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.

The soft skills are sometimes the hardest.

Which is why they're so valuable.

Think about the best person you worked with.
- The one who quietly set the standard.
- The one who made everyone else better. 
- The one you'd want to bring with you.

What made them stand out?

Yes, they were good at their job. 
But there was something more.

It was how they showed up. 

4 Underrated Career Skills:

1. Raise the Energy of the Room
→ Make others feel more capable, not less
→ Add enthusiasm when it's absent
→ Choose optimism

2. Be Enjoyable to Work With
→ Create calm in chaos
→ Blend excellence with enjoyment
→ Become everyone's "go-to" resource

3. Keep Your Commitments
→ Replace "I'll try" with "I will"
→ Build trust through reliable delivery 
→ Promise carefully, deliver consistently

4. Lead Regardless of Title
→ Tackle the problems others avoid
→ Take initiative before it's obvious
→ Make decisions that prioritize progress

The truth about these skills:

They're 100% your choice.
Only 1% do all 4.

And that's your opportunity.

Simple ≠ Easy
That's why it works.

And yes, AI is changing everything. 
Including making these skills more valuable.

⬇️ Which skill has helped your career most?

🔔 Follow Dave Kline for more
♻️ Share to help others grow

Your team doesn't need you to have all the answers,

As long as you ask the right questions. 

Here are 20 questions that:

- Uncover meaningful problems
- Unlock the team's potential
- Unleash breakthrough results

And what you should listen for...

THE WORK (And How Work Gets Done)

1. What does excellence look like?
2. How do we measure success?
3. Name our three critical priorities.
4. Where do you get blocked?
5. Which processes feel unnecessary?

What to listen for:
Can they define exceptional work with specificity? 
Do they know what truly matters versus what's just noise? 
Will they challenge inefficient processes? 

Great teams have clarity and the courage to stay focused.

ENGAGEMENT (What Drives People)

6. What energizes you most?
7. How do you prefer feedback?
8. What skills do you want to build?
9. When were you most proud?
10. Where do you want to be in one year?

What to listen for:
Where does their natural energy flow? 
Do they invite improvement or avoid it? 
Are they driving their own development with purpose? 

Great teams have energy and raise everyone else's.

ALIGNMENT (Staying Connected)

11. How does your work impact our mission?
12. What's our biggest opportunity?
13. Where do you see team friction?
14. What information would help you?
15. What should we stop doing?

What to listen for:
Do they see their strategic value beyond their task list? 
Can they spot future wins and surface hard truths? 
Will they challenge the status quo? 

Great teams have a shared mission and the systems to compound.

MOMENTUM (Progress & Patterns)

16. What's our best improvement this quarter?
17. Where are we falling behind?
18. What problems keep returning?
19. Which changes worked best?
20. "What one change would help most?

What to listen for:
Do they build on wins or just move to the next thing? 
Will they flag real risks honestly? 
Can they spot systemic issues versus one-off problems? 

Great teams have direction and an unstoppable desire to improve.

Remember:

The secret isn't in asking the questions.
It's listening deeply to what follows.

Great questions reveal the truth.
Great leaders do something about it.

Helpful?

🔔 Follow us (Dave Kline and Marsden Kline) for more.
♻️ Share to help others lead with better questions.

The 20 Question to Lead Your Team

Justin M. Nassiri

Executive Presence

We help leaders become thought leaders on LinkedIn.

The people getting the most attention on LinkedIn aren’t always the ones with the deepest expertise - they’re the ones with the most time to “play the LinkedIn game.”

We fix that.

At Executive Presence, we work exclusively with senior leaders - more than 250 C-level executives so far, including five public company CEOs - to turn their insights into influence. We’ve bootstrapped from zero to 17 full-time employees and over $3M in annual recurring revenue in under three years by focusing on one thing: making the right people impossible to ignore.

How we do it:
1. Interview-driven process. No blank-page writing. Once a month, you meet with a former McKinsey, Bain, BCG, or Accenture consultant on Zoom. They ask sharp, on-point questions - the same way they would if you were sitting together on a panel in front of your target audience.

2. Your voice, high fidelity. We capture your actual phrasing and perspective, then our U.S.-based writing team turns it into LinkedIn content that feels like you - not a persona.

