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When Darrell Fincher-Crusan came to Octapharma Plasma as its head of human resources in 2023, he didn’t show up with grand plans to start overhauling the organization.
Instead, Fincher-Crusan spent his first few months at Octapharma Plasma traveling to two dozen locations across the US. He learned how Octapharma Plasma’s business worked and the ins and outs of a donation center. He also heard from frontline leaders about what worked well and what needed attention.
“I knew it was important to learn our business priorities and then build my team and our capabilities around those priorities,” Fincher-Crusan says. “I knew it was a unique opportunity to bring some unique ideas to this company. That’s what got me through the door, but you can’t help support a system you don’t understand.”
With more than 180 donation centers across the United States, Octapharma Plasma’s commitment to improve the quality of life of everyone we serve through the life-changing power of plasma. was a vision the new HR head could immediately connect to. After decades in the financial services space, Fincher-Crusan wanted to align with an organization that was saving lives.
Now, Fincher-Crusan and his team are focused on building a unified culture at the company. The HR head says Octapharma Plasma did an incredible job of creating culture coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, but leadership let him know that culture needed to continue to evolve when he was hired. Fincher-Crusan says Octapharma Plasma will be working to establish new behaviors, expectations, and competencies across its organization.
“I would tell myself that you have to stop waiting for a hero to come and rescue you. You have to learn to be your own hero.”
Darrell Fincher-Crusan
Those competency models start with how Octapharma Plasma wants its leaders to show up.
“How we show up matters,” Fincher-Crusan explains. “We’re going to integrate these competencies into our performance management process. Everyone at Octapharma Plasma will be evaluated on not just what they deliver, but how.”
Fincher-Crusan also says new self-assessment tools will allow for employee self-reflection and a means to develop and progress their own careers inside Octapharma Plasma. The transformational possibilities for employees and Octapharma Plasma alike are extensive, and Fincher-Crusan says the journey is just beginning.
“They say it takes three to five years to change culture, and we’re trying to build and integrate several of our people practices at the same time,” Fincher-Crusan says. “It’s a lot, but I’m so excited about it.”
“Darrell has always been one of the more strategic, business-outcome-focused leaders I have worked with,” says Marc Ian Prine, managing partner at MIP Consulting, LLC. “When we partnered to build the competencies, it was rooted in the business requirements and what are the key leadership behaviors that get the organization where it needs to go.”
The head of HR is candid about he couldn’t have handled this job just five years ago. Not because of the skill involved, but because of Fincher-Crusan’s own struggle with his identity. “I was a closeted gay man married to a woman with two children,” Fincher-Crusan explains. “I was spending 95 percent of my time trying to be someone other than myself.”
Fincher-Crusan came out in 2018 and began engaging in personal development that would allow him to better understand the person he always wanted to be. What Fincher-Crusan found was that when he finally gave himself the grace to live his life openly, countless roadblocks disappeared. He had more time to devote to things he cared about and spent less time trying to live up to expectations that weren’t right for him in the first place.
The HR leader says he’s grateful for the struggle he went through because it motivated him to create spaces where people, from company leaders to frontline workers, feel heard. It’s a struggle he’s grateful for, but he wouldn’t mind the chance to go back and give a younger version of himself some helpful advice.
“I would tell myself that you have to stop waiting for a hero to come and rescue you,” Fincher-Crusan says. “You have to learn to be your own hero.”
“Everyone at Octapharma Plasma will be evaluated on not just what they deliver, but how.”
Darrell Fincher-Crusan
The HR lead says he’s especially grateful to his late parents, who raised him to be respectful and to work hard. Raised in the Deep South, where institutionalized racism was a part of everyday life, Fincher-Crusan’s parents taught their son that self-worth came from doing one’s best. Fincher-Crusan says his parents gave him great tools to find his way, but some of them took a little more time for him to discover. Sometimes you’re just not ready until you’re ready.
“I’m in the stage of my life where I can truly be myself, and it makes me think of my parents,” Fincher-Crusan says. “They showed me how to be myself a long time ago, but I guess I didn’t know how. I remain so grateful for what they gave me, and even though they’re gone, they’re still with me every day.”
Today, Fincher-Crusan is happily married to his husband and surrounded by a circle of friends and family that he says nurtures his soul. Based in Charlotte, North Carolina, the HR leader says the nearby mountains are his “happy place,” a good spot to get away and reconnect with himself.
At Octapharma Plasma, he’s channeling his personal growth into making the company a happier place to work. As he’s learned firsthand, being true to yourself isn’t just a personal victory; it’s a necessity for authentic and excellent leadership.
It’s time to start thinking differently about talent. For too long, organizations have been managing people the same way. Throwing money at the problem doesn’t work. Asking the same old interview questions doesn’t work. Separating your company strategy from your people strategy doesn’t work. MIP Consulting, LLC integrates empirically supported methodologies into the management of human capital. We optimize the selection, development, engagement, retention, and leadership due diligence of employees through the use of analytics, assessment, and psychology. Welcome to the new normal – Management Integrating Psychology. Reach out to our Marc Prine Ph.D., Managing Partner ([email protected]) to learn more.
