Hallmark VP Kristen Harris: Second Chapters; How I Reinvented Myself In The Second Chapter Of My Life

An Interview With Pirie Jones Grossman

The importance of being a role model when you step into a leadership position. When I first transitioned into my current role, I was the only African-American female executive at Hallmark and I was also one of the youngest people in a VP role. When you come into a leadership position, it’s important to recognize that people are watching you and looking at you as their example. You have a great responsibility to reach back and create a pathway for others to come behind you.

Many successful people reinvented themselves in a later period in their lives. Jeff Bezos worked in Wall Street before he reinvented himself and started Amazon. Sara Blakely sold office supplies before she started Spanx. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was a WWE wrestler before he became a successful actor and filmmaker. Arnold Schwarzenegger went from a bodybuilder, to an actor to a Governor. McDonald’s founder Ray Kroc was a milkshake-device salesman before starting the McDonalds franchise in his 50's.

How does one reinvent themselves? What hurdles have to be overcome to take life in a new direction? How do you overcome those challenges? How do you ignore the naysayers? How do you push through the paralyzing fear?

In this series called “Second Chapters; How I Reinvented Myself In The Second Chapter Of My Life “ we are interviewing successful people who reinvented themselves in a second chapter in life, to share their story and help empower others.

As a part of this interview series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Kristen Harris.

Kristen Harris is the Vice President of Diversity & Inclusion for Hallmark. She was on a career track in operations at Hallmark when the events of the summer of 2020 — along with the stress of homeschooling while working from home during the Covid-19 pandemic — caused her to re-examine her career path and seek something more purposeful. This journey led to the creation of her new role as Hallmark’s first-ever Vice President of Diversity & Inclusion.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we start, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood backstory?

My parents are very committed to education and self-betterment. I watched from a young age as my mom worked hard to advance her career¸ making sacrifices for me and my family. No matter what, she always had an eye on what was best for us long-term. My family is small and they rallied around my mom to support her in her career, with my grandparents on both sides helping out.

Because of this, I grew going back and forth between the coasts and the Midwest — Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Arizona, Kansas and Arkansas — before landing in Kansas City, where I live now. I’m made up of so many places, and because we moved around a lot, I’m resilient in terms of my ability to meet new people and enter new situations.

This experience and the example set by my family showed me the importance of not only prioritizing and doing your best to keep your family close, but also of spreading your wings. I live by the idea of doing anything.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

“Sometimes you have to have faith and take a leap.”

I truly believe that things will fall into place if you believe in yourself and are willing to do what you know is right for you. Following my mom’s example, I have bet on myself multiple times throughout my life and career, and it has always worked out.

Just before I was supposed to start my first year of college at Kansas State University, I went to the University of Arkansas for a summer program. After the summer program, I realized that the University of Arkansas was a better fit for me, so I decided to stay. It wasn’t an easy decision to make, but I knew it was the right path for me and it ultimately opened doors that led to my career at Hallmark.

You have been blessed with much success. In your opinion, what are the top three qualities that you possess that have helped you accomplish so much? If you can, please share a story or example for each.

Success isn’t built in a day. In today’s culture, it seems like success and fame happen overnight, but that’s really not the case for the vast majority of people. Here are the top three qualities that have contributed to my success:

• Determination: I have a degree in engineering, which wasn’t the easiest path, but it taught me a strong work ethic that I’ve carried with me throughout my career.

I was always a tinkerer, I liked to take things apart and put them back together. When I went to college, I started out in mechanical engineering and hated it. I also didn’t feel like I fit in, so I tried to leave the college of engineering and transfer to the business school. The dean of the engineering school knew me, and when I tried to transfer out, he got my paperwork and hit the brakes. He sat me down and told me that I could look through my options, but that I needed to finish my engineering degree.

Because of this, I found industrial engineering — it was a discipline that was much broader — allowing me to use my creativity and people skills. It was also much more diverse in its representation of women and other groups. I needed that push to focus and find something that was a better fit for me, and I’m so glad that I stuck with engineering.

• Passion: Passion isn’t just about feelings, it’s also about follow-through. When you care deeply enough about something, you’ll dig deep and work hard at it, even when it’s difficult.

My passion for and commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion was part of why I resigned from Hallmark. The passion was driving me to know that I was a bit restless, and that somehow my passion and purpose had gotten flipped upside down. My priorities were out of order.

I used the time to pour myself into community service. I was helping those affected by the pandemic and the recession, and it was the happiest I’d ever been. I was bringing this passion to life in my community service when my current job became an option, and I knew it was the right thing to do. It was the perfect role for merging my passion with my purpose.

• Care and Empathy: There are people out there who will tell you that the business world is cutthroat, but that hasn’t been my experience. I care deeply about all of my colleagues and I want them to succeed. I didn’t get to where I am by stepping on people — I got there by caring about them.

