The Executive Leadership Performance Accelerator (ELPA) is a high-energy, 16-week cohort immersive experiential training of the 120VC Execution Leadership Operating System.

Phase 1 – 16 Week program features: 

• 8 Live Sessions with J. Scott: Learn the 120VC CORE leadership execution system. Alternating Wednesdays after Orientation Week.

• Weekly Assignments: Actionable practices based on over 25 years of 120VC best practices.

• Community Interaction: Engage with your cohort in real-world settings.

How It Works

Cohort Community
Join a selective cohort of Leadership Teams installing the system together. Cohorts are intentionally limited to protect execution quality and peer accountability.

Weekly Live Execution Cycles
Each week follows a disciplined cadence:

• Apply the system to live work

• Surface blockers and misalignment

• Make decisions and commitments

• Review execution evidence

Bi-Weekly Instructor-Led Sessions
Eight live, 2.5-hour Zoom sessions with J. Scott focused on system installation, not theory.

ELPA Dashboard
Powered by Basecamp, the dashboard serves as the execution hub for artifacts, priorities, commitments, coaching feedback, and cohort communication.

The 5 Knowledge Areas are not concepts. They are measurable leadership behaviors practiced weekly, coached in live work, and scored through TQM, delivering immediate execution improvement and exponential gains in performance, ROI, and leadership capability.

Knowledge Area #1

Personal Mastery: Getting 120% Intentional
Weeks 1–3

Problem:
“I’ve mastered the skills of my craft, but I’m still stuck in reaction mode. I’m constantly firefighting, overwhelmed, and burnout-busy because I have too many #1 priorities that change constantly.”

Solution:
Leaders are equipped with the discipline and tools to capture, vet, and focus relentlessly on what truly matters. Using systems like the 2x2, the Daily Focusing Exercise, and the Eyes Up Report, leaders turn intention into disciplined action and regain control over priorities, time, and energy.

Outcome:
Leaders stop reacting and start executing with clarity. Subject-matter expertise is paired with personal mastery of priorities, enabling leaders to consistently deliver outcomes that drive business growth while eliminating burnout-busy work.

Knowledge Area #2

Mastering Management: Managing Teams That Get Sh*t Done
Weeks 4–6

Problem:
“My team keeps missing deadlines and reacting to fires. Our meetings don’t create clarity, commitments aren’t followed through, and I’m left carrying the weight because nothing feels aligned or reliable.”

Solution:
Leaders learn the disciplines that create alignment, clarity, and predictable execution. This includes replacing traditional meetings with DOINGS, fostering real commitments through promise-based management, applying radical candor, challenging assumptions using the Ladder of Inference, and managing commitments with transparency and accountability.

Outcome:
Teams move from chaos to coordination. Meetings produce outcomes, commitments are honored, accountability rises, and execution becomes predictable. Leaders stop being the bottleneck as teams take ownership and get sh*t done together, on purpose, and on time.

Knowledge Area #3

Mastering Leadership: Leading with Trust and Accountability
Weeks 7–8

Problem:
“My team is full of capable people, but they are not operating as a team. They hold back their best thinking, avoid challenging each other, and work in parallel instead of together. I am still the one connecting the dots.”

Solution:
Leaders learn how to build trust, foster psychological safety, coach individuals and teams effectively, and turn healthy tension into clarity. The focus shifts from directing individuals to facilitating a team that thinks, solves, and executes together.

Outcome:
Teams operate as a unified whole. People speak up early, challenge ideas without ego, take shared ownership of outcomes, and perform as a high-trust, high-accountability leadership team. The leader is no longer the center of execution.

Knowledge Area #4

Mastering High Performance: Building High-Performing Teams That Thrive
Weeks 9–12

Problem:
“My managers are capable and committed, but they are not operating like a leadership team. They stay focused on their own domains, report up instead of aligning across, and avoid challenging each other directly.”

