kristen: 12:42

Yes, it was such an exciting time. I really, really loved my time at Squarespace. And it was in the three or three and a half years that I was there, like the best learning experience for that exact reason, like super high growth. We were very clear in what our strategy was and the key folks that we needed to sort of help accelerate some of that growth. In terms of my lessons and things that I've taken away from that high growth period, I think especially on the people side, we had to prioritize what we needed to anticipate the large growth and scale. So from like a people operation standpoint, that means we can't have things in Excel files. Like we need to have employee data in like an actual HRIS system that like can scale with us as we hire 300 employees and make sure that we're kind of compliant in that. We started almost with just like the bare basics to anticipate that change. Like what are some of like the fundamental structural things like we need set in place and then putting all of our heads together on how we were going to actually do that. So we started from a people ops standpoint with some of those systems and onboarding, how we wanted people to kind of understand our culture, how we were going to scale that. Because when anybody joins your organization, it has the ability to change your culture a bit. And so how are we going to get people on board at this high volume and fully grasp what we're about and what we're moving towards? So we spent a lot of intentional time on onboarding. We partnered with LifeLabs a ton in the beginning. We ran manager dens. We had a lot of individuals who had been with the business that were ICs that are now the manager of five people plus adding 10 in the next like six months. So there was a lot of like skilling up of our managers that we had to focus on. A lot of coaching on the business partnering side, like through situations that were definitely in the gray. Like we're moving fast. Everyone's working really hard. It's an exciting time, but mistakes also happen. And how do we normalize like mistakes are okay too, because it was a very innovative and like design creative led culture.

Micaela: 14:48

What do you think, like if you're speaking to somebody who joins and their title is people and they're just like kind of given like the task to build the foundation I heard you say HRIS like what are some of the other structural things that you need to put in place so that you can go from a hundred to a thousand I

Kristen: 15:05

guess like I mentioned having like some structure in place I think when you're in a high growth startup and in the earlier days it's like there's three of us doing the thing right so you me and the other person know what we're doing how do we document those things in a way that it's easily transferable it's more scalable we can create consistency there's also underlying like DEI within that too like making sure that as we scale we're really making sure things are consistent and fair and we're looking at things in the same way and not all moving really fast in way different directions so I think setting up like the system side the documentation and also really defining like what you want your culture to be I think values early on are really important and knowing that your values and your behaviors are going to evolve over time and being okay with that and And not being afraid to kind of call out when you see like from 100 to 300, 300 to 500. Those are usually like the thresholds and moments in which it's time to take a step back and like see if there are key behaviors or anti-behaviors that have come up with that high growth.

Micaela: 16:07

Was part of your job literally putting pen to paper on like what the culture at Squarespace should be? Or was there a play set that was already documented when you came on board? Like how did you go about that process?

Kristen: 16:18

The values already existed. And even when I went to Harry's as well, which when I joined there was at a similar stage, which I think is great. If you're like in a zero to 50 company, like just getting values down early. And like I said, being flexible and understanding and knowing that they will evolve and change over time. Just having something is so helpful, especially for incoming employees. It's also really good for like hiring and understanding like, will this person be successful here? I think if I reflect on some higher mistakes that I've made in the past personally, it's because I didn't spend enough time on like the how and more emphasis on sort of the what and what this person had experience in and what I think they'd be able to accomplish versus how they would get that done. Oh,

Micaela: 17:05

interesting. Yeah. And so I think both of those. How do you assess the how? Like, how do you figure out the way that somebody is going to go about their job or what they're going to bring to the cultures?

Kristen: 17:15

There's a few ways. I think in the hiring process, this is where the values, I think, come in if you have them and making sure they're questions that correlate to behaviors or gets to the root of if collaboration is super important, making sure you're asking for tangible examples in the ways in which they've collaborated in their current role or past roles. I know exercises during interview stage has a lot of mixed reviews. I think as a business partner, when I've hired for people business partners, it has been helpful to give scenarios live in our interview and use that time together to sort of work through and problem solve together. I think that's been able to lead to better outcomes and understanding how this person would like actually go about solving a problem, working and collaborating on what the solution should be and who they would

