Why start with first-line supervisors?
First-line supervisors are where an agency's culture becomes real. They decide how a shift starts, how mistakes are handled, whose strengths are used and whose effort gets noticed. Research on police supervision, for example the work published by the U.S. National Institute of Justice on how supervisory styles influence patrol officer behavior, has long shown that sergeants matter for what happens on the street.
At the same time, most sergeants are promoted because they were good officers. Few receive systematic training in how to lead people: how to build trust in a team, how to give feedback that moves someone forward, how to keep people motivated through a hard year. That gap is exactly where positive leadership training has the most leverage.
What supervisors take away
The course is built on the five PERMA-Lead levers and focuses on tools that work within the realities of shift work:
- Strengths vs. competence: the difference between what someone is good at and what actually energizes them, and how to use it when assigning work.
- The check-in: a short, structured start to a shift or meeting that builds trust and surfaces problems early.
- Feed-forward: development-focused feedback that looks at the next call, not just the last one.
- Meaning: connecting officers intentionally to the purpose behind their work.
- Making success visible: debriefs that name what went well and recognize individual contributions.
- A personal leadership playbook and a PERMA-Lead self-assessment that shows each supervisor where they stand.
What Austin police leaders said
We delivered the course for leaders of the Austin Police Department in Texas. The anonymous feedback:
Average ratings from our first APD course groups.
“I realized that while I understand why our work matters, I can do a better job of communicating that purpose to my people.”Course participant, Austin Police Department
“I hope this class becomes mandatory for all newly promoted supervisors and normal curriculum for those in the highest ranks.”Course participant, Austin Police Department
Format
The full course runs over two days, on site. Shorter versions for supervisor meetings and a follow-up session a few months later are possible. The course is available in English and German.