Solution:
Leaders learn how to communicate to lead, align across functions, surface and resolve interdependencies, develop people with a growth mindset, and build the conditions for psychological safety that accelerates performance.

Outcome:
Managers stop operating in silos and begin performing as a single leadership team. Accountability tightens, alignment happens upstream, execution accelerates, and results measurably improve customer satisfaction, team satisfaction, and profitability.

Knowledge Area #5

Project Mastery: Delivering 227% Better Results That Drive Measurable Business Growth
Weeks 13–16

Problem:
“My organization is drowning in projects. We are great at starting work, but terrible at finishing it in a way that creates real impact. Projects feel political, success is unclear, and we are constantly reacting to demand.”

Solution:
Leaders learn how to exit the request-driven model and lead a project portfolio like an internal investment firm. They are taught how to identify where value is leaking, generate demand proactively, rationalize initiatives against measurable impact, and prioritize execution based on return, not volume or politics.

Outcome:
Projects stop being vehicles for activity and become deliberate investments. The backlog shrinks, alignment happens before work begins, execution becomes calmer and more predictable, and leaders consistently deliver outcomes that drive measurable business growth.

Time Commitment (Phase 1 – 16 Weeks):

• ~8.25 hours per person, per week

• All of that time already exists today.

• It is currently being spent reacting
  
  ELPA reallocates time.
  It does not add more.

What replaces current time usage:

• scattered planning

• reactive decision-making

• status meetings

• escalation handling

• rework
  
  

Participation Standard:

• Leadership Teams attend together

• 90% participation required

• No spectators

• No partial installs
  

If someone cannot make this commitment, they should not be on the Leadership Team.
That truth surfaces early and factually.

16 Weeks Live Execution Cycles - 8 Live Sessions With J. Scott

Starting March 4, 2026

Week 1

ELPA Welcome & Kickoff

Live Zoom Session:
Executive Leadership Performance Accelerator Orientation

Assignments:

• Watch | Welcome to the ELPA – Becoming Irreplaceable
  
  

• Watch | Completing Assignments, Time Blocking & Scoring
  
  

Knowledge Area #1

Personal Mastery: Getting 120% Intentional

Week 2

Getting Focused – The Discipline of Reducing Stress & Getting Sh*t Done

Assignments:

• Watch | Making the Shift
  
  

• Read | #GSD Post – Unleashing the Irreplaceable: How Multipliers Elevate Teams
  
  

• Read | #GSD Post – The Cult of Autonomy Is Killing Teamwork
  
  

• Watch | The Hard Truth: Discipline and Accountability Start With You
  
  

• Watch | The 2x2 Prioritization Matrix: Focus on Outcomes That Matter & Eliminate Busy-Work
  
  

Live Zoom Session:
The Discipline of Reducing Stress & Getting Sh*t Done

Week 3

Becoming 120% Intentional

Assignments:

• Read | HBR – Overloaded Circuits
  
  

• Watch | Shawn Achor – The Happy Secret to Better Work
  
  

• Watch | The Weekly Focusing Exercise: Turning Priorities Into Outcomes
  
  

• Watch | The Daily Focusing Exercise: Advance Objectives & Align the Team Daily
  
  

Knowledge Area #2

Mastering Management: Managing Teams That Get Sh*t Done

Week 4

Leading DOINGS That Get Sh*t Done

Assignments:

• Watch | Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us
  
  

• Read | #GSD Post – The Art of Leading DOINGS
  
  

• Watch | How to Save the World From Bad Meetings
  
  

• Read | HBR – The Most Productive Meetings Have Fewer Than 8 People
  
  

Live Zoom Session:
Leading DOINGS That Get Sh*t Done

Week 5

Fostering Good Commitments & Taming Your Inner Voice

Assignments:

• Read | Morgan Housel – Useful Hacks
  
  

• Read | HBR – Promise-Based Management
  
  

• Watch | Radical Candor: Improve Feedback
  
  

