From 100 to 600+ Employees: How Arbor Homes Scaled Culture

Arbor Homes: A Case Study in Leader-Led Culture™

Arbor Homes, a Clayton company, began partnering with ADVISA in 2016. As the organization grew from fewer than 100 employees to more than 600, Arbor Homes invested in a long-term leadership development system designed to build leaders from within, create a common language around values, and sustain culture through growth.

Over the course of the partnership, ADVISA has supported Arbor Homes through Predictive Index training, behavioral interviewing, EQ-i coaching, executive coaching, manager development, rising leader cohorts, culture leader tracks, and the Arbor Homes Leadership Academy — which has helped develop more than 150 employees.

Challenge

Arbor Homes was growing quickly, and growth created a leadership challenge: how do you preserve culture, develop leaders consistently, and help employees grow as the organization becomes more complex?

The company needed a scalable way to build leadership capability from within. That meant more than training managers. It meant creating a shared leadership language, aligning around values, supporting better talent decisions, and giving employees development opportunities throughout their careers.

Solution

ADVISA partnered with Arbor Homes to build a leadership development ecosystem that could grow with the business. Over time, the work expanded from foundational PI training and coaching into a multi-level system of development experiences for individual contributors, emerging leaders, managers, culture leaders, executives, and the broader organization.

“Activate” driver

Build commitment from the top.

Arbor Homes’ leadership made development part of the company’s culture. The partnership included executive-level work, founder cohorts, executive coaching, EQ-i work, strategy team coaching, and annual renewals of The Predictive Index platform.

  • Sustained executive commitment since the partnership began in 2016
  • Executive coaching and EQ-i supported senior leader self-awareness and growth
  • Founder and leadership team involvement signaled that leadership development mattered at the top

“Target” driver

Establish desired future state.

ADVISA helped Arbor Homes create a common language around values, leadership expectations, and growth. Curtis specifically says ADVISA helped the organization align around “what the values are” and develop people through that shared language.

  • Established a common leadership language across the organization
  • Connected leadership development to Arbor Homes’ values and culture
  • Helped employees understand what effective leadership looked like at Arbor

“Lead” driver

Develop confidence and capability.

ADVISA helped Arbor Homes build leadership capability across levels — from individual contributors and emerging leaders to managers, executives, and culture carriers. Through the Arbor Homes Leadership Academy, more than 150 employees have participated in leadership development experiences, including:

  • Rising Stars cohorts supported emerging leaders
  • Trailblazers cohorts developed high-potential talent
  • Manager Foundations created consistency for people leaders
  • Founders cohorts to reinforced leadership behaviors across the organization

“Apply” driver

Improve performance with people data.

As Arbor Homes grew, ADVISA helped the organization apply people data to real business decisions — from hiring and role clarity to leadership development and coaching. PI training and assessment work gave leaders practical tools to understand behavior, improve communication, and make more informed talent decisions.

  • Predictive Index training helped leaders better understand people data
  • Behavioral interviewing supported stronger hiring conversations
  • “Define and assess” work helped clarify key roles and open positions
  • PI tools supported practical talent decisions as the company scaled
  • EQ-i 360 work added emotional intelligence data to leadership development

“Scale” driver

Enable behavior change.

Over time, leadership development became embedded into the way Arbor Homes grows its people. What began with foundational tools and coaching expanded into repeatable cohorts, annual cadences, specialized leadership tracks, and continued partnership. The result was a leadership development system capable of supporting growth at scale.

  • Leadership programs evolved from PI training and coaching into full cohorts and tracks
  • Development expanded across individual contributors, managers, rising leaders, culture leaders, and executives
  • The system supported growth from fewer than 100 employees to more than 600

Results

The partnership helped Arbor Homes turn leadership development into a sustained cultural advantage. As the organization grew from fewer than 100 employees to more than 600, it continued investing in the leaders who would carry the culture forward.

Today, more than 150 employees have participated in Arbor Homes Leadership Academy, and the organization has been recognized as an IndyStar Central Indiana Top Workplace eight times.

It is largely because of the culture we have of developing and investing in our people.

Curtis Rector, Founder & CEO

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