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Jeremy Bono leads Phenom’s North American account management team, a sizable business that represents most of the company’s revenue. His team partners with nearly 500 employers to extract value out of the technology. That requires understanding all aspects of the customer’s business such as revenue drivers and strategic priorities.

Asking good questions is critical to salespeople’s success. That’s why Bono has account managers use an “open, probe, confirm” framework to ask open-ended questions, probe further and confirm what they heard with customers. Artificial intelligence is a great way to get information faster and allows for deeper conversations, which is why the sales team is trained on the technology to do their jobs better.

In this episode, hear Bono’s famous “Rule of Five” sales strategy for value-selling and why he’s always in a state of constant learning.

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A simple fact of innovation, and all of the speed, efficiency, and automation that comes with it, is that technology will break down from time to time. Engineering is inherently human and iterative. The same principle of forgiveness should apply to technology as to people – viewing failures as a moment in time in a long journey, not a final endpoint.

Mark MacDonald knows a thing or two about the importance of accepting and learning from breakdowns. As the top executive in charge of Phenom’s Global Professional Services and Customer Care team, his team helps more than 700 organizations overcome tech challenges. Accepting temporary setbacks is crucial for progress and efficiency in a rapidly evolving tech environment.

Tune in to this episode to hear why curiosity and continuous learning are vital in leadership roles, particularly in exploring new tech and addressing hiccups along the way.

Great leaders at any level of an organization are notable for two traits: they admit their weaknesses and hire to compensate for them. That explains why Panasonic Automotive’s CHRO, Stephen Childs, once laid bare his gaps and weaknesses in front of his team before sharing them with the entire company.

“I literally became a better leader over a period of a few weeks after doing that,” he said in this episode of “Unusual Attitudes.” Vulnerability humanizes leaders and not only assures others on the team that it’s OK to have flaws, but that each member has a strength that benefits the broader organization. That’s how amazing teams get created.

Tune in to this episode and hear how a conversation with his teen daughter paved the way for Childs to become a better active listener.

Guest: Stephen Childs, CHRO, Panasonic Automotive, executive coach and author of “Just Be Undeniable”

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As the scion of elected officials, Kellan White grew up in Philadelphia around the politically powerful. He would dream of the day he entered City Hall, where people would address him as “Mr. Mayor.” But that’s not how things turned out.

After his dad lost a close race for mayor of Philadelphia, tragedy struck when his mother and grandfather died. Feeling lost, White walked away from politics and the city he loved, only to return to contribute to the greater good in another way: as a community connector. He compares himself to Al Pacino’s Michael Corleone in “The Godfather” – “I wanted to challenge myself somewhere where nobody knew my family.”

Tune in to this episode of “Unusual Attitudes” to hear White’s story about living at the intersection of politics, government and community.

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Bringing one’s whole self to work means personal and professional lives mesh in a way that can sometimes get messy. Lindsay Mareau knows that all too well. She is a former senior tech leader who has guided leadership teams and global organizations in outlining people, process and technology to complement their growth and change strategy.

She has been alcohol-free for more than a year, chronicling her sobriety journey on LinkedIn for everyone in her professional network to see. Sobriety is a gift that has given her so much that she had to find a way to share it with others, especially now that she runs her own consulting company dedicated to helping others improve their lives.

Tune in to this episode of “Unusual Attitudes” to hear Mareau’s take on making changes, be it a better leader or sales performer.

Innovation runs through Electrolux’s line of home appliances. Artificial intelligence embedded in washing machines, for example, determines the right spin cycle and water consumption while maximizing cleaning efficiency. The Swedish company brings that same modern mindset to acquiring and managing talent.

AI changed the way HR handles transactional work but it didn’t change Electrolux’s value system, according to Anna Ullrich, a senior talent executive. Educating the workforce on AI is key to understanding the tech’s benefits, but not to the point of stifling inventive, creative ways of working with it.

In this episode of “Unusual Attitudes,” Ullrich explains why leaders should let teams have the freedom to discover their own way of working with AI while staying within the bounds of the company’s guardrails — ultimately creating the innovation they need.

Ray Tavares’ career has largely been spent in one industry — financial services — not all that uncommon for Gen Xers. About 20 years ago, he pivoted into the HR tech domain, and has witnessed every conceivable transformation along the way. His kids jokingly accuse him of “HR-ing” them with fatherly advice.

That’s because of his passion for helping others succeed. In his senior level role at Truist, the Charlotte-based bank formed by the merger of SunTrust and BB&T, Tavares sees himself largely as a coach who helps fellow leaders navigate organizational blind spots.

In this episode of “Unusual Attitudes,” he explains why he loves work, but isn’t a workaholic.

Growing up a “Star Trek” fan, Ajay Patel marveled at boldly going where no one had gone before. It was only natural he would study astrophysics at university, but instead of building rockets and studying celestial bodies, his career pivoted to HR where he builds talent pipelines.

The figure-it-out mindset of an engineer came in handy when he arrived at Straumann Group in 2020 as vice president of talent acquisition. Though the Swiss dental equipment maker is more than 70 years old, the environment and culture felt decidedly like a startup. TA was a blank slate, with little in the way of established processes.

In this episode of “Unusual Attitudes,” Patel traces the excitement he felt building a function from scratch to keep pace with a rapidly growing enterprise.