Micaela: 18:05

work with. That's interesting. So you give them sort of a scenario and then you're listening for here's some of our core values and I want to see if they naturally bring those into the conversation. I listened to an interview with Anthony Casalena, the founder of Squarespace, founder, CEO And it was really interesting. He talked about how he started Squarespace in college, right? So really this amazing sort of entrepreneurial spirit. And he said that he'd never even been an employee at another company. So he didn't have that experience of like building a culture. He talked really specifically about not knowing how to give or receive feedback. And then he brought up one of his early hires, VP of engineering, who really was able to sort of model leadership. for him and model what it means to be a manager and how to kind of practice some of these foundational things that I think deeply influenced the culture of a place. So I'm really curious, like, were you there sort of during that era at Squarespace? Did you see some of this unfold?

Kristen: 19:09

Yes, yes. My manager had been there as well, Chris Passett. Shout out to her. She was great. She was the former chief people officer there as well. Was there in the very early days. And I think she was able to actually work really closely with him on some of those changes for himself and learnings because he hadn't worked at another company prior or even led any individuals really besides himself. He was really like a one-man show for a long time. I think what Anthony did so well was hire leaders and surround himself with people he could learn from and also lean on. And I would even say Chris Bassett, my former manager, was one of them as well. She took the initiative to work with LifeLabs too. Yeah, yeah. In like those really early days and identified that we had a lot of people managers in the same position that he was. Very like green junior in the people management space, moving from peer to now leader and what that means for them and how they have to show up in a very differentiated way. And I think that was really helpful. And I think a good moment of vulnerability too for like a CEO and co-founder to admit when you don't know something, like raise your hand. And I've seen that even in my time at Aries and Flamingo as well, like the co-founders and CEOs we have have that same mentality. And I think that's actually really valuable in the most senior leader in an organization, really identifying their gaps and being transparent about how they're working on them and going to help.

Micaela: 20:34

And bringing in people who've sort of done it before or have more expertise in that area. There's a really interesting thread throughout your career where you've worked with a number of really successful founder CEOs. So I'm sort of curious if you could tell us a What impact a founder CEO has on identifying the values, setting up the values, but then the overall culture of a workplace as it scales?

Kristen: 21:02

The short answer is significant impact. I think the business, in my experience, is a reflection of the values of the CEO and co-founder, if they are still involved in the organization, trickle down. And I think I've been lucky working at these past businesses that the co-founders and CEOs have been very involved still in that business. And I know at Harry's, Jeff and Andy are very involved and really put people first. And I think that's really helped us in terms of evolving with all of the change and growth and being there for the past seven years. I've seen so many different iterations of what's made us successful to date. And I think it's a testament to their involvement and really making sure we're embedding the right values set and behaviors that we need at that point in time in the business. And I think it's a reflection of them as humans, like they're genuinely like such good people. And I think that translates throughout and in some of our programs, like our social impact, the parental leave policy, like I was talking about previously.

Micaela: 22:09

All right, let's shift gears here and talk about your current role. Harry's is well known for taking a people first approach to really everything they do. So really curious to kind of hear about your experience there. Tell me a little bit about this failed acquisition. Is that how you refer to it internally? What do y'all call it? We

Kristen: 22:27

don't really talk about it anymore. It feels like a very distant memory, maybe intentional or not. That was an interesting time. It was right before the pandemic. And we were set to be acquired by Edgewell, which is a large CPG company that owns multiple, multiple brands. There were a lot of mixed feelings when that announcement officially went out internally because Harry's historically and still current day it's like we are the small guys compared to you know the big Gillette's of the world right and we're trying to like innovate and do something new in a space that hasn't been tapped in a while and so then to be acquired or potentially acquired by a business that has been around for a long time is much larger was kind of a what is this about moment and what

Micaela: 23:17

happened with the acquisition why didn't go through

Kristen: 23:19

essentially It was determined to be a potential monopoly. And that came with its own challenges. I think for the people that were heavily involved in the work and the culture transformation, how we were going to do this, there's like a bit of grieving for this work that you did for the past year. Yes, it was

Micaela: 23:38

sunk cost.

Kristen: 23:40

Exactly. And then there's also like a bit of joy because you're like, oh, we can just kind of stay like how we were like grooving, right? Like we were happy with what was going on before. Jeff and Andy did a really good job of being like vulnerable and transparent about that and also kind of open about how they were feeling about it like they had worked on this business longer than all of us right and so like for them they also personally had a lot of mixed feelings prior throughout and now post this situation.

