Dave Kline

Become the Leader You’d Follow | Founder @ MGMT | Coach | Advisor | Speaker | Trusted by 250K+ leaders.

Hey, I’m Dave Kline.

I teach leaders how to build All-Star teams and level up their careers.

After decades of leading in pretty intense environments, from Bridgewater Associates to Moody’s Analytics, I know what it takes to be the manager your team remembers (for the right reasons).

Why I can help you is simple:

I’ve been through it.

And to prove it, here’s my background (by the numbers) ⤵️

2: Decades leading high-impact teams in asset management (Bridgewater), consulting (PwC), & financial services (Moody’s Analytics).

4: Years as an entrepreneur. My portfolio includes Skillscouter (an online course & career site), and MGMT Accelerator (a cohort-based management training course).

14: Cohorts of early-career leaders that I’ve taught at multiple companies.

100: Managers I recruited, onboarded & mentored at Bridgewater Associates.

1,000: Performance evaluations with grace and respect for stars and terminations alike.

205,000+: My community across LinkedIn & Twitter interested in management tactics & leadership lessons

385,000,000: My team’s top revenue year at Moody’s.

Now that we’ve covered the why, here’s the how:

- The MGMT Accelerator – an intensive management training course for both new and senior leaders
- MGMT Fundamentals – a course that covers all the need-to-know management basics for rookie leaders
- The MGMT Playbook – a weekly newsletter that gives practical management insights

Through our MGMT courses, my wife Marsden and I have played the assist with over 1,100 leaders so far, who’ve now learned how to:

- Practically tackle the most common leadership challenges
- Build their Management OS’s CODE (Coach, Operate, Delegate, Engage)
- Refine their individual leadership Decision-Making System

With our 30+ years of combined experience, you won’t just get our knowledge.

You’ll get to ask us questions directly and get access to coaching that’s more tailored to your own experience.

We always say – if we could do it like a dinner party, we would.

If you’re interested in leadership advice (that doesn’t just sound nice but actually works), drop me a follow – I post daily.

And if you like what you see, our MGMT courses could be just what you need to level up.

DM me if you’re interested.

Co-Founder

We created the MGMT Accelerator to help managers rapidly develop into trusted leaders by combining the art & science of management. 

This 4-week program consistents of eight 90-minute modules where I share the tactics I learned leading high-performing teams for 25 years. During each session, we tailor those insights together to build your personalized management system together. 

You'll learn alongside ~50 peers and become part of an expert community of more than 300 alums.

60% of managers fail.

Not because they lack talent.
But because they lack a clear map.

They're promoted and handed:

• No training
• No playbook
• No clarity

Just bigger responsibilities and higher expectations.

What makes it even harder?

Each management level isn't slightly different.
It's an entirely different game.

Same title. 
New rules.

And the cost of mistakes only goes up:

Team Lead Mistakes:
• Avoiding tough conversations
• Clinging to individual contributor work
• Missing early warning signals
• Failing to establish boundaries
• Prioritizing friendship over leadership

Manager Mistakes:
• Hiring too quickly, firing too slowly
• Choosing comfort over development
• Accepting mediocre performance
• Neglecting succession planning
• Navigating politics poorly

Manager of Managers Mistakes:
• Overlooking strategic opportunities
• Creating silos instead of connections
• Choosing the wrong battles
• Drowning in tactical details
• Controlling information flow

But beneath all three levels?

Core capabilities anyone can learn:

Emotional Intelligence
• Navigate conflict effectively
• Manage up with intention
• Read the room and adjust

Quality Decisions
• Gather the right inputs
• Move with purpose
• Deliver

Clear Communication
• Right audience
• Right message
• Right timing

Strategic Thinking
• Many No's for the right Yes!
• Anticipate what's coming
• Connect the dots

Team Development
• Build bench strength
• Identify hidden potential
• Make choices to up talent density

Master these foundations.
Use them to avoid learning lessons the hard way.

What skill helped you level up?
Share below ⬇️

♻️ Share to help fast-growing managers
🔔 Follow Dave Kline for more leadership frameworks

If you want to get promoted this year, read this:


Most people wait for the title to start leading.
They want permission and a promotion.

The top 1% know better.
They know most companies don’t like risk.

And the best way to make your promotion low risk?

Show them you can do the job...
BEFORE they give it to you.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth about getting promoted:

Your company isn’t promoting potential.
Hope is not a qualification.

They’re promoting performance.
The performance they’ve already seen.