3. Content strategy. We map your goals (hiring, fundraising, M&A, brand building) to the audiences you need to reach, then build a strategy that blends industry thought leadership, credibility-building stories, and culture-shaping insights.

4. Data analysis. Every month, we track what’s resonating and refine your approach so your reach, engagement, and credibility keep growing.

You don’t need to prep. You don’t need to overthink it. You show up for an hour a month, we handle the rest.

When the right people hear from you consistently, everyone wins - you, your company, and your audience.

CEO ◆ LinkedIn thought leadership for CEOs

Entrepreneurs'​ Organization

I joined EO Denver because the most valuable part of my entrepreneurial journey has been surrounding myself with others who are in the trenches, building and leading companies. In my monthly forum, I connect with smart, driven entrepreneurs - not just for business insights, but for the camaraderie, perspective, and support that comes from shared experience.

The programming, events, and cohort model have been a highlight, and being part of this community was an easy decision. Some of my favorite people in the world are entrepreneurs, and EO has been an incredible way to learn from and contribute to that group.

Member

Forbes Business Council

As a member of the Forbes Business Council, I contribute thought leadership articles about five times per year, focusing on how executives can use LinkedIn to build credibility, visibility, and trust for their companies. I value the opportunity to collaborate with the Forbes team and share proven strategies for turning senior leaders into influential voices in their industries.

Read my articles here: https://councils.forbes.com/profile/Justin-Nassiri-CEO-Executive-Presence/2d8146d6-31a8-4b7e-8adf-cc176349e086

Contributor

Captivate.ai

Founded and scaled Captivate.ai, a content marketing platform that transformed long-form content into high-impact social media assets. Led product vision, operations, and client delivery from inception through acquisition.

Key Achievements:
• Built and managed a distributed team delivering content for clients in industries ranging from SaaS to consumer brands.

• Developed a proprietary workflow to repurpose long-form content into 50+ pieces of platform-optimized micro-content.

• Created data systems to provide clients with actionable, real-time audience insights.

• Produced award-nominated and top-ranked podcasts that served as primary content engines for client brands.

• Drove measurable results for clients, including 100,000+ impressions from a single webinar and social reach increases of 450%+.

Founder & CEO (Acquired 2022)

StoryBox, Inc

Founded and scaled a Silicon Valley marketing technology company funded by Google’s Chairman, Eric Schmidt, and adopted by 35+ Fortune 500 companies.

Key Achievements:
• Grew monthly recurring revenue from $0 to $100K in under two years.
• Raised $3M in venture capital from top-tier investors.
• Built and led a 20+ person team across engineering, sales, and customer success.
• Closed $5M+ in contracts with brands including P&G, Disney, IBM, Levi’s, and Budweiser.
• Designed and launched technology used by 1,000+ companies worldwide.
• Recognized by Budweiser as “the best UGC platform we’ve ever used” and profiled in a Facebook case study for marketing technology excellence.

Founder & CEO (Acquired 2020)

Beyond The Uniform

Created and hosted the #1 iTunes-rated podcast for military career transition advice, featuring leaders such as the CEO of Pepsi, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and NFL players.

Key Achievements:
• Produced 450+ episodes reaching 250,000+ listeners in 78 countries.
• Secured sponsorships from Verizon, Lockheed Martin, Palantir, NBC Comcast, and other leading organizations.
• Developed 500+ hours of free audio, video, and text resources for the veteran community.

Founder & Host ◆ Produced 350+ Episode (Pepsi CEO, NFL Players, etc)

McKinsey & Company

During my Stanford Business School summer internship, I worked in McKinsey’s New York office on strategy projects in the pharmaceutical and education sectors.

Key Achievements:
• Analyzed the global R&D footprint and strategy for a $3B pharmaceutical company.
• Designed a national media strategy and online donation platform for a $70M non-profit charter school organization.
• Received an offer for full-time employment.

Summer Associate

US Navy

Served as a senior officer responsible for the safe operation and navigation of a $1.3B nuclear-powered warship and the welfare of over 170 crew members during classified missions critical to national security.