Micaela: 24:10

Okay shifting gears here we've talked about your background at Squarespace and Harry's and some of these kind of big sweeping changes I'd love to hear about within the past couple of years or the past year. What is a huge challenge that Harry's has faced, especially in relation to people, culture, or leadership?

Kristen: 24:30

I think in recent years, the biggest challenge has been more stable and steady growth. I think there were points in time where we were hiring like all the time, like new hire swabs of 20 people in a cohort. And it's pretty stable now. I we've been hyper-focused on making sure from a people perspective, we're building organizations that are healthier and learning from some of either the mistakes or things that we could have handled in different ways. And so with that, I think we've been intentional about roles, backfills, like making sure that we're truly hiring the right talent that we need at this point in our business to accomplish that strategy. That's pretty clear now.

Micaela: 25:19

You mentioned earlier that there's been quite the focus on high-performing teams. And I'd love to hear about kind of the origins of that and then where you are today as well.

Kristen: 25:29

Yes. About a year and a half ago, Jeff, as he always does, has really great and amazing ideas. And he was like, there needs to be a very key shift in how the teams are working together. So we were having some challenges with cross-functional collaboration specifically. And we had run an engagement survey that also told us that we're in too many meetings that the leadership team is asking for way too many like analytics and input and decisions are unclear just like the way we get things done is super slow and it's also impacting our ability to innovate and that's not great and

Micaela: 26:09

this came from direct feedback from employees

Kristen: 26:11

yes

Micaela: 26:11

interesting

Kristen: 26:12

engagement survey feedback our engagement surveys always have at least 95% participation so they're like highly engaged in that survey and we have typically like anywhere from 2,000 to 3,000 comments. Yeah, so our employees take the survey really seriously and we take it really seriously. There's always actions that come out of it. And so with that, we started this high-performing teams initiative, which in hindsight, and I can go through this too, so many learnings with the rollout of that cultural shift that we were hoping to do in service of the results that we received and in a way that felt organic to our culture and how we wanted to people to collaborate. So we focused on three core areas, collaboration, conviction, and ownership. We tried to narrow it down to like three quick things people can like remember and recall. And then we had a set of activities to try and help make impact. So conviction really was with the insights and data and just like overload of analyzing stuff, which slowed us down.

Micaela: 27:13

Almost the opposite of like a gut reaction. So it's much more about just like a ton of information to be able to make a decision was the challenge that you trying to solve for.

Kristen: 27:21

Exactly. And moving more with urgency and being able to take a risk. That was one of our lowest scoring statements was around feeling comfortable taking risks and making mistakes. Psychological safety and ability to even do that was something I think we realized like we were all a part of being the problem. So let's like try and fix that. We have a framework for decision making like a lot of companies do. We use rapid and DRI, directly responsible individual. And it's helped us really like identify to the third pillar I mentioned, owner like who owns the thing that is able to just like full force get the right people in the room at the right time ask the questions and move as quickly as possible and I think our culture you know you always have the shadow side to the values and behaviors you want to see so we were very all in all together was one of our values and I think it was around a lot of inclusivity in terms of input so the meeting rooms were full of people and as we scaled and added more people the the room just got bigger and bigger, and there were more ideas and more opinions, and that really slowed us down. And so I think really enabling individuals to own and identify who the right people were to give input at the right time helped us kind of slim down those rooms. But that comes with its own challenges, because now people are like, why am I not in that meeting anymore? And that impacts my day to day, and so I deserve to be in that room. And I think we're still on the change curve a little bit meetings in general and like who gives input and when. And I think that's something like maybe will always be a problem or something we have to work through. But it's a real focus for this year's meeting effectiveness and utilizing our time in and out of meetings and how we want that to be done.

Micaela: 29:08

That's interesting. So tell me about how it is decided at Harry's. Like how do they decide sort of who's in the room at a meeting? Is that the driver of the project that's really sitting down and saying these are the people that I I need in the space at the time?

