The LeaderLab: Powered by LifeLabs Learning – Details, episodes & analysis

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

The LeaderLab Podcast is back — with a fresh twist. Originally launched over five years ago by a passionate group of Labmates at LifeLabs Learning, this podcast quickly became a go-to resource for bite-sized leadership skills.

Now, we’re relaunching with the same beloved format — short, practical episodes — plus a new layer: candid conversations with senior people leaders. You'll hear from LifeLabs facilitators teaching our signature Tipping Point Skills™, and from real-world changemakers tackling today’s toughest leadership challenges.

Still quick. Still actionable. Now with even deeper insight.

How can you ensure the systems and practices that are scaling alongside your business stay as inclusive and anti-biased as possible? This week, Vanessa is joined by Ashley Schwedt, LifeLabs Learning’s Director of IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Anti-bias), to discuss one of her favorite tools: a DEI checklist for systems that we refer to as the FAIR framework. 

Want to help your organization grow kind? Get in touch with us to find out which learning experiences are right for your team.

How does your company convert information into knowledge that’s accessible org-wide? The LeaderLab invites Brian Dann, certified Knowledge Manager, and Katya Davydova, author and leadership facilitator, to share the 4D Model of Knowledge Management. Brian, Katya, and Vanessa discuss how this tool helps companies organize, socialize, and deepen their knowledge base at scale even during times of rapid growth. 

Want to help your organization grow kind? Get in touch with us to find out which learning experiences are right for your team. 

[Music by Blue Dot Sessions]

Is your company intentionally and accurately prioritizing the needs of the business? The LeaderLab invites Robyn Long, LifeLabs Learning’s Chief of Staff and Business Operations Strategist, to share one of her favorite calibration tools with our listeners: the Business Priority Score (BPS) system. Robyn and Vanessa discuss how this tool helps companies grow sustainably as they scale by clarifying company-wide goals and taking action on the highest-priority projects first.   

Want to help your organization grow kind? Get in touch with us to find out which learning experiences are right for your team. 

[Music by Blue Dot Sessions]

The LeaderLab Podcast is BACK for a brand new season! To kick things off, The LeaderLab invites listeners into an intimate conversation with LifeLabs Learning’s new CEO, Priscila Bala. Vanessa and Priscila’s conversation spans both the personal and organizational as the two discuss the journey of change leadership and the vision we’ve identified to shape the company’s evolution as we enter a phase of intentional hypergrowth: growing kind.

Want to help your organization grow kind? Get in touch with us to find out which learning experiences are right for your team. 

[Music by Blue Dot Sessions]

Our mission at LifeLabs Learning is to help people master life’s most useful skills — and since we spend half of our lives at work, we like to think of the workplace as a practice lab for these skills.

In this season's final episode, LifeLabs Learning Co-CEOs LeeAnn Renninger and Tania Luna share LifeLabs' origin story, and how we’ve navigated the extraordinary changes the last two years presented, all while growing the business, supporting other organizations, and distilling what we’ve learned into our new book: The Leader Lab: CORE Skills to Become a Great Manager, Faster.

Wanna dig deeper? Get your copy of The Leader Lab: CORE Skills to Become a Great Manager, Faster anywhere books are sold.  

SuperInfluencers are wildly impactful. In this special episode of the LeaderLab, we invite our guests back into the lab to share more about the pivotal skills SuperInflueners use to catalyze outcomes in their organizations.

Do you ever feel like your ideas aren't taken seriously? Or that it's hard to feel a sense of progress or accomplishment? Learn how SuperInfluencers use the gap analysis to strategize about what gets done and how to measure if it's been successful.

Wanna dig a bit deeper? Check out the research referenced in this episode:

Dorie Clark, "If strategy is so important, why don't we make time for it?" Harvard Business Review, June 21, 2018

Nathan Wiita and Orla Leonard, "How the Most Successful Teams Bridge the Strategy-Execution Gap", November 23, 2017

Feeling stuck or noticing others getting in their own way? Learn how SuperInfluencers use the transformative Need-Forward skill to create positivity and progress for themselves and others.

Our guest Grace Pfisterer is also a Leadership Coach and works with clients to explore the outcomes they most deeply desire, identify what's getting in the way, and drive intentional action to make those outcomes a reality. She's currently pursuing her coaching certification through Co-Active Training Institute. 

Wanna dig a little deeper? Check out the research referenced in this episode:
Sigal, Barsad C., et al. "Emotional contagion in organizational life." Research in Organizational Behavior 38: (2018) pp.137-151

Chermahini, Soghra Akbari & Hommel, Bernhard. "Creative Mood Swings: Divergent and Convergent Thinking Affect Mood in Opposite Ways" Psychological Research 76 (5): pp 634-40