“Break stereotypes,” Kim Grant from Bank of America

Meet Kim Grant, Senior Vice President, Media Planning & Execution at Bank of America. Within her position, Kim leads a team that is focused on leveraging consumer insights to develop communication strategies across paid, owned, and earned channels. Kim's 28 years of experience at Bank of America have led to her overseeing the design and execution of paid media strategies that drive revenue, investments, and customer value. She is an active member of the marketing and communications industry, participating on numerous client councils and serving as a jurist for such prestigious awards as Festival of Media Global, Effie Awards and Reggie Awards

Kim recently sat down with Jocelyn Hudak, Senior Director, Content and Digital Marketing at SiriusXM Media. The two met at CES to discuss the barriers women are breaking in the workplace, the leadership styles she brings to the table, and how she creates an empowering environment for others. 

Have a listen to the full interview below. Then, check out the top highlights from the conversation. 

Get credit for what you do. 

Highlight: “Expect a lot of yourself. There are still stereotypes for females in the workplace in particular. It's important to make sure that you get the credit for what you do, what you can do, and are going to do. Work to break that stereotype of the attractive, young, inexperienced, woman because we're so much more than how we appear.” - Kim Grant

Lead by example.

Highlight: “With my team, I try to lead by example and make myself accessible to them—which is increasingly difficult as you increase responsibilities and you have more people on your team. It can be challenging. I really try to create an environment where everyone feels that they have ownership. They can come to me with something, but they can also go to each other.” - Kim Grant

Make things better with innovation.

Highlight: “The power of innovation is this: How do you take ideas and bring them to life, or even improve on an innovation that helps someone, that makes their life better, that makes work better? With our team, we want to lean into innovative technologies, as well as partners who are innovating. It has to be with a purpose that makes someone's life better.” - Kim Grant

Don’t settle.

Highlight: “I turned in a paper that was mediocre. And then two days later, she gives it back to me, ungraded, and she says, ‘This is not your best work. And I do not accept it.’ It has really stuck with me because what she was saying to me was, ‘You're settling for an expectation of yourself that doesn't match my expectation for you.’ And that is something that I think we probably don't see enough of in the workplace. If somebody turns in something that's not great, we fix it ourselves and move on.” - Kim Grant

Through Pass the Mic and with Kim’s resonating words, we’re working hard to continue breaking stereotypes for women in the workplace. And you should, too. For more inspiring content, check out the Pass the Mic page.