Kristen: 29:22

Yes. Now that we've defined more of the DRI, directly responsible individual, it's more of that individual than coming from the top down. Interesting. Yeah. So the people actually doing the work, being able to define how to accomplish the outcome that is set out by whoever the decision maker or ultimate senior leader who's responsible for it has to do. I think another thing that really helped us, and this was as part of, we did listening circles after the engagement survey to really like understand where that cross-functional collaboration was falling short and we got a lot of feedback that like managers were being too directive or not directive enough and so we rolled out situational leadership it's essentially like a two by two plot and it's about supporting behaviors versus directive behaviors and it's like four quadrants s1 s2 s3 s4 each of them allows the ability to have a shared like lexicon between you and your manager on what their involvement will be. So if you're my manager and you've given me this project that I've never done before, you're going to be an S1 because you're going to have to be pretty directive with me because I've never done it before, but also pretty highly supportive, right? And so knowing that actually at the upfront really helps my ability to do the work and know why you're going to be in all those meetings. We've seen a lot of impact with using like just calling the thing the thing and Instead of having all these pent up anxieties or like feelings of why am I not or in the room

Micaela: 30:56

at that time. That's really interesting. So like within that framework, if it's brand new to the person driving on it, their manager is going to be a little bit more involved. But if it's perhaps something that they've done before or they're really an expert in it, then they don't need as much directive. Right. And they're actually delegated to make more of those decisions. So it's almost like in the planning then of the projects as well. It looks like there's more of a lift to really identify like who's driving on this and who's got the decision making and who needs to have input and who actually doesn't. And then trusting, trusting the process, trusting that you brought the right people in to be able to sort of do the work at hand. I'd love to go back. So you mentioned there's three different categories that you were thinking about within high performing teams. So it was conviction was the first one. And

Kristen: 31:40

then the other two, collaboration and ownership

Micaela: 31:43

and ownership. And were there like specific initiatives within each of those three that you really rolled out programs around or what did that look like?

Kristen: 31:50

So we Within ownership, the situational leadership framework actually came through ownership. So how you own the project, how your manager is going to support you, what your role is as the directly responsible individual or the PM of that program. Through conviction, so this was like the, you know, over analysis sort of bucket.

Micaela: 32:08

And this was coming from employee feedback again, that they just felt like there was too many voices in the room in addition to like just a lot of data coming at them. And it was hard to sort of make decisions. Exactly.

Kristen: 32:21

And then it would create like total spin for the team because they thought they were going into a meeting with the most senior leader to basically say like sign off and thumbs up. And then there'd be a ton of questions that was like bringing us back to phase two of what the project was, which was an anti-goal of moving fast, innovating and taking risks. So within Conviction, we like created real guardrails, especially around our NPI process, which is our new product innovation process. There's very clear structure and gates for that process. but making sure there was also like flexibility if and when needed and clearly defining roles and responsibilities. So the other thing we saw is that the decider at the upfront, their manager or manager's manager, all of a sudden, like it felt like it switched, is now involved asking the detailed questions. And it's like, well, I already went through the right folks, I thought. And now I'm having to work with this totally different level of leader. So we've also tried to minimize that from happening.

Micaela: 33:19

What has that been like for the leadership team because it sounds like they've had to kind of get out of the weeds

Kristen: 33:24

oh yeah we had a pretty honest offsite last year where we kind of looked around the room and it's like you know like Taylor Swift like I'm the problem it's me like we need to get it together like we're the ones actually creating this like spin within our organizations where they feel like they can't collaborate effectively like move with urgency or innovate and so we actually started with that group like root causing like why we do that is because we don't trust the individuals who are doing the thing is it because we as ourselves need to like share the Legos a bit and make sure we're like fully dedicating and not being the reason why people are really demotivated by their involvement so yeah we started with ourselves in our group and we had a full off site with like full vulnerability and transparency on on some of the anti behaviors and we shared those anti behaviors with the whole organization and like fully owned The fact that like all of the feedback we heard from you in the engagement survey like starts with us. And so we had our own kind of action plan as a leadership team. And then we identified sort of the actions that would.

Micaela: 34:32

Was there any resistance? Was there anybody in the team that was just like, no, this is like how I go about things or listen, the reason I ask probing questions is because I get, you know, unexpected answers. Or was it pretty seamless? Like were folks like, no, I understand that this is holding us back.

