Unlocking Curiosity For Better Learning With Mentimeter Chief People & Culture Officer Anna Gullstrand

In this episode of Redefining Work, my guest is Mentimeter Chief People and Culture Officer Anna Gullstrand. Anna and I discuss her career path, her experience as interim CEO and then transitioning from that role, and the importance of curiosity in how we learn.

Born and raised in Sweden, Anna has owned an agency, led design teams and businesses, and was even temporarily CEO of Mentimeter. Throughout it all, Anna has devoted her career to helping teams become high performers and to understanding group dynamics and how people think.

Now, in her role as the chief people and culture officer, Anna manages 24 people on her team and serves a workforce of more than 300 employees.

You can also listen/share the episode directly syndicated on any of these channels: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | Stitcher |

Key Moments

00:03:45 Career philosophy: self-awareness and growth.

00:07:47 Curiosity as the key to learning.

00:12:33 Asking questions to foster curiosity.

00:17:21 Investing in team leadership and teamwork.

00:25:28 AI in the Workplace

00:28:21 Designing experiences for employees.

00:34:27 Emotions need to be acknowledged.

00:40:48 Psychological safety is crucial.

Rethinking Her Career Path

Anna’s path to HR was anything but linear. From being a designer to holding the title of CEO at Mentimeter for a moment, she’s followed her curiosity and values rather than a predetermined path. 

This started when she attended Hyper Island, where she later became a lecturer and was on the board member program steering committee. Hyper Island teaches students about digital business models, creativity and innovation in a way that focuses on people’s values and motivation, as well as how they work together. 

“It was a school for self-awareness, emotional regulation and self-leadership,” Anna says. “So we got asked a lot of questions — quite challenging questions — about our values. ‘Why are you here?’ ‘What’s driving you?’ ‘What are your strengths?’ ‘Why are you valuing what you're valuing?’”

By having to answer those questions early in her career, Anna fueled her natural curiosity to try new things and never felt the need for a linear career path. 

“My goal is to check in with myself,” she says. “‘Do I feel challenged?’ ‘Do I feel joy?’ ‘Do I feel meaningfulness?’ And if I do that, I'm performing much higher, and then opportunities will arise.”

Unlearning How We Learn

Humans are a naturally curious species. But what happens often is that curiosity gets lost when people enter rigid school and work structures. Anna believes that adults need to “unlearn” to reconnect with their curiosity.

Part of the unlearning comes from leaders, coaches and teachers creating opportunities for people to ask questions and explore solutions. 

“It actually boils down to facilitating leadership, coaching — these fundamentals that we already know work,” Anna says. “So instead of giving people the answer, we ask a question, and we make people think for themselves. As I see it, and also how we see it at Mentimeter, is that learning is everywhere.”

Humanizing Leadership Through Vulnerability and Openness

Leadership includes guiding teams to achieve company goals, but that’s not all it is. Team members look to their leader for guidance and support. Anna views leadership as role-modeling for others, where the leader must possess self-awareness and emotional regulation. 

That’s especially important because while feelings matter and must be respected, behaviors are also important. Anna notes research that says suppressing our feelings hurts well-being, engagement and performance. By acknowledging and naming these feelings, we have a better chance of taking positive action.

Emotions and feelings “can be all over the place, but we are obliged in a business context to also think about our actions,” she says, “because our actions will trigger other people's emotions or behavior, and so on. It's the action part where we can take control, but the emotions part always needs to be open and transparent.”

Anna experienced this firsthand after shifting from interim CEO back to an HR leadership position. She was experiencing negative emotions, including feeling on the outside looking in, “a lack of status, a lack of autonomy, not feeling related to the team,” she explains. 

To work out those emotions, LinkedIn became a haven for Anna. She wrote a candid post about what she was feeling and how the transition affected her, which showed a significant level of vulnerability as a leader. And because Anna has strong relationships with her colleagues and the new CEO, she could express herself without fear of repercussions. 

“We are also very open with our emotions [at Mentimeter] and that we’re all struggling sometimes. … We are having new challenges every day, and none of us have had this job before at this stage of a company, so we need to be super-supportive,” Anna says.

People in This Episode

Anna Gullstrand: LinkedIn, Twitter, Mentimeter