THE CONNECTED MANAGER
Manager development for non-profits, for your whole organization or one manager at a time.
Organizations don't lose good people to bad pay. They lose them to managers who were never taught how to lead.
Your strongest performers get promoted because they were excellent at the work. Almost none of them are taught how to lead people. What follows isn't anyone's character. The hard conversation gets postponed, work gets redone rather than delegated, and supervision looks different on every team.
The Connected Manager is a seven-month series for the program directors and supervisors your staff report to. Managers build the two things a team needs: clarity about what winning looks like, and connection strong enough that people tell them the truth.
Clarity × Connection = Commitment™ is a multiplication, not a list. A zero on either side zeros the result. Mission-driven teams usually have plenty of connection and almost none of the clarity.
According to Forbes, 83% of organizations say developing leaders at every level matters. Only 5% have done something about it.
What it is
Sixteen 90-minute sessions over seven months, every other week. Sessions alternate: a content session, then an implementation and coaching session where managers work through what they're applying with their own teams. We bring the framework, CliftonStrengths and the structure. Your managers build the agreements and plans themselves.
The eight content sessions
Leadership Identity & Strengths Foundation
The Power of Clarity
Goals, Accountability & Performance Conversations
Leading Meetings & Decision Clarity
The Power of Connection
Feedback That Builds, Not Breaks
Conflict & Commitment
Integration & Personal Leadership System
For organizations, the series opens with a 360-degree review for each manager and goal planning with your organizational contact. It closes with a second 360-degree review and a progress meeting.
Who it's for
Non-profits and the organizations that serve alongside them, including cities and universities, with at least one layer of people managers.
It's a fit when:
Your best staff were promoted into supervising and never shown how
Supervision looks different from one team to the next
Good staff leave some teams and stay on others
You're growing, and new managers arrive faster than anyone can coach them
It isn't the right fit if you need a one-day training or a speaker for an all-staff day. For a smaller first step, start with a Team Strengths session or retreat.
What Managers Walk Away With
The hard conversation happens instead of waiting
Work gets delegated instead of redone
Two managers give the same answer to the same question
Agreements and plans they wrote themselves, not cookie-cutter templates
Organizations also get a before-and-after 360-degree review for every manager, so you can see what changed.
Two Ways to Join
For your organization
Starts at $18,000, scaled by the number of managers. Includes before-and-after 360-degree reviews and planning and progress meetings with your organizational contact. Scheduled around your team, in person or virtual.
Optional: Systems Alignment, starts at $7,500. Connects the series to your performance management system, competency model, HR frameworks and strategic priorities.
Foundations, associations and cities can fund a cohort across several organizations. Ask about the cohort format.
For individual managers: the founding cohort
Starts Wednesday, January 20, 2027, and runs through August 18
Every other Wednesday, 1:00–2:30 p.m. Central, on Zoom
$1,997 per seat, or three monthly payments
15% off for three or more managers from one organization
Optional before-and-after 360-degree review: $500
Limited to 12 managers
Content sessions are recorded. Coaching sessions are live only. Organizations paying for a seat can request an invoice.
Apply by January 6. Fees are fully refundable until then, and transfer to a future cohort after. If the cohort doesn't reach six managers, everyone gets a full refund.
How to get started:
How to Get Started
1.
Schedule a consult call
2.
Review and approve your scope and timeline
3.
Pre-work begins with your managers' 360-degree reviews