Insights into an extraordinary agency…
At Form, we're privileged to support leadership teams across the globe and last week was the peak moment of the year so far.
We spent the week in the USA working with the Senior Leadership team of Crema. They, we may add, are a very unique company.
At Form, we’re privileged to support leadership teams across the globe and last week was the peak moment of the year so far. We spent the week in the USA working with the Senior Leadership team of Crema. They, we may add, are a very unique company.
Over the last ten years, Crema has grown a world class Digital Product Studio in Kansas City. The secrets of their success lie in their skill of creating a kind & supportive culture, getting their customers aligned quickly and providing world-class craft teams.
Like all leaders, the Crema team have all sorts of dreams and ambitions for the decade ahead. However, with lots of options, comes the difficult task of deciding what you’re going to focus on, and by definition, what you’re not going to focus on.
Every hero needs a guide
We spent time exploring how Crema could support their partners through positioning themselves as the guide to their customers. Let me unpack that a little more… We all position ourselves as the hero in the story we’re writing in our minds. It may be to launch a product, it may be to grow a team or even to double profits. We’re all on little missions all the time.
What we need is someone who can help us get there and create the better tomorrow in the story we’re writing. We need a guide. So often we’re guilty of positioning ourselves as another hero because of our skills, experience or clients. However, our customers/clients don’t need another hero as they are the hero, they need someone who can help them achieve their goal.
We’re privileged to spend a lot of our lives working with high performing teams. However, Crema was more than a high-performing team. It was a business that had a culture that permeated every element. Not a set of values written down stuck on the wall, or even decided on a team day. This was a leadership team committed to the best for their team and clients and living aligned to that belief. To dream with them as they planned their future was a rather special thing.
From the top down we observed the following…
- Their position that they are more interested in getting it right than being right
- Respect for each others expertise and perspectives was evident in all communication
- They have done the hard work and spent time understanding what made each other tick and where committed to providing psychologically safe environments for each other to thrive
- They wanted to be challenged and learn new ways of thinking and working
- Finally, they sought out accountability. They wanted to have their feet held to the fire and be asked the difficult questions
Culture is key
With the challenge of business growth, comes the challenge of people and many businesses find it difficult to attract and retain the best talent. We get this.
If you’re looking for the best talent, are you creating a culture that invites people to become the best versions of themselves and provides the environment to do so? If not, now is the best time to start working towards that. Being a destination employer is not something that happens overnight, nor is it done by accident. These guys work hard at it, and there’s a definite cost.