Key Achievements:
• Directed 200 military and 400 civilian personnel as the Captain’s primary representative during a $500M engineering overhaul - a role typically held by an officer three years senior.
• Designed and implemented a submarine officer training program for 400+ candidates, recognized as the best in five years by the Commander of West Coast operations.
• Revamped maintenance reporting systems, reducing average time from problem identification to correction by 25%.
• Named top nuclear reactor plant supervisor out of nine by the Department of Energy evaluation team.
• Awarded three Naval Achievement Medals for distinguished service.

Nuclear Submarine Officer

I am the CEO and Founder of Executive Presence, where we help companies build trust, visibility, and influence through authentic executive thought leadership on LinkedIn.

In less than three years, I have bootstrapped the company to over $3M in annual recurring revenue, interviewed more than 750 CEOs, and helped over 250 leaders strengthen their presence, credibility, and reach on LinkedIn.

At Executive Presence, we turn leaders into thought leaders. Many executives have networks of people who know and trust them, but they are not consistently top-of-mind. We help them remain relevant, articulate their expertise, and extend their influence—whether the goal is to hire, fundraise, build a brand, or create a category.

Our work is grounded in three principles:
• Authenticity: Capturing the leader’s true voice and perspective.
• Efficiency: Requiring as little as 90 minutes of their time per month.
• Measurability: Tracking progress with weekly KPIs and clear outcomes.

I work with CEOs, founders, and senior executives - often at high-growth companies with 50+ employees - who are defining their industries, scaling quickly, and hiring aggressively.

My path here has been shaped by diverse experiences:
• Officer aboard nuclear submarines, leading teams of more than 200 in high-stakes operations.
• Stanford MBA and serial entrepreneur, having founded and sold two companies.
• Host of Beyond the Uniform, the #1 iTunes podcast for military career transitions, with over 450 episodes.
• Former CEO of StoryBox, a marketing technology company funded by Google’s Eric Schmidt and used by more than 1,000 companies worldwide.

I believe that executives are among a company’s most underutilized assets, and when they show up as visible, credible thought leaders, they have an outsized impact on culture, recruiting, industry leadership, and legacy.

CEO ◆ We turn leaders into thought leaders

We specialize in helping top-tier executives boost their visibility, activate their network, and position themselves as thought leaders via our premium, fully-managed LinkedIn service.

Our unique process involves ex-McKinsey, BCG, and Bain consultants conducting monthly hour-long interviews with our clients, and turning them into impactful daily LinkedIn posts to establish their unique voice and authority. 

We've helped over 100 CEOs become thought leaders. On average, our clients see a 500% bump in engagement in their first 30 days with us. Data is continuously analyzed to improve engagement and identify impactful messaging that you can use for conferences, podcasts, and internal communications.

Every week, I talk to executives who feel like failures because their posts get a few hundred impressions instead of thousands.

Half the time, they're right to worry. But the other half? 

Their audience is packed with exactly the decision-makers they're trying to reach, while someone else's viral post with 20,000 views landed with bots, random connections, and people who will never become clients.

The difference between winning and losing on LinkedIn often has nothing to do with impression counts. 

This week's newsletter explains when small numbers are actually a problem versus when you're playing a smarter game than the people chasing vanity metrics.

CEO @ Executive Presence | LinkedIn thought leadership for CEOs

Most executives chase vanity metrics while missing the audience that actually matters A CEO called me last week, anxious about his LinkedIn performanc

Open article: Why Your 200 Impressions Might Be Better Than Someone Else's 20,000 by Justin M. Nassiri • 5 min read

Why Your 200 Impressions Might Be Better Than Someone Else's 20,000

Your perception outweighs your performance.

Nike didn’t have the best shoes.
They had the best story.

VHS didn’t have the best tech.
They had the best placement.

Apple didn’t have the best computer.
They had the best style.

Tesla wasn’t the first (or even best) electric car.
It was the first one people wanted to be seen driving.

Google+ had more features.
Facebook had more friends.

Performance matters.
But perception decides who gets the opportunity to perform.

The best don’t always win.
The best perceived do.

taplio

The Battle

Dave Kline

Justin M. Nassiri

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreDave Kline's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreJustin M. Nassiri's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Dave Kline

Justin M. Nassiri

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Dave Kline's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreJustin M. Nassiri's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreDave Kline's LinkedIn Performance