How to Develop Your Front Line Leaders (Beyond Training)

What We’re Hearing

Organizations often feel this:

“Our senior leaders are aligned. But our frontline managers—who lead our teams and clients—are inconsistent. We offer new manager training and pair them with mentors, but it’s not enough. Feedback from staff shows gaps, and we’re worried about culture and retention.”

Sound familiar? You’re not alone.

Front Line Leaders Are Pivotal

Supervisors, managers, and directors lead the people delivering your services. Their jobs are harder than ever—navigating hybrid work, well-being, diversity, and high-speed change.

The Problem with One-Off Training

Training is useful. But most leadership training doesn’t stick—because of the “forgetting curve.” If new skills aren’t applied and reinforced, they fade.

What Actually Helps?

1. Share a Vision for Leadership

Great leadership starts with shared expectations. Define what leadership looks like in your organization. One client did this—and found it helped leaders stay aligned when facing tough calls like burnout concerns.

Without shared leadership principles, each manager is left to figure it out solo—and that erodes culture.

2. Align Training With Values

Training content should match your leadership philosophy. For example, if your culture promotes co-creating team priorities, avoid delegation courses that push top-down command. Otherwise, the training will contradict your culture.

3. Integrate Coaching and Mentorship

Want training to stick? Pair it with coaching. Internal or external coaches help managers apply new skills to real-world scenarios. They ask great questions, give feedback, and reinforce values. It’s one of the most powerful ways to embed learning.

4. Build Leadership Communities

Leadership is lonely. But when managers come together regularly—to share challenges and learn from one another—it builds momentum.

Some orgs create virtual hubs where leaders can post and answer questions. Others hold monthly roundtables to troubleshoot in real time.

5. Turn Insight into Action

Managers are always learning—from coaching, workshops, podcasts, or peers. Encourage them to turn insight into action.

One of our clients trained a cohort on strengths-based leadership. A participant recommended updating the performance process to reflect those strengths—and the senior team agreed.

Real growth comes when learning leads to system-level change.