Program · corporals, sergeants, FTOs · 16 hours
First-Line Leader
The hardest promotion in law enforcement is the first one. Yesterday you were one of them; today you correct them. Most agencies hand new supervisors a policy manual and hope. This course prepares them, so promotions are planned for rather than just survived.
Eight blocks, two days (or four half-days around shift rotation).
1The coat you inheritedThe FTO who made you, and what you caught from them without choosing to.+
Every supervisor leads the way they were led until they notice. This block maps the Hard, Careful, and Invisible coats onto supervision styles and has each participant trace their own back to where it came from.
2Correcting without making people smallFinding the gap in supervision.+
A correction delivered from the heat teaches fear. One delivered from the gap teaches the job. Includes the "free rep" drill: practice on the small stuff so the move is already in your hands when it's a use-of-force review.
3The two-question reviewAfter-action reviews that people don't dread.+
What happened? What do we want to do differently? This block covers how to separate learning from discipline, how to hold a high bar without beating the person reaching for it, and how to measure come-back time.
4Ownership without a witch huntThe square of ground conversation.+
A conversation structure for getting a deputy to own their part without blaming them or letting them off the hook, and for modeling it first when it's your mistake.
5Setting the weatherRunning a briefing people want to be at.+
How a supervisor's state spreads through a shift, what the research says about supervisor support and stress, and how to run a ten-minute roll-call module.
6Writing people betterDeveloping the next FTO and the next sergeant.+
Individual development plans, stay conversations with years two through five (when most people leave), and the practice of supervising people toward a better story than the one you currently hold about them.
7Hard conversations labScenario-based practice.+
Live role-play: the veteran who won't take direction, the trainee who isn't going to make it, the deputy you smell alcohol on at roll call, and the peer you just got promoted over.
8Your game planThree values, six fronts, and a 90-day commitment.+
Each participant leaves with three values tied to real people, a personal game plan, and one measurable 90-day commitment to their shift. A follow-up call checks on it at 90 days.
Promotion-ready bench
The goal: two prepared internal candidates for every supervisory opening.
Submittable for CE
Lesson plans, objectives, and a knowledge assessment are provided for submission to your state's training council.
12–24 per cohort
Small enough that everyone gets reps in the lab, big enough to mix shifts and divisions.