Sara Cramlet, MSHR, SPHR
From Hardship to Leadership: Building Organizational Success Through Structure, Clarity, and Human Connection
I was born in Ethiopia, and my early life was shaped by hardship, uncertainty, and resilience. My family escaped in search of opportunity in the United States — a journey that required courage and resilience, long before I understood what leadership meant.
That experience taught me something I carry into every organization I serve:
strength is built in adversity, and clarity creates direction to success.
I worked relentlessly to build my future — earning my Master’s degree, advancing through HR leadership roles, and ultimately serving as Senior Vice President of Human Resources. Over the past 20+ years, I have led people’s strategies across education, healthcare, technology, government, and private equity-backed organizations.
But my greatest lessons did not come from titles — they came from challenges.
As an executive, I stepped into environments marked by divided leadership, unclear expectations, unstructured processes, and resistance to change during growth. I experienced what it feels like when ideas are not valued and when alignment is missing at the top.
Instead of stepping back, I leaned in. I learned that organizations struggle not because people lack talent — but because success is not clearly defined, systems are not aligned, and some leaders are not equipped to communicate with consistency and accountability.
By implementing structured performance roadmaps, I assisted with strengthening leaderships ability to lead and improve performance, aligning processes to bring efficiency, and introducing measurable HR systems to gage employee success. I helped scale organizations from 800 to over 2,000 employees, improve retention by 20%, increase operational efficiency by 90% and support revenue growth to exceed $200M.
Those experiences shaped why I founded Success Creation, LLC.
Today, I help organizations:
- Define what success looks like so employees can achieve it
- Equip leaders to communicate clearly and lead with confidence and compassion
- Implement systems that drive productivity and profitability
- Build cultures where employees feel valued, understood, and accountable
My journey taught me that resilience builds character — but structure builds results.
I believe company success is achieved through employee success. And I partner with leaders who are ready to design both intentionally.
