Manager & Supervisor Development

Kern and Partners / Los Angeles

Next generation leadership development.

Most managers got the job because they were good at their last one. We give them the skills for this one, practiced on real work and measured before and after.

Take the manager assessment

Talk to Russell

Is this you?

When HR and learning leaders call us

Strong people have stepped into management without enough preparation or support.
Your managers avoid difficult conversations, and accountability is slipping.
Decisions keep coming back up to you instead of getting made where they should.
A restructure widened everyone’s span, and your managers are stretched thin.
You want your high-potential people to see a future with you.
Manager engagement is falling, and someone’s asked you to explain why.

Russell Kern pointing to a wall of sticky notes during a working session — Practice on real work, captured on the wall

Why it matters

Your managers set the bar

At least 70%

of the variance in employee engagement scores across business units is attributed to managers in Gallup’s research.

Source: Gallup, “Employees Want a Lot More From Their Managers,” 2015

27% to 22%

Global manager engagement fell from 2024 to 2025, according to Gallup’s 2026 report.

Source: Gallup, State of the Global Workplace 2026 (2025 data)

66%

of managers in a 2024 UK survey of 2,000 professionals had no formal training for the role.

Source: Robert Walters, reported by Fortune, May 2024

When managers lack preparation or support, decisions can stall and difficult conversations can go unaddressed. Development should help them handle those situations, not simply add another course to their calendar.

Development paths

Development for big steps on the career ladder

For first-time managers and newly promoted supervisors
New to the Role
The first 90 days in charge of people. How to give feedback, delegate, run a team meeting, have the hard conversation and make a decision instead of passing it up.
See New to the Role
For managers ready to build a stronger team
Manager to Team Leader
For managers who’ve got the basics and now need a team that performs without them in every meeting. Coaching, accountability, difficult conversations and working with other departments.
See Manager to Team Leader
For high-potential people you’re preparing for bigger roles
Next Generation Leaders
For the people you want running things in three to five years. Leading across functions, thinking past their own department and making the calls senior roles require.
See Next Generation Leaders

Developing sales leaders? See Sales Leadership Development

The Kern process

Built to stick.

We start with a needs analysis, so the program fits your managers, not managers in general.
Sessions are spaced over weeks and months, with practice on real work in between.
It’s taught live, on site and face to face. Nobody clicks through a module alone.
Your own executives co-teach. That’s how the skills stay in the building.
Your leaders are certified to teach the material to the next group.
We measure on the same instrument before and after, and show you the change.

What will change

What you should expect

Fewer escalations, because decisions get made at the level they belong.
Managers who hold the hard conversation instead of putting it off.
A stronger internal bench for future openings.
Better support and development for the people you want to keep.
Evidence of progress you can share with senior leadership.

In their words

What learning leaders say

Super engaging with valuable information on adult learning. I loved his concept on how to be magnificent myself which in turn will bring out the magnificence of others. I loved it!

Myriam CallahanLearning and Development · Pape-Dawson Engineers, Inc.Conference session feedback

Having the ideas of challenges around purpose, understanding behavior of organizations and really focusing on the concept of magnificence was incredibly helpful. To keep that focus on what it is we’re trying to accomplish and to think differently about not only the staff that we have in place but how to onboard new staff and how to engage in a way that provide encouragement to people that are new, but also people who have been around for quite some time that helps us really achieve our missions. This was a great experience, and I would encourage anybody to do this.

Ron BrownCEO · Children’s Bureau

I was very impacted by the learning.
The presentation was smart, actionable training for leaders, especially for leaders of leaders.

Melanie KennyHuman Resources Manager · Acme Constructors Inc.Conference session feedback

Very engaging, great information that is relatable.
People like Russell make leadership skills development both FUN and effective!

Cristian RangelLearning and Development Manager · Encore Wire CorpConference session feedback

Guides

Senior leader’s guide

The Magnificent Manager Advantage

Request a copy

90-day quick-start program

Transforming New Managers Into High-Impact Team Leaders

Request a copy

Guides for leaders who develop managers

The Magnificent Manager Advantage is a senior leader’s guide to a stronger culture of career development, collaboration and creativity. Transforming New Managers Into High-Impact Team Leaders is a 90-day quick-start program for peak team performance.

How to start

Three steps.

Start free with the Magnificent Manager Assessment or a 30-minute call with Russell.

If Russell can help he will tell you. If not, he will tell you that too. If there’s something you both agree is worth looking into deeper, the diagnostic is a fixed $4,500. Then you’ll receive a satisfaction-guaranteed, fixed-fee 90-Day Change Sprint.

See how we work

Questions

How should we evaluate a provider of manager feedback training?

Look for a firm that teaches feedback as a practiced skill, not a lecture. Your managers should rehearse real conversations, get coached on them and repeat them over several weeks. Ask how the provider measures change afterward. Feedback is a core skill in all three of our programs, and we measure it before and after.

What should new managers be trained on first?

The conversations they’re avoiding. Most new managers know the work. What they don’t know is how to give feedback, set expectations and hold people accountable without damaging the relationship. Start there, then delegation and decision-making.

How is this different from a management training course?

Our programs combine learning over time, practice on your real work, involvement from your own leaders and before-and-after measurement.

Do you run programs for a single team or the whole company?

Both. Most clients start with one group during the 90-Day Change Sprint, then widen it once they’ve seen the result.

Next step

See where manager development could help most.

Take the manager assessment Talk to Russell

Next generation leadership development.

When HR and learning leaders call us

Your managers set the bar

Development for big steps on the career ladder

New to the Role

Manager to Team Leader