Care and empathy are what carries me through today, why I wake up and do this job and know that it’s meaningful and impactful. I care about our employees, it’s what drives me, what gives me energy. Because I was a manager and supervisor first in my old role, I know what it’s like to be on the receiving end. My current role is more about putting caring and empathy first. When caring and empathy are prioritized, people have a positive experience. When they aren’t, people leave the organization.

Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion about ‘Second Chapters’. Can you tell our readers about your career experience before your Second Chapter?

I have an engineering background and I started my career as a procurement intern at Hallmark. After my internship, I became the first Hallmark employee ever hired into a buyer role directly out of college. Ultimately my transition was so successful that Hallmark repeated this hiring model for other interns. But as the first on this path, and as an African-American female, I wanted to set an example for others. I joined the Hallmark African-American leadership council and developed the company’s first millennial employee resource group. I’ve always had an interest in helping our workplace become more diverse and inclusive, it just happens that I started my career in a different field.

And how did you “reinvent yourself” in your Second Chapter?

After working in procurement, I switched to an engineering role and then eventually landed in a career track in operations that involved a lot of travel. It was exhausting, but I loved my role. When the pandemic hit, the travel stopped but I was suddenly homeschooling my kids while working from home. I’m not going to lie — it was really tough, and when the events of last summer unfolded, I started questioning my path.

Can you tell us about the specific trigger that made you decide that you were going to “take the plunge” and make your huge transition?

One day I was presenting on an important customer call when I heard a loud smash and crying. I had to make a split second decision on whether to run to my child or stay on the call.

It was a revelation because I realized I couldn’t play both roles as successfully as I had been, so I submitted my resignation. I wanted to spend more time with my family, and with everything happening in the national discourse last summer, I wanted to do something more purposeful.

But as it turns out, my resignation would never be processed.

What did you do to discover that you had a new skillset inside of you that you haven’t been maximizing? How did you find that and how did you ultimately overcome the barriers to help manifest those powers?

I’d been involved in Diversity & Inclusion committees throughout my years as a working professional, so D&I was always part of my professional life. It had never occurred to me that what I was doing on the side could add up to something bigger until the events of summer 2020 unfolded.

After submitting my resignation to Hallmark, I started volunteering in the community and doing my part to make a difference in the world. While I was volunteering, Hallmark came back to me and offered me a consulting position to help reframe the D&I role at the company. Little did I know that I was actually writing my own job description. After I submitted my work, I was offered the job, and decided to make a difference by taking on the role of Vice President of Diversity and Inclusion.

How are things going with this new initiative? We would love to hear some specific examples or stories.

It’s been a journey — as the first VP of D&I at Hallmark, I was creating a role from the ground-up. While we’ve had D&I leadership at Hallmark in the past, recent changes in our organization’s structure provided an opportunity to hit the reset button on the role.

At the same time, we were evolving Hallmark’s D&I strategy and elevating it across the Hallmark enterprise to Crayola and Crown Media. Each brand has its own culture and way of operating, and my job involved figuring out how to bridge the cultures between the brands and unify them all behind our D&I framework. It can be a challenge and we don’t always do it perfectly, but we’re making progress daily and that’s what really matters.

Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

We have a lot of women leaders at Hallmark, and it’s not uncommon to have senior women leaders who are willing to give back. But there is one leader at Hallmark who really stood up for me.

At the beginning of my career, I was following in the footsteps of a Hallmark colleague who leads our supply chain organization. She and I have both had the same roles at Hallmark over the years, and I always admired her leadership style. When I started working at our distribution center as a supervisor — which was a new role for me — she was a great voice of reason for me. It was the first time I was leading employees who were multiple levels below and above me, and despite being based in Asia at the time, she would take the time to help me strategize and build up my confidence to be a leader and influencer.

I still model some of my leadership behaviors off what she taught me, and I’m so grateful to have a mentor like her.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started in this new direction?

When I took this job, I couldn’t have imagined what the role would truly be like. My job is incredibly varied and no day is the same. I can try to plan out what my week looks like, but it’ll usually turn out totally different. One moment I might be reviewing copy for a social media post, the next I’m building D&I metrics for our CEO and Board of Directors.

Cancel culture can be real. Sometimes we don’t get it right, and you have to rebuild trust with consumers and employees. We can apologize, but what’s important is to do better moving forward. We’re bringing in more voices to make sure we’re adapting in a way that’s authentic, and incorporating the Hallmark brand and our D&I ethos into Crown Media and Crayola. It’s not going to be done in a day, but it’s important to keep improving and doing better by our customers, employees and community at large.

Did you ever struggle with believing in yourself? If so, how did you overcome that limiting belief about yourself? Can you share a story or example?

Imposter syndrome is real. It’s something that all people face, but I think it shows up differently for women and women of color. We’re dealing with many micro-aggressions that can chip away at you — I call it death by a million mosquito bites.

It wears on you when you’re working harder than others to succeed. People of color have more stress, are more pre-disposed to health conditions because life is hard. It can show up in the workplace as diminished confidence and lack of engagement.