• Read | The Ladder of Inference
  
  

Week 6

Managing Commitments

Assignments:

• Watch | Brené Brown – Blame
  
  

• Read | HBR – The Right Way to Hold People Accountable
  
  

• Read | J. Scott – From NASA to the Boardroom: Transforming Dashboards from Accountability to Mission Support
  
  

• Read | #GSD Post – Managing Commitments
  
  

Live Zoom Session:
Coaching & Results-Driven Leadership

Knowledge Area #3

Mastering Leadership: Leading with Trust and Accountability

Week 7

Effective Coaching & Feedback

Assignments:

• Read | HBR – The Neuroscience of Trust
  
  

• Read | HBR – The Leader as a Coach
  
  

• Read | Thanks for the Feedback
  
  

• Read | #GSD Post – Storytelling and Experience Sharing
  
  

Week 8

Fierce but Humble – Sturdy Leadership

Assignments:

• Watch | HBR Video – What It Takes to Be a Great Leader
  
  

• Read | #GSD Post – Psychological Safety: What It Is, What It Isn’t, and How to Foster It
  
  

• Read | #GSD Post – Leadership Rules of Engagement
  
  

• Read | HBR – Coaching Your Team as a Collective
  
  

Live Zoom Session:
Build a Culture of Accountability

Knowledge Area #4

Mastering High Performance: Building High-Performing Teams That Thrive

Week 9

Communicate to Lead

Assignments:

• Watch | Simon Sinek – How Great Leaders Inspire Action
  
  

• Watch | William Ury – The Power of Listening
  
  

• Read | #GSD Post – Communicate to Lead
  
  

• Read | #GSD Post – The DRIVE Model – Speed Through Alignment & Teamwork
  
  

Week 10

Create the Future Instead of Reacting to It

Assignments:

• Read | #GSD Post – The Talent Magnet – Hire Believers, Not Bodies
  
  

• Read | #GSD Post – Mindset Shift: From Victim of Circumstance to Creator with the Empowerment Dynamic
  
  

• Watch | The Tension Trap: Traction vs. Distraction
  
  

• Read | #GSD Post – The Weekly Team DOING – Where Alignment Becomes Action
  
  

Live Zoom Session:
The Power of People: Building High-Performing Teams

Week 11

The Power of Learning, Listening & the Positive No

Assignments:

• Read | #GSD Post – The Essential Role of Hiring People with a Growth Mindset
  
  

• Read | HBR – Barriers & Gateways to Communication
  
  

• Read | Excerpt – The Power of the Positive No by William Ury
  
  

• Read | #GSD Post – The Liberator – Coach Safety Into Performance
  
  

Week 12

The Growth Mindset Advantage

Assignments:

• Watch | Carol Dweck – The Power of Believing That You Can Improve
  
  

• Read | HBR – What Having a “Growth Mindset” Actually Means
  
  

• Watch | Admiral William McRaven – One Person Can Change the World
  
  

• Watch | Angela Duckworth – Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance
  
  

Live Zoom Session:
The 8 Execution Leadership Disciplines & How to Use Them

Knowledge Area #5

Project Mastery: Delivering 227% Better Results That Drive Measurable Business Growth

Week 13

Driving Change: Replacing Burnout-Busy with High Performance and Top-Line Results

Assignments:

• Read | J. Scott – The Consulting Mindset
  
  

• Read | HBR – Why and How to Build an In-House Consulting Team
  
  

• Read | HBR – Emotional Intelligence Has 12 Elements
  
  

• Read | #GSD Post – The Challenger – Challenge the Work, Not the People
  
  

Week 14

Catalyzing Change: How to Test for Authentic Demand

Assignments:

• Watch | Alberto Savoia – Build the Right It
  
  

• Watch | The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick
  
  

• Read | HBR – What Great Listeners Actually Do
  
  

• Read | #GSD Post – The