Kristen: 34:48

I think they agreed with everything. we said in terms of like what we thought was causing it the one I don't know if it's disagreement but hesitation was like will you really stick to your word like hard for me to believe like yes you say it now but like actions speak louder than words so like will you really not be in the room like will you really be able to hold back giving your input on something that's like critical and you care about deeply so yeah so there was a lot of like speculation and we're still learning into it like any behavioral change it takes time it takes rest it takes being direct with when things go well or not well. So we're iterating on that for 2025 and what that looks like through that initiative. The other thing that was a little bit confusing and I think a learning for me with high performing teams was we referenced it as that. And I think people were like, what does that mean for me as an individual? So using team as the term and the collective aspect of just even those words was confusing. And I think we didn't think of it as confusing in all of our comms, but it was clear when it came to performance reviews or follow-up pulse surveys where we pulsed on high-performing teams, understanding how you as an individual could show up in the collection of the team was something that was missing.

Micaela: 36:05

Interesting. Folks were looking for it to be a little bit more explicit about their

Kristen: 36:09

role. Yes. And so we, for 2025, kind of planned more of what it looks like for you to show up as an individual, what behaviors you can be exhibiting, how you run a meeting and being pretty clear about those things which ladders up to the collective high performance of this team. And then you get to

Micaela: 36:28

a truly high performing team. You have brought your partnerships with LifeLabs Learning from Squarespace over to Harry's as well. I'd love to hear a little bit about that. Tell me about the secret sauce. What is it about LifeLabs that has worked well for you? How have you deployed some of the training? A

Kristen: 36:45

great question. I am obviously a super fan of LifeLabs So at Squarespace, we started mostly around like leadership development early on. As I mentioned, there were a lot of like ICs to people manager transitions, folks that were formerly peers that now became the leader. And so there was a lot of upskilling. And so our main focus was really around the core manager cohorts. We also at Squarespace did a lot of IC trainings as well. And that was part of our L&D sort of strategy is to have these these opt-in sessions to understand where folks wanted to engage, where folks wanted to learn. And so LifeLabs really helped partner with us. LifeLabs is really good at modifying content to really fit where we were and the culture. And so they really were collaborative in working with us on especially those IC2 trainings every two months and the opt-ins and engagement we got from those, which in itself kind of helped us inform our L&D strategies, I think. back and reflect on where folks really enjoyed and engaged in like what content really stuck with them that we saw come sort of be part of our culture and how we spoke which then at Harry's and even to this day like the feedback framework like diamonds hearts spades the three to one affirmation like positive feedback to constructive feedback we still use that and that existed actually like when I started at Harry's seven years ago so that training happened very early on when the company was still super small and really stuck with those individuals that then translated to new people who started and I think that's what's been so great working with LifeLabs is like the frameworks while I'm sure have are so grounded and rooted in like academic and education and like data and all of those things it's like so approachable and absorbed by all leaders throughout the organization like even Jeff as the CEO like uses those frameworks as everyone else does. And so the content I think has been able to translate in those cultures in particular with the frameworks that we leverage today. And we've kind of woven throughout even some of our processes and how we speak. So it's also very complementary to our values. Interesting. So embrace the mammoths is one of our core values. It's also an aspirational value because giving feedback is always like hard. And I think having like the framework of the spades, the diamonds, the hearts and understanding like when to use those and how to structure. I hear blur words a lot, which was part of an exercise of that training as well, I believe. So yeah, it's really, it's like the stickiness of the content that feels approachable and easy to kind of replicate within our culture that exists.

Micaela: 39:36

Yeah. And what you're sharing about that shared language is actually so central because then instead of so many different models or different people having different ways that they're going about it, like you literally mentioned from the CEO down, Everybody has a shared vernacular that they can reference and it almost creates a sense of safety because you're like, okay, like we're all having a similar conversation here and clarity for employees, which I think folks really, really crave. Can you think of any like specific individuals, you can name them or not, that went through LifeLabs training and it made a difference? Like I'd love to hear if there's like a story that comes to mind, whether a leader, an individual contributor, a manager, like somebody that you're like, I need them to go through some of this foundational training and it made an impact.

