Cross-Functional Success: Collaboration and Communication

At the B2B Expo podcast, Antonia Ferrero, CFO of her LLC Dragonfly Financial Consulting with 30+ years across industries including tech, discusses why cross-functional relationships fail when departments don’t communicate, harming both external customers and internal “customers” (employees and executives). She emphasizes transparency, empathy, and understanding other teams’ pressures (sales quotas, marketing’s big-picture messaging, finance’s service and process needs) to streamline workflows and improve results. Ferrero recommends asking, “What can we do to help each other?” and encouraging teams to learn each other’s roles through job shadowing and sitting in on executive meetings for context. She outlines a leadership philosophy of teaching, sharing wins with the team, taking responsibility for faults, and leading by example. Her advice: work hard, keep learning, ask for help, build confidence, and stay empathetic.

00:00 Meet Antonia Ferrero
01:43 Why Departments Disconnect
03:24 Internal Customers Matter
05:36 Asking Better Questions
07:33 Leaders Normalize Curiosity
08:49 Job Shadowing Builds Empathy
11:05 Leadership Versus Bossing
12:09 Leading by Example Story
14:58 Advice for Aspiring Leaders
17:08 Closing Thanks and Wrap

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:04

Right, Antonia, thank you so much for stopping by the podcast today at the B2B Expo. Um, I'm super excited for our chat. Um, before we dive in, just introduce yourselves to our audience, tell them a little bit about yourself and what work you do, um, and then we will get into it.

SPEAKER_00 0:22

Awesome. Well, thank you for having me. Absolutely. My name's Antonia Ferreiro, and I am actually the CFO of Dragonfly Financial Consulting, which is my own LLC. I work in finance and accounting for over 30 years now in all diverse industries. Right now I'm in the tech world. I've done import export, I've done uh architecture, I've done construction development, and even cash management and um as a CFO there as well. My biggest uh opportunities have been to be able to bring together different departments and do cross-functional work together, like I was telling you earlier. And I'm really excited to be on your podcast. Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_01 1:01

Yes, absolutely. I am so excited for us to have this conversation because one of the things we were talking about earlier before we came on today was about collaboration and the importance of some of the cross-functional relationships between finance and marketing and finance and others. Um, and so I'm really excited for us to talk about this a little bit more in detail because I think uh it's one of those things that sort of gets overlooked is the importance of all of the relationships that sort of ebb and flow between these teams. Um maybe kick us off a little bit just with sort of the observations you've had from your vast experience across the finance spectrum, um, and just sort of what you've observed or what you've seen in terms of what's working and what's not working when it comes to those relationships.

SPEAKER_00 1:48

Well, what I've noticed in almost every company is what's not working is nobody talks to each other. Departments don't communicate. And when departments don't communicate, it doesn't matter how great your company is or how much your customers want your product because the service doesn't work properly for the customer. And then the company has that hurdle to jump over and try to figure it out. By having more of a cross-functional ability between departments and getting everybody to talk and communicate, you not only provide better service to your customers, but to your internal customers as your employees and your executive teams, giving them a better insight on what's going on and better results at the end of the day.

SPEAKER_01 2:32

Yeah. I love what you're saying about communication and the requirement for now, you know, just better interaction in general and the transparency that that can create and the um passive uh the empathy or the understanding. I one of the things that I've observed a lot is how if I understand what makes your job difficult, or if I understand what hurdles you run into, it makes it gives me a better level of understanding for when things go sideways or when something's not working, or when I could maybe be helpful. And I think those are the those are the things that you see evolve in those team relationships when you do communicate back and forth. But without that, you you are you're just operating in isolation. And I love what you mentioned about how not just the impact to your paying customer, but to your internal customer, your teammate, your colleagues.

SPEAKER_00 3:25

Talk a little bit more about that, because I think that gets that's that's important. That's very important, and that's one of the aspects that sometimes leadership forgets about. And even regular staff employees, they forget how valuable it is that when you have clear communication communication and transparency with each other, you've better serve each other as your internal customers. If your internal customers can understand each other's role and the demands on each other's teams and how one department affects the other, and vice versa, how it assists the other department, they are better to process and implement strategies that will not only help the customers that they're serving with themselves on a daily basis, making the workflow more streamlined and creating a little bit more of a flexibility and empathy in between each other as well. Yeah. At the same time, it helps them grow in their roles, and it introduces to leadership that your internal customers are now learning to work together, and they're seeing changes that need to be made, and that's how you identify where internally you may have weaknesses or strengths. Yeah. A lot of employees have strengths that we don't know about. They're afraid to talk, they're afraid to discuss it, they're afraid to overstep, and everybody doesn't understand the other department's struggles. Sales may be going through harsh requirements to meet quotas and deadlines. Where finance is looking at, well, we need to fix it so to better serve the customers. Where marketing is out there, well, how do we sell this? I don't know, oh as a bigger view, right? And the executives are looking at the profit and loss. But when everybody's more transparent with each other and everybody is communicating, that's where it starts to get more of a streamline and everybody can see the bigger picture. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:22

