The Modern Manager Lab™
Build More Confident, Capable Managers — Without Building a Custom Leadership Program
A 7-week live development and coaching experience for organizations with 1–5 managers who need help handling feedback, conflict, accountability, change, and different employee styles.
Real manager situations. Live coaching. Immediate application.
$1,495 per manager | Fall cohort begins October 21
Managing your own team? Join the cohort.
Trusted by 400+ organizations. 40,000+ leaders developed. Facilitated personally by Tara Powers, CEO.
Managers Aren't Just Learning It. They're Using It.
"Modern Manager Lab was extremely valuable to my development as a manager. It gave me the tools to properly delegate, and I've started tailoring my communication style to the person I'm talking to. I'd recommend it to any manager."
— Modern Manager Lab Participant, Summer 2026A Premium Cohort Experience
The Modern Manager Lab™ is personally led by Tara Powers, CEO of Powers Resource Center.
For 25+ years, Tara has worked with Fortune 500 organizations to strengthen leadership capability, trust, and team effectiveness.
This program gives managers access to expert facilitation, “in the moment” coaching, and proven assessment tools — in a highly accessible format.
Seat are intentionally limited to 20 managers to preserve interaction, discussion, and individual attention and coaching.
from TARA POWERS, CEO:
A Strong Fit When
You Have 1–5 Managers
Who Need Development
Not every organization needs a large custom leadership initiative.
Sometimes you have one manager who is struggling with the people side of leadership—or a handful of managers who need more support than online training can provide.
Modern Manager Lab™ gives them access to high-touch development and live coaching without requiring you to build an internal program or hire an individual coach for every manager.
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Support the managers who need development now instead of waiting until you have a large enough group for an internal program.
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Live instruction, expert coaching, DiSC insights and practical tools managers use with their real teams.
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More support than self-paced learning without the investment of a custom leadership program.
WHY ORGANIZATIONS SEND THEIR MANAGERS
Why HR & L&D Leaders Choose This.
Why Executives Approve It.
For HR & L&D Leaders
Give under-supported managers a practical development option
Strengthen feedback, conflict, delegation, change and motivation
Build a shared language through Everything DiSC® and Catalyst™
Reinforce learning through weekly workplace application
Add manager-development capacity without building another internal program
For Executives
Build greater manager confidence and self-sufficiency
Reduce unnecessary escalation of everyday people problems
Improve communication, accountability and adaptability
Develop 1–5 managers without funding a custom program
Give managers tools they can use immediately
Program ResultsIn just 7 weeks, managers improved in 7 of 10 skill areas, with the biggest jump in
having productive conflict conversations (2 → 4).
An impressive and meaningful behavior shift in a very short window!
What Should Be Different Seven Weeks Later?
Modern Manager Lab is designed to help managers become more confident, adaptable and self-sufficient in the everyday people situations that affect team performance.
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✔️ Handle people issues with greater confidence
Instead of avoiding the conversation or immediately escalating it to senior leadership or HR.
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✔️ Adapt their approach to different employees
Instead of managing every person the same way.
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✔️ Create stronger accountability and ownership
Instead of repeatedly stepping in, taking over or solving the problem themselves.
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✔️ Give feedback and address conflict earlier
Before manageable issues become bigger problems.
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✔️ Lead people through change more effectively
By recognizing that different employees need different communication, support and involvement.
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✔️ Motivate people more intentionally
By understanding what energizes different employees rather than relying on a one-size-fits-all approach.
These outcomes are consistent with the behaviors documented in the Modern Manager Lab™ wrap-up, including treating feedback as part of leadership, shifting from solving problems for employees toward building their capability, and adapting motivation to the individual.
For the Manager Who Is Figuring Out the People Part
You were great at your job. Then they promoted you to manage people — and nobody taught you how.
Now you're avoiding a conversation you need to have. Someone on your team is struggling, and you don't know what to say. There's conflict brewing, and you're hoping it resolves itself. You're doing your job and theirs.
That's not a YOU problem. That's a development problem. And it's fixable in 7 weeks.
Modern Manager Lab™ is a 7-week live experience where you’ll build the five skills that matter most right now: giving feedback, navigating conflict, empowering others, leading through change, and motivating people more effectively.
Each 90-minute session combines live training, online tools, personal insights, and a Manager Coaching Lab where you bring your actual situations and get live coaching from me.
You leave with more than ideas. You leave with a clear growth vision, practical plans, real-world practice, stronger confidence, and leadership habits you can sustain long after the program ends.
More Than an Online Course.
