Brooklyn Community Services

Building a Culture of Empowered Leadership

Brooklyn Community Services (BCS) sought to translate the five core values outlined in their Strategic Plan into lived practice across the organization. With a need to deepen leadership alignment, improve onboarding, and strengthen leadership capacity - particularly among Division Directors - the organization aimed to embed a culture of empowered leadership that could cascade through all levels of staff and operations. To succeed, BCS needed support in defining leadership expectations, fostering accountability, and nurturing a values-based pipeline of future leaders.

Challenge

Cora Group designed and facilitated a multi-faceted initiative to help senior and mid-level leaders operationalize the organization’s values and elevate leadership practice.

Key components included:

  • Executive Team Development: Facilitated interactive sessions to explore the operational implications of BCS values and define a shared leadership profile for the future

  • Leadership Role Clarity: Aligned expectations for specific leadership roles across levels of the organization

  • Division Director Learning Journey: Designed and facilitated a three-part leadership workshop series, incorporating:

    • Action learning assignments between sessions to reinforce applied learning

    • Peer coaching to build trust and mutual support among Division Directors

  • Culture-Aligned Onboarding: Advised on strategies to strengthen onboarding by integrating conversations about values, expectations, and executive support

  • Measurement & Feedback: Conducted pre- and post-engagement surveys to assess growth and engagement outcomes

Solution

The engagement generated measurable improvements in leadership clarity, alignment, and confidence, and laid the groundwork for sustainable culture change across BCS.

Key outcomes included:

  • Stronger leadership alignment around organizational values and role expectations

  • Increased leadership confidence and capability among Division Directors

  • Improved onboarding practices with a clear focus on culture and values integration

  • Organization-wide ripple effect, as empowered mid-level leaders began modeling behaviors aligned with the desired BCS leadership profile

  • Evidence-based insights from pre/post survey data to guide continued development

By investing in leadership at all levels, BCS is advancing a culture that lives its values - from the executive team to frontline service - and is well-positioned to sustain long-term, mission-aligned impact.

Outcome