When CareSource came to NuBrick Partners, they were successful by any standard, serving more than 2.1 million members through their healthcare plans. However, their leadership team recognized what many large organizations miss—navigating current industry changes required more than their current capabilities. Today’s pressures demand leadership that is more than “good enough.”
While many healthcare organizations share similar challenges, CareSource’s impact was its proactive approach. It didn’t wait for leadership issues to become critical problems; it grabbed an opportunity to accelerate now. Using our proven, comprehensive approach, NuBrick Partners designed a tailored program for CareSource that improved leadership and performance.
CareSource’s success story leaves a paper trail that can improve outcomes across multiple industries. In the following, we’ll share the five warning signs that CareSource discovered were hindering their leadership. Use this as a guide to recognize these patterns within your team.
1. Decisions Take Longer than Anticipated
For CareSource, decision-making processes had become unnecessarily complex. Good ideas would get stuck in endless review cycles, and important initiatives would stall without clear next steps.
Does this sound familiar? Decisions that require too many meetings and approvals are not only frustrating but also impede agility (a competitive disadvantage).
2. Lower Instances of Cross-Team Collaboration
Despite having talented, high performing leaders and teams, CareSource noticed departments sometimes operated as islands. People worked hard, but not always in harmony with other teams.
In healthcare especially, these silos can directly impact member experience and operational efficiency. But this challenge exists across many industries, not just healthcare. When teams don’t communicate effectively, opportunities get missed and problems multiply.
3. Strategic Misalignment Emerges
CareSource leaders were committed to the organization’s mission but sometimes interpreted priorities differently. This happens to all of us. Without a unified vision, even well-intentioned efforts can pull in competing directions, creating a pause in getting important initiatives underway.
This misalignment wasn’t obvious in daily operations – it rarely is. However, over time, it became apparent when tackling complex initiatives or responding to industry changes.
4. Inconsistent Executive Presence
Leadership effectiveness and relationship-building skills varied across CareSource’s senior team, as they do for many organizations. Some leaders struggled to influence effectively beyond their immediate teams, which is a standard grievance that executive leaders have shared for decades.
This inconsistency limited their collective impact and made it harder to drive organization-wide initiatives – a critical capability when navigating healthcare’s constantly evolving environment.
5. Relationship Management Missing from Overall Strategy
Technical expertise is crucial, but CareSource, working with our experts, found that their leaders also needed stronger self-awareness and relationship management skills to truly excel.
This emotional intelligence gap limited their ability to build the authentic trust necessary for becoming a high-performing team, and maintaining that, especially during periods of change or stress.
NuBrick Partner’s Holistic Approach
CareSource’s story is impressive because they acted before these warning signs became serious problems. As a solution, we designed a tailored leadership development strategy, with which, over six months, we worked with senior leaders and teams using a dual approach:
Team Acceleration
We gained insight into critical challenges and themes through in-depth interviews with key stakeholders. This led to our process of carefully structured off-site experiences, which helped strengthen team cohesion and alignment. Leaders developed shared language and practical tools for collaboration and decision-making.
Executive Coaching Program
For 6 months, more than 10 senior leaders received personalized coaching focused on their unique development needs, particularly communication, relationship-building, and executive presence. Our program included bi-weekly sessions, assessments, regular checkpoints, and development of emotional intelligence and executive presence.
This program wasn’t about quick fixes or theoretical frameworks. It was about practical, sustainable change.
The Results that Matter
CareSource’s leadership team today operates with significantly greater unity and strategic alignment. Teams make faster, more informed decisions by effectively leveraging multi-dimensional perspectives. And perhaps most importantly, their leaders demonstrate enhanced executive presence and emotional intelligence, positioning them (and their teams) for greater responsibility and long-term success.
Just ask CareSource’s CEO and CHRO:
What Makes the NuBrick Approach Work?
At NuBrick Partners, we’ve found that effective leadership development requires five key elements:
- A deep understanding of your organization’s unique challenges
- Customized solutions rather than cookie-cutter approaches
- Systemic, holistic integration of both individual and team development
- Practical tools leaders can use immediately
- Measurable outcomes that demonstrate real business impact
Leadership transformation isn’t just about fixing problems; it’s about building the foundation for your next level of success. That’s why our leadership solutions encompass the full talent lifecycle, providing a roadmap connecting leadership’s current state to the future state that your organization strives for and making it possible.
Ready to improve your leadership team?
If you recognize these warning signs in your organization, our team is ready to discuss how a similar approach might work for you.
Contact us today to explore how NuBrick Partners can design your organization’s tailored leadership development program. Sharpen your competitive edge and close the gap between your strategic goals and execution to drive sustainable organizational success.