Far Less Than Building a Custom Program.
Five Manager Moments. Broader Leadership Capability.
Modern Manager Lab™ focuses on five situations managers face constantly:
✔ Giving feedback that actually lands
✔ Navigating conflict before it escalates
✔ Delegating in ways that build ownership
✔ Leading people through change and uncertainty
✔ Motivating people with different needs and styles
Through those five situations, managers strengthen broader leadership capabilities including self-awareness, adaptability, trust, communication, coaching and accountability.
Modern Manager Lab™ helps managers use it when it actually matters.
Because the cohort is intentionally small, managers can bring real situations into the Manager Coaching Lab and receive direct coaching and support from Tara Powers.
The weekly structure already supports this positioning: the program includes live teaching, Catalyst/application planning, a Manager Coaching Lab for real situations, and next-step practice commitments.
LEARN
APPLY
GET COACHED
ADJUST
Use it again!
Everything Managers Need to Learn — and Actually Use
Seven Live Sessions with Tara Powers
Interactive learning, practice and coaching—not passive webinars.Manager Coaching Lab Every Week
Managers bring real employee situations and get help figuring out what to do next.Everything DiSC® Workplace + Worksmart on Catalyst™
Understand how personal style affects feedback, conflict, delegation, motivation and change—and how to adapt to different employees.Lifetime Catalyst™ Access
Managers can return to the tools when a new management challenge comes up.Modern Manager Lab™ Playbook
Weekly plans, reflection activities, and practical tools managers continue using after the program.Between-Session Workplace Practice
Every week, managers apply what they learn with their actual teams.90-Day Leadership Habit
Managers leave with one leadership behavior they intentionally continue practicing after the Lab.
The program wrap-up explicitly directs participants to continue using Catalyst/Worksmart when real management challenges arise and to practice one selected leadership behavior for the next 90 days.
Early Results From Modern Manager Lab™
One recent participant improved in 7 of 10 measured management skill and confidence areas during the seven-week program.
Their largest improvement was in facilitating healthy disagreement, increasing from 2 to 4 on a five-point self-rating scale.
Other improvements included adapting their style to others' needs, approaching conflict with greater skill, understanding what motivates the team, and helping employees adapt to change.
In a world powered by Artificial Intelligence, Human Intelligence is the ultimate leadership advantage. The Modern Manager Lab™ equips managers not just to operate in an AI-enabled workplace — but to lead it.
What You’ll Experience
HUMAN INTELLIGENCE:
The Power Skills Technology Cannot Replace
The Modern Manager Lab™ develops the seven competencies modern managers need most:
Self-Awareness & Adaptability — Know how you show up and shift when it matters
Trust-Building & Psychological Safety — Create the conditions where people do their best work
Coaching & Developing Others — Move from directing to growing
Navigating Conflict Productively — Lead through tension instead of around it
Communicating with Clarity & Influence — Say the hard things, the right way
Creating Accountability & Ownership — Build cultures where people step up
Leading Through Change & Uncertainty — Steady the team when everything shifts
These are not ‘soft skills.’ They are the skills that determine whether you’ll keep great people — or lose them.
AI can generate answers. It can write emails, analyze data, and automate workflows.
What it cannot do: build trust. Navigate difficult conversations. Create alignment when uncertainty rises. Develop the people around it.
Those are human skills. And they are performance multipliers.
Led Personally by Tara Powers, CEO, Powers Resource Center
Tara Powers, CEO of Powers Resource Center, has spent more than 25 years helping organizations develop stronger leaders and teams.
She has worked with hundreds of organizations and tens of thousands of leaders and is the author of Virtual Teams for Dummies and Working From Home for Dummies.
In Modern Manager Lab™, Tara personally facilitates the experience and coaches participants through real leadership situations.
This isn't a course Tara created and handed off to another facilitator. She leads the Lab herself.
Intentionally Small. Seats Limited.
Each Modern Manager Lab™ cohort is capped at 20 participants — by design. This is not a webinar. It’s a live, facilitated, interactive experience where every manager gets attention, discussion time, and direct engagement with Tara.
The Workplace Has Changed. Managers Deserve Support That Has, Too.
AI is not the threat to your organization. Under-supported managers are.
When managers don’t have the skills to build trust, navigate conflict, and lead people through change — teams disengage, talent walks, and performance stalls.
The Modern Manager Lab™ is your answer to that — in 7 focused weeks, with the tools, language, and confidence to lead what’s coming.
Managers aren’t underperforming.
They are under-supported.
That changes HERE.