We had an incredible opportunity to speak with Chris Izquierdo, CEO at Sparrow Connected.
Sparrow Connected was recently named one of Canada’s Best Startup Employers by Forbes in 2024.
A little more about Chris: He is a global employee communication thought leader and a successful entrepreneur who has scaled several technology companies, and most recently, an internal communication platform company, Sparrow Connected.
Chris believes revolutionary change happens at the intersection of innovation, communication, and technology and has made it his life-long mission to create communities, companies, and ecosystems for a better future.
We asked Chris some of his thoughts about robust, transparent communication, and the strategies he and his team at Sparrow Connected use to advance their organization.
For instance, what role did team communication play in making Sparrow Connected Forbes’ Best Startup Employers in Canada?
“It plays a critical role for us, to be chosen as one of the best startup employers in Canada. Work, in my opinion, starts with communication.,” Chris says. “So, nothing gets done until you and I have this conversation, and this happens across any organization regardless of size.”
As a remote only company, Sparrow Connected knew a communication strategy was imperative from the very beginning, both internally and externally. Chris also encourages one on one meetings and conversations between departments.
“We look at different circles of communication, and internally, what company wide announcements should we send?… But then we look at different teams. You have the engineering team, the marketing team, the sales team, and so on, how can they communicate with each other?”
Chris puts an extra emphasis on how important direct, one on one communication is for remote teams to create rapport and trust, because like he says, “We don’t get to hang out by the water cooler.”
Sparrow Connected makes sure to design communication campaigns to help how all internal and external communication is delivered. Chris says, “What kind of information is relevant for them to consume? You don’t just want to spew out information, you have to be intentional about different strategies and campaigns… I think the happiness and the wellbeing of our employees would not be the same if we didn’t communicate the way we do.”
Chris is first to note that there’s always opportunity for improvement, and is not proclaiming perfection. Therefore one requirement for good communication is empathy between departments that otherwise don’t connect on a daily basis.
While it can be a default to blame others, when you cultivate a relationship through communication, there’s less finger pointing.
So what might be missing in communication and building those relationships?
Throughout his career, Chris has observed that along with a lack of clarity of expectations, and consistent messaging to create trust, “new leaders come like a bull in a china shop, they don’t listen, [they say] ‘I’m here to tell you’… So, focus more on listening than asserting your authority. You have authority just by the title, and that’s great, but that’s not true authority. True authority is when you and I establish this relationship of trust, and you see me as someone who is actually a leader.”
New leaders can fail to establish the personal connection with teammates, “building that personal relationship with team members is essential during a transition, [the team] needs to be connected to you.” Especially because, as Chris points out, “you inherit the flaws [of the previous leader], whether you like it or not.”
Then of course, you have the hurdles involved with nonverbal communication.
“Nonverbal communication awareness is crucial. We have all experienced walking out of a meeting where everything seems pleasant on the surface, but you felt that something was off,” says Chris. “That intuition often stems from nonverbal cues that your subconscious picked up.”
And more recently with the uptick in remote working and virtual meetings, nonverbal cues are less obvious from a Zoom panel than they might be in a physical boardroom.
Until tech tools can be used like an AI psychoanalysis to pick up and report facial cues, or body language on our virtual calls, Chris advises new leaders to encourage active participation, mandate camera usage, ask questions, and “create a dynamic of face to face interaction, even in a virtual environment.”
As we can see the theme play out, intentional, highly self-aware, communication is imperative, however that does not make it easy.
Chris provided what he calls “the best quote about communication” in his opinion, from Irish playwright, George Bernard Shaw, who says “the single biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has taken place.”
So, how do we fix the communication issues when they take so much time to resolve, and are constantly evolving?
“There has to be a realization from leadership on the importance of communication… Society has to change as well. Can you imagine a future where children are taught, in school, the principles of communication? How to master the art of conversation, dissertation, conflict resolution… And that translates then into the workforce.”
Chris jokes that we all “play that telephone game” where our stories are not spread properly due to everything from irrelevance, to mishearing information, and while funny in a party situation, it leads to real life work issues.
Thankfully, communication tools like the ones offered through Sparrow Connected are designed to help with the complexity of communication, so new leaders can build the trust, empathy, personal relationships that are crucial in the workplace, and we can play a little less “telephone”
Thanks again to Chris for his valuable insight, and communicating how to improve our robust, transparent communication skills!