And that I feel like that um cohesion, even if you don't think about it, translates externally. That that feeling that you have amongst your teams does get felt externally, either direction, whether it's positive and productive or not. Oh, absolutely. Um as someone who has spent their their career working on the finance side of things and seeing these relationships develop over time, what are the what are the things that you want other teams or other department leaders to come to you and ask? Like what are the questions that you think are the most impactful that help to start building those bridges?

SPEAKER_00 6:02

I think the most impactful question is what can we do to help each other? Um, it's what is the customer need so that we can work together. We don't ask those questions enough. And working in finance for so many years, the one thing I've started to teach my teams for the last four or five years now is work with the other teams. Go learn sales, go learn what they're doing. Teach them a little bit about what you're doing. Yeah, then they have an understanding. This way, they have a better understanding on the finance row, you have a better understanding of the sales row, and you get more familiar and find the ability to ask the right questions and not be timid on asking the questions because that's a that's a very true factor in the corporate America and in all the industries. They're very timid to ask certain questions, and then they don't, something goes wrong, and then you have to fix it.

SPEAKER_01 6:56

Yeah, it's very easy for us to say there is no bad question, but the reality for an employee in corporate America is that they are scared to look silly or scared to look like they're not smart, or whatever the case may be, there is a real fear barrier around what asking a question is going to do to the to the other person's perception of them. That's a human nature. It's so phases is we're afraid to look silly. It is. Um, but it's so important for us to remember and to say, as professionals, as leaders, no, it's okay. Ask the question, be the one that's willing to ask the question, because that can be the thing that starts the momentum in the right direction.

SPEAKER_00 7:37

Yes. And as leaders, you should be asking the questions too. Not only to your superiors, but to your subordinates. You should be asking them questions, getting them to think outside the box, getting them to answer. You may still have the answer, but getting them to be able to elaborate on those questions. And that teaches them that if you're not afraid of asking the questions, they shouldn't either. One of the biggest things is I like to have my staff shadow on executive meetings, on internal management meetings that are okay for them to shadow on. Why? Because they'll hear questions that they normally won't hear on a regular basis. Yeah. They'll hear the tough questions, they'll hear the conversations and how they take a different role and aspect of the company from the day-to-day that we have with them.

SPEAKER_01 8:23

And that gives them so much context. Context can do a lot for decision making and problem solving. Yes. Um, and just under having a broader understanding and then a wider lens is so important.

SPEAKER_00 8:39

And it teaches them how to better communicate with the customers overall. Yeah. Whether it's your internal customer or your external customer. It just teaches them a better communication skill with the customers. And at the end of the day, the understanding of the overall company process. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 8:54

I love what you're saying about job sharing, job shadowing, seeing the reality of what it means to do that work or live that job. Um, but there was um brands. That's something that I always advise in the marketing and sales side of things for those teams to really work well together because it should be an and marketing and sales. Correct. And a lot of times you see the butting of heads or the conflict part more than you see the collaboration. But it is, it's when you get to see a marketer that sits in on a pitch or you see a marketer that shadows sales conversations, and vice versa. That makes for a much stronger working relationship. Absolutely. And you see things that even through QA, you would just, you just would not observe the same way. And so I just I love to hear you advocating for that practice of investing the time in in that that shared job experience.

SPEAKER_00 9:51

Well, as a leader, I have found that the most important part of my role is to be able to share and to be able to teach. Yeah. And I don't take the wins for myself because it's a team effort. My team won that I win. Um, I also don't let my team take the fault because it's my responsibility, not theirs. Um, and I think that that has been a big part of my success in the last few years is learning to be able to teach and wanting your team to grow, to be able to do as much as you do, as well as you do it, and always understanding the highest priority is your customers. And you make whole the company and you make whole the customer. It's not one or the other, it's both. When you do that in finance, then you can help the sales department and you also help the marketing department and the HR department. And one of the greatest things is trying to put all these department heads or department reps in one room together, letting them have a brainstorm session. They never do it. Why don't they do it? They're always too busy. There's always a reason. Well, if you take at least one person from each department, you put them in a room, the conversations will flow differently. And the take back that they will take back to their teams will be a better outcome for the company overall.

