Dalia Hierro: Choosing People, Challenging Power, and the Positive Ripple Effects

Dalia Hierro has spent more than two decades navigating the complex world of product development and executive leadership, from the rigid hierarchy of Amazon to the fragile early days of startups. Her story is not just about career growth, it is about building long-term meaningful relationships along the way.

Dalia grew up in Connecticut and always had a deep connection to the earth, plants, and the climate. She is very esthetically minded, and she feels her love for beautiful things, both creating them and being surrounded by them has informed the trajectory of her life. Academic achievement was something that was very important to her family growing up. While at Princeton, she had the opportunity to meet people from all around the world and for the first time in her life learned to question authority.

She started her career at United Parcel Service and moved into the video game development industry and software development industry. Throughout our interview, she shared stories of what happens when kindness is stripped from the workplace. She described a meeting at large corporation that became a coordinated act of cruelty: a room full of powerful executives mocking, gaslighting, and humiliating her boss in what she called “big dogs taking turns to pee on a small dog.” The moment stayed with her, not just for its brutality, but for what it revealed about systems that reward fear-based work cultures.

“That was cruelty for the sake of cruelty,” she said. “I could not be part of that.”

In contrast, she recalled a startup team that worked for months without pay after 9/11 halted funding. The founder was transparent, respectful, and kind. Nearly everyone chose to stay. Two decades later, many remain close. Some now work for Dalia’s own consulting firm, built on the very principles that toxic systems lacked.

She believes the foundation of good leadership is simple: choose people who are kind, honest, and not transactional. “They are givers,” she said. “And because of those qualities, you want to give to them too.”

Dalia’s perspective reflects both realism and resolve. She is not naïve about how power works, she has seen how systems can breed cruelty. But she also knows that kindness, when practiced consistently, creates the conditions for trust, creativity, and loyalty to thrive.

Whether mentoring a colleague, managing teams, or building her own company, Dalia centers values in every interaction. And that is no small thing. “Even if it is just a checkout clerk,” she said, “smile… it's totally effortless, and it can have positive ripple effects.”

Kindness is not a sign of weakness. It is a decision, a strategic and moral choice about how we show up and who we choose to work with. For Dalia, it is the quiet, consistent power behind everything she builds.

“I always want to leave social interactions with people feeling that they got more out of it than when they came in… that there was a net positive.”

Dalia Hierro is a seasoned executive and artist who proves that leadership and kindness are not at odds. Her story shows that how we treat people, especially in moments of stress or power, defines our path forward. Keep an eye out for more interviews.