Navigating Growth

Avalere Health, a leading health care consultancy in Washington, D.C. engaged Nebo in early 2015 to provide leadership development programs to help Avalere develop and retain top talent at the firm during a period of intense growth and change.

Approach
Nebo collaborated with the SVP of HR and her team to design, plan and implement leadership development for multiple levels of the organization, from executive to “rising leaders.” Using a cohort-style format, Nebo delivered custom programs that introduced core skills and the leadership mindset to each group, adapting the content to speak directly to the organization’s culture and goals.

Leadership Coaching
Executive leaders were matched with Nebo coaches, who were carefully selected as a strong fit for the firm and the leader. The Nebo team prepared each executive leader on how to make the most of coaching, conducted individual coach-matching interviews and kept the coaches working on the project abreast of the skills learned in the leadership programs so as to help integrate this content into their one-on-one individual coaching.

Alignment, Support and Integration
The Nebo Company provided ongoing support to Avalere’s HR sponsor, as well as to each coaching pair throughout the project. We hosted regular progress calls and sponsor check-ins to ensure open communication and collect feedback on the leadership programming. Avalere and Nebo made adjustments along the way to ensure that participants would get the full benefit of the sessions and that the content and methods were “landing” as planned. This hands-on collaboration led to accelerated learning on both sides about how best to provide valuable leadership development at this rapidly evolving organization.

Raising Awareness and Changing Behavior
Participants in both the Rising Leaders Program and the Executive Leaders Program took the DISC behavioral assessment, which examines behavioral style and the effect of one’s style on one’s own effectiveness and on others. Nebo launched both leadership programs with ‘Understanding Your Behavioral Style,’ an engaging, informative and fun program that not only explained the DiSC assessment and the leaders’ results, but also emphasized the need to adapt to other working styles, with tools and strategies for doing so.

Impact
During a time of intense growth and change, Avalere leaders not only improved their communication skills, emotional intelligence capabilities, and leadership presence, but also strengthened their connection with one another. The leadership initiatives helped to create stability and confidence for those who participated, demonstrating how to learn from leading in a change environment and supporting strong retention. Nebo and Avalere continue to work together on programs that help Avalere leaders learn and use the skills needed to sustain, grow and improve an already high performing organization.