SPEAKER_01 11:10

Absolutely. And you're describing a leadership philosophy that is so important for successful organizations, right? There's a very there's a big difference between leader and boss. Yes, leader and manager. Like there is a behavior difference that is implied. And it's like, I don't care what my title is, I don't care if I'm the quote unquote boss. Ultimately, the intention is to be the leader, someone that people feel comfortable with, someone that people know has their back. I love what you said about like, it's my job to get in front of the freight train for my team, and it's my job to lift them up when there's a success. Like, that is the the ethos of really productive and really strong leadership. It is. And teams that operate that way feel it. And those are the teams that will run through walls for each other. Those are the teams that are gonna do the late nights when you have to sometimes, but it becomes a shared sense of camaraderie around we got this. Yes. And that's a very different mentality.

SPEAKER_00 12:14

Yes. And I'll give you a little story. I've been working in the tech industry for about three and a half, four years now. Okay. And one of my biggest roles was as a distributor manager and a strategic manager for a building for billing teams. I had two teams. Okay. My two teams were recognized as the highest end of the company billing teams. And one of the questions I always got was, why would your team go out of their way for you? Why are they always willing to do it? Why do they always raise their hand? Why are they always at the front line? And I said, Because I always do those things with them. I do it with them, I do it for them. I do the late nights, the long hours so that they can have the recognition, so they can see the growth. And when they see you do that as a leader, your team will do it with you. Your team will never say, I won't work nine hours if I have to. I won't work overnight if I have to. When they see that you do it, they do it. And a leader is that. A leader is somebody who will do things with their team. A boss just delegates.

SPEAKER_01 13:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:17

And I've had a lot of bosses in my life. Haven't we all? I had one great leader. Um, and that is what I learned the most, is that a leader will do with you, and that is part of the next generation. You know, I'm I've been te teaching and leading grown-ups of anywhere from the age of 20 to 30 something. And I've been able to teach them all that that's what you do to continue growing in the company, and that's what you want to do when you have a team of your own. Yeah. You lead. Yeah. If you lead by example, they come f they come and follow. Yeah. If you just order it around, they don't follow. No. And that is a true fact. And if you read a lot of leaderships um books and documentaries and even things on LinkedIn, for example, that is one of the biggest things that's set out there. Lead by example and the flock will follow. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:10

This this whole conversation has felt like such a masterclass in what it means to be a good leader. Yes. A true, like empathetic leader of people when you want them to be empowered to do good work and to take risks and to work with truly with each other. Absolutely. Um, and I so appreciate that. The other thing that I have loved about this, um, like you said, in addition to it, like I said, feeling like a leadership masterclass that everybody needs to pay attention to, um, is that there is this sort of hearkening back to what we sort of all have always known, but nobody's talking about anymore. For some reason, we've gotten away from having those conversations about what it means to be a true leader and to support human beings in har in doing good work. Um, and I just love how this conversation has reaffirmed that. Um, and I hope that's what people hear when they when they hear it back. But, you know, if we were to take take all of our leadership experience and our collaboration with others, like what it's like if you're early in your career, or if someone is maybe early to mid in their career and they have aspirations of being a leader one day. Yes, what's the advice that you would want to leave them with from this conversation?

SPEAKER_00 15:26

Well, my biggest advice is you work hard, you put in the hours, you do anything you need to do to learn as much as you can. You all you always work trying to teach somebody else, you always work learning something new, and always be empathetic. Always understand that the other people above you or under you are humans, don't make mistakes, and there is a huge diversity of cultures, and not everything is the same. Yeah. The other thing is to always be able to do things with a lot of confidence. If you feel confident yourself, and this is something you have to sometimes talk yourself through the day before, the night before, on a daily basis. You have to do things with confidence. And if you don't know, ask. Ask for help. Because I didn't know everything at one point. I asked for help. I asked for people to show me. And so today I still learn things every day. Yeah. For example, from sales, from marketing. But if you show that you need help and you ask, people will help you. They will ask, they will show you. Yeah. That's my biggest advice to anybody. Don't be afraid to ask. Don't be afraid to learn and don't be afraid to grow. That, you know, I would make you a great leader one day.

SPEAKER_01 16:40

I love that so much. That's such, that's such great advice. I said, especially for those aspiring leaders that are like, what does it take to be successful doing this? Um, you have given them, you've given them such a beautiful roadmap for what it means to have a certain amount of humility. Yes, and and representing yourself just as a person, as a human being. Um, but the empathy piece, the the connection piece of asking questions and just knowing that at the end of the day, if we can rally to be in it together, um, that is going to make all the difference internally and externally. Absolutely. Thank you for sharing all of your expertise and for having this conversation. I absolutely loved it. Um thank you so much for having me here. It was a great pleasure.