While most people focus on doing their job well,
Future leaders focus on something completely different:

JUDGMENT | Start Acting Like an Owner
• Own outcomes, not just tasks
• Make decisions as if the company’s success depends on you
• Solve problems before you’re asked

RELIABILITY | Make Your Manager’s Job Easier
• Anticipate needs before they ask
• Keep every commitment or escalate early
• Deliver work with recommendations, not just reports

LEADERSHIP | Develop People Around You
• Share knowledge freely
• Help new team members succeed faster
• Document your work so others can build on it

CREDIBILITY | Communicate with Clarity
• Write things down—documentation builds trust
• Follow up with clear next steps
• Use active listening to show you understand

PERSPECTIVE | Think Beyond Your Role
• Connect your work to bigger goals
• Offer ideas that benefit the whole team
• Ask questions about the larger business context

GROWTH | Give and Receive Feedback Well
• Give constructive input to peers
• Actively seek feedback on your own performance
• Handle criticism without getting defensive

SYSTEMS | Solve Problems at the Root
• Ask “why” until you find the real cause
• Address causes, not just symptoms
• Build solutions that prevent problems from coming back

IMPACT | Deliver Meaningful Results
• Focus on work that moves the needle
• Track and share your impact
• Make your value visible to decision-makers

AI | Stand Out with New Skills
• Learn and use AI tools to boost your productivity
• Automate routine work and teach others what you learn
• Become the go-to resource for new technology

The promotion paradox:
Companies promote based on performance, not potential.
But most people perform at their current level, not the next one.

The breakthrough insight:
Start doing the work before you get the job.
The title will follow the behavior, not the other way around.

What skill helped you get promoted recently?
Drop it in the comments if I missed one.

And before you go...

♻️ Share to help others earn their next promotion
🔖 Save this so you can check back on your progress
🔔 Follow Dave Kline for more leadership insights

Timeless Skills You must learn To Get Promoted This Year 

Most of what you do as a manager doesn’t matter.

These 5 levers will make or break you.

After 25 years of working with teams, 
The same pattern repeats:

Average managers try to do everything.
The great ones focus on what really matters.

These are the 5 factors every high-performing team gets right:

1. Clear Goal | Singular Focus
• If everything’s a priority, nothing is
• One mission everyone can recite from memory
• Make progress visible—post your key metrics publicly

2. Best People | Talent Density
• Filling seats with whoever’s available kills momentum
• Recruit constantly, raise the bar relentlessly
• Tap your top performers’ networks

3. Right Tools | Force Multipliers
• “We can’t afford good software” is an excuse
• Invest in systems that amplify talent
• Pre-approve any tool under $500/year

4. Least Friction | Ruthless Simplification
• “That’s how we’ve always done it” is a red flag
• Eliminate every unnecessary step and meeting
• Ask weekly: “What got in our way?”

5. Shortest Time | Speed as Strategy
• Waiting for perfect conditions means you’ll never act
• Run rapid experiments, learn fast
• Cut every cycle time in half—then do it again

The brutal truth:
Most teams have 3 out of 5 levers working.
Elite teams obsess over all 5, all the time.

One broken pillar pulls everyone down.

The diagnostic question:
Which lever is your bottleneck right now?

Fix that one first.
Everything else multiplies from there.

Want more practical frameworks like this?

Subscribe to the MGMT Playbook. 
My free weekly newsletter for leaders who want to level up.

https://mgmt.beehiiv.com

♻️ Share to help leaders focus on what matters
🔔 Follow Dave Kline for more practical leadership insights

The 8020 of Management

Founder @ Growth Marketing Agency - Single Grain, Podcaster @ Marketing School + Leveling Up

Single Grain is a digital marketing agency focused on driving scalable and predictable revenue growth using Facebook advertising, Google Ads, YouTube advertising, SEO, video production and content marketing. 

We've worked with companies such as Amazon, Uber, Nordstrom and venture-backed startups to create and execute on custom-tailored growth strategies.






-> For those of you that are interesting in marketing and personal growth tips from top entrepreneurs, please visit http://www.levelingup.com for our free podcast. You'll hear from billionaires, authors, and other high performers.

-> For my daily marketing podcast, go listen to Marketing School at https://www.singlegrain.com/marketing-school-podcast



Skills:
SEO
Paid Search (Pay per click advertising)
Affiliate Marketing
Display Advertising
Mobile Advertising
Remarketing/Retargeting
Facebook Marketing
Video Advertising
Twitter Marketing
Google Analytics
Conversion Rate Optimization
Sales
Strategic Partnerships
Content Strategy/Development
Business Development
Social Media
Community Development
Operations
Affiliate marketing
Affiliate program management
Retargeting
Growth Hacking

Eric Siu ✓

84% of the world has never used AI.

Let that satisfying visual sink in for a second.
Each dot in this chart represents ~3.2 million people. 2,500 dots = 8.1 billion humans.

The gray? That’s ~6.8 billion people who have never touched an AI tool. Not once.

The green at the bottom? ~1.3 billion free chatbot users. That’s only 16%.

The tiny sliver of yellow? ~15-25 million people paying $20/month for AI. That’s 0.3%.

And the red dots you can barely see? ~2-5 million people using coding scaffolds like Claude Code or Cursor. 0.04% of the planet.

I run a business where AI fluency with Claude Code is now mandatory. We’ve replaced significant headcount costs with autonomous agent systems. We build business tools with Claude Code.

Most founders I talk to think AI adoption is “everywhere.” It’s not even close.

If you’re reading this, you’re likely in the top 1% of AI users on Earth. The opportunity gap between those who use AI and those who don’t is only getting wider.

We’re at the dial-up era of AI. The people building skills now will compound their advantage for the next decade.

What’s your take on the adoption curve?

Join Neil Patel & Eric Siu live as they talk about the latest in AI and marketing

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