When I was first offered the role of VP of D&I at Hallmark, I didn’t immediately jump to accept it. I knew it was going to be a heavy weight to carry, and I really had to think hard about the decision. Ultimately it was the support of my colleagues that helped me take the leap into a new career. They were saying, if not you, then who? The role required someone who has love for the Hallmark brand, a deep understanding of our culture and experience with Hallmark’s ERG and inclusion work. And after giving it some serious thought and realizing that our leaders believed there truly was no one else better suited for the role in that moment, I stepped up and made it happen.

In my own work I usually encourage my clients to ask for support before they embark on something new. How did you create your support system before you moved to your new chapter?

As a long-time Hallmark employee, I’ve established many positive relationships with others throughout the company through my involvement with employee resource groups, D&I initiatives and going to networking and team-building events. My involvement in the company laid the groundwork for my role in ways that I couldn’t have anticipated or planned for. I made friends with colleagues across Hallmark, Crown Media and Crayola, even up to the C-suite level. This built-in support system meant that when I tried to resign, my colleagues at Hallmark wouldn’t accept it and instead found a way for me to live out my purpose and passion through my work.

Starting a new chapter usually means getting out of your comfort zone, how did you do that? Can you share a story or example of that?

Submitting my resignation to Hallmark was one of the hardest things I’ve done in my career. I started at Hallmark straight out of college and it’s the only company I’ve ever worked for. When you’ve been working at a company for that long, your colleagues are more than just the people you work with — they’re your friends, your family, your community.

It was so difficult to push that button, but it was the catalyst I needed to make a change.

Fortunately, my community at Hallmark felt strongly about keeping me, so they found a way to help me merge my passion and purpose with my career.

What are your “5 things I wish someone told me before I started leading my organization” and why? Please share a story or example for each.

1. This is the great negotiation — not just at work but at all things. You have the right to negotiate what you want for your life with your organization. You have a degree of ability to create and make your life what you want it to be, in terms of your work life, home life and how you spend your free time. Before I started in my current position, I would let sometimes let my stress levels overwhelm me. Now, if there’s something in my life that’s stressing me out, I know I need to counter it by doing something to destress, like taking my dog for a walk.
2. Changing your career is an opportunity to integrate your work and your life. One of the big reasons I made my career change was to spend more time with my family. Making the leap provided an opportunity to hit the reset button. At the same time, I love staying busy, and it’s hard to say no. I want to be successful at everything I do, and at first, I wasn’t sure if I could be an amazing wife, mother, Hallmark employee and community advocate. And if I’m not going to be successful at all of them, something’s got it to give. These days, I fully acknowledge that I’m not going to make it to every single one of my kids’ golf tournaments or baseball games, but I’ll make it to the ones where they need my support.
3. Evolving a culture is a process and it takes time. We often think that if change doesn’t happen immediately, it’s a lost cause. But when it comes to evolving a culture — especially with regard to changing mindsets around D&I — it takes time and you need to be patient. Measure progress in weeks and months, not days. Bring people along the way. You don’t change a culture by saying you’re going to change a culture. People make up the culture, you have to touch every heart and mind.
4. Stop and celebrate your successes along the way. It’s important not to get so caught up in your work that you don’t have time to stop and celebrate when you hit a milestone. Take a moment to breathe, grab some energy to keep moving forward. Because otherwise you think you’re not making progress when you really are. From a D&I perspective, I’ve learned to celebrate even the small victories. If I can get five people to participate in a program or change their behavior in a positive way, I stop and celebrate that, because it’s five more than yesterday.
5. The importance of being a role model when you step into a leadership position. When I first transitioned into my current role, I was the only African-American female executive at Hallmark and I was also one of the youngest people in a VP role. When you come into a leadership position, it’s important to recognize that people are watching you and looking at you as their example. You have a great responsibility to reach back and create a pathway for others to come behind you.

I wish that I’d been told about this so I could be prepared to be a role model and mentor from day one. As you’re ascending, one day you turn around realize that you’re in a role that people are trying to get into, and I want to give back in a way that others gave to me.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?

You shouldn’t treat people how you want to be treated; you should treat people how they want to be treated. Just because something doesn’t bother me, doesn’t mean it doesn’t impact someone else.

We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them. :-)

I would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with the co-CEO’s and global head of D&I at Netflix. They are business geniuses, having transformed the entertainment industry and led their organization through so much change and growth while prioritizing D&I from a global lens.

I’m fascinated with the Netflix business model and how much they’ve accomplished over the last several years, especially from a customization perspective. It’s truly impressive how they know what their consumers want and are able to talk to them about what they want, which is something few companies have mastered.

Personally, I also love how Netflix’s storytelling takes people to new places and teaches them about other cultures. My daughter and I love watching movies that are filmed in other countries and in native languages — it really opens your eyes to the experiences of others around the world.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

You can follow me on LinkedIn.

Thank you so much for sharing these important insights. We wish you continued success and good health!