Kristen: 40:25

Actually, we were talking about this earlier, the change management training. So during the time that we were going through the acquisition with Edgewell, we engaged with LifeLabs department And this was, I think, right after like the press release that it was like becoming a thing. And we started with the VP plus group. So joining us at our VP offsite to share some of the content and frameworks of like the change management curve. And I think they themselves for the first time realized what stage they were at for themselves, because, you know, as a leader, you have to show up and like present and make sure like you have clarity for your team. and sometimes you kind of just like forget to put your own oxygen mask on yeah and in that forum I think when it was just like the smaller core group and with Life Labs helping to facilitate again like a framework that felt very approachable and relatable in that moment it was really helpful and impactful for some of the VP leaders in there I remember having some one-to-ones after that and just their self-reflections were way deeper than I think they even realized for themselves and they were to name a thing a thing with the change curve.

Micaela: 41:38

And maybe not feel so alone in it either, right? Because I think when you're in those peer-to-peer conversations, you can also open up a bit more and be a bit more vulnerable, which is helpful because you can be really isolating, right? Like being in leadership roles, I think a lot of us, it's like you can feel very much on your own, but then if you're like, oh, somebody else is having a similar experience, you kind of feel the same way I do about this. Like those are real moments of connection when otherwise you might just be really isolated. To kind of wrap us up today, we've got a lot of leaders listening in who have their own moment where they've probably identified a tipping point, something that needs to shift within culture, at their company, whether that's at the leadership level, at the individual contributor level, for their managers. I am curious, from your perspective, what small shift would you recommend that they start with that could have a big impact on their team's performance I think

Kristen: 42:34

a small shift is, and I feel like this is maybe like the obvious answer, but it's like leading with vulnerability in those moments. The tipping point moments is like pretty important. And I think actually it ends up allowing you to accelerate any type of change later on. Because usually if you're feeling that tipping point, somebody else on your team is too. Either the leaders that report to you or your manager that is observing things. And so saying out loud that you see something or don't feel great about something, I think provides like that relatability, even when it's something that isn't so pleasant or great to say out loud. And then I think some activities, I guess it obviously depends on the situation itself. But what I've seen really effective with leadership teams and leaders going through and observing what that tipping point is, is bringing folks intentionally together and trying to keep the room as small as possible. as you can to be able to have like open and transparent conversations, whether it's to get their input, understand kind of what's going on a bit better, or even like just get their help in thinking through that solution with you, I think is really impactful.

Micaela: 43:48

So you talked about really encouraging leaders to lead with vulnerability and set the stage for their teams and for the organization through almost like modeling that like they're at the sort of inflection moment and they may not have all the answers, which I think is actually really interesting. Like I've seen leaders say the words, I do not know. And I think you use that selectively as a leader, right? I think there's a world in which to say, I don't know, but we're going to figure it out together. I don't know, but here's the path forward. And you also talked a little bit about giving leaders and managers spaces where they can connect with one another. And it's a different type of vulnerability than they might have with their direct reports or the folks looking up to them. So I think a lot of that can be super applicable and actually helpful for folks just to think through the intentionality.

Kristen: 44:41

Exactly. And I think it's important, like I said, I guess you start depending on the change, like you start with those I think closest.

Micaela: 44:51

Yes.

Kristen: 44:52

So if it is your direct reports and getting their understanding and keeping it like tight, like I said, so that it has that space for vulnerability, I think is really important. I I think also talking out loud about what that tipping point is sometimes like helps you almost form your answer or provide like more clarity for you and yourself, which makes you more confident and actually communicating it when it has to become visible to more than just a tight group. And so I think there's multiple benefits to it's hard to be vulnerable and transparent. And obviously, you still have to do it in a delicate way, depending on the audience you're going to engage in that conversation with. But I think it's important. And like I said, I think it helps just effectuate the change and move through that change curve a little bit easier.

Micaela: 45:39

Thank you so much for joining us today, Kristen. This has been wonderful. I've really enjoyed the conversation, all the ins and outs of it. If the audience is interested in reaching out to you, if folks have follow-up questions, where's the best place to find Kristen?

Kristen: 45:53

You could find me on LinkedIn, Kristen Correa Blanco. And

Micaela: 45:57

we are so grateful to have had the chance to work with Harry's as well. And I think it's been such an awesome partnership for LifeLabs and I'm really excited to now have your story captured

Kristen: 46:07

as well. And us as well. Thank you so much. This has been so fun. Yes, likewise.