Empowering Emerging Leaders: Building Leadership Cohorts at FEMA

The Challenge

At the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Team Leads occupy a critical but challenging position as the first level of semi-formal leadership. These emerging leaders found themselves in a "shadow zone": carrying significant responsibility without clear authority or consistent support structures.

Initial interviews revealed consistent challenges: unclear role boundaries, limited peer connections, confidence gaps, overwhelming workloads, and a desire for greater agency. Many Team Leads operated in silos with few opportunities to share best practices, while others struggled with the transition from technical expert to team enabler.

The Approach

Rather than imposing a traditional development program, we designed the Team Lead Development Cohort (TLDC) as a six-month "leadership laboratory" where participants would not only learn leadership principles but actively practice them through the program's design and delivery.

The program featured several key design principles:

Participant-Driven Content: Team Leads voted on leadership topics most relevant to their challenges, including communication, difficult conversations, breaking silos, and workload management.

Peer Leadership Rotation: For each monthly session, pairs of Team Leads designed and facilitated the learning experience for their colleagues, creating authentic leadership practice opportunities.

Consistent Structure: Each 90-120 minute session followed a four-part flow: Share Perspectives, Expand Awareness, Action Planning, and Next Steps.

Safe Space: The cohort environment allowed Team Leads to discuss challenges and practice new skills without fear of judgment.

Results

The program's impact extended beyond traditional development outcomes:

Stronger Connections: "Across the organization we experience the same issues. It's important the Team Leads work together more," shared one participant. Post-program surveys showed participants felt "connected" to peers and "likely" to reach out for support.

Practical Application: Participants immediately applied their learning. One noted, "I am using elements learned in my day-to-day activities," while another shared they were "communicating updates to my boss, mentor, and coworkers on the great things I've learned."

Leadership Growth: "The experience empowered all of us to address issues not commonly discussed," reported a participant. "Overall the experience will help me be a more genuine and compassionate leader."

High Satisfaction: The program received ratings of 9-10 out of 10 from most participants, with overwhelmingly positive feedback: "Definitely do it. The team supporting the cohort is very strong and will help you manage it within your workload."

Key Takeaways

The TLDC offers valuable insights for leadership development:

1. Co-creation increases engagement and relevance: When participants design their learning, they ensure content addresses actual needs.

2. Peer leadership creates multiple learning layers: Participants practice leadership skills in real time while delivering content.

3. Safe spaces enable authentic development: Psychological safety allows vulnerability and experimentation with new approaches.

4. Leadership development can solve real problems: The program delivered immediate organizational value while developing individual capabilities.

Looking Forward

What began as a leadership initiative evolved into a self-sustaining community. Participants suggested continuing this community-building approach, with one recommending "cohort groups should meet periodically. The more team leads together, the better for brainstorming."

The program's success led to a second cohort and similar approaches elsewhere in the organization, demonstrating how leadership development can be reimagined as a participatory experience—creating not just better individual leaders, but a stronger leadership culture throughout the organization.

This case study demonstrates Joyedele Consulting's approach to leadership development—creating conditions where leaders can authentically develop capabilities while building meaningful connections with peers.