Leader in Spotlight: Raphael Carmona
Raphael Carmona has spent nearly two decades at Sandvik learning that performance is rarely a solo act. In sales, as in leadership, he believes results depend on clear expectations and the ability to understand what people need from one another.
As Vice President Sales Area North America at Rock Processing, Raphael Carmona leads an organization of 48 people, with team members from at least seven nationalities reporting to him. His role is to set direction, support the team and keep strategic and financial goals on track. Just as important, he says, is removing roadblocks and helping create an environment where people stay motivated to exceed customer expectations.
“If a leader doesn't genuinely care about people or doesn't treat them with fairness, it's only a matter of time before things begin to fall apart,” he says.
A team effort
Carmona joined Sandvik in Brazil in 2006 as an application engineering analyst and sales support. Trained as a mechanical and mining engineer, he moved through a series of roles before, after 15 years in Brazil, taking on a new challenge in North America. He and his family relocated to Georgia, USA.
Sales has been a natural fit. He is drawn to its pace, its energy and the shared effort behind every successful deal. “Working in sales is about building relationships,” he says. “When our team is awarded purchase orders, especially the ones we struggle to get, it's the clearest sign that our efforts are paying off.”
As a devoted football fan, he often reaches for the sport when explaining how he thinks about performance. A goal may belong to one player on the scoresheet, but it is usually the end of a sequence that began somewhere else. Every player has a role. Some create space. Some defend, some pass. One may eventually score. The visible moment is only the final part of the work.
That is how Carmona sees a sales organization too.
Learning from people
Carmona’s rules for managers are uncomplicated enough to remember. Celebrate wins, learn from failures, praise in public and correct in private. He also believes leaders should make time to talk to people across the organization.
“You will always learn something,” he says. Seniority can create distance if a leader allows it to. Carmona sees listening as a way of resisting that distance, and of understanding the business beyond dashboards and formal reporting lines.
That instinct has deep roots. He grew up in Belo Horizonte, in Brazil’s Minas Gerais state, a place closely connected to mining and construction. His father was an engineer who worked in both industries and also led a sales organization. His mother ran a small business and is an artist.
Carmona nearly chose a different path himself. He sketched frequently when he was younger and seriously considered architecture before deciding on engineering. The lesson that seems to have endured longest, however, was neither technical nor professional. It came from his parents: treat people with respect, and treat them the way you would want to be treated.
Right tools, right timing
Outside work, Carmona spends time with his family, barbecues, practices jiu jitsu and fishes in South America with his father.
Fishing gives him another language for thinking about sales, although the comparison is less about competition than preparation. “To catch a fish, you need to have the right tools, be in the right place at the right time and be patient,” he says. For Carmona, leadership works much the same way. The numbers still matter. But by the time they appear, the real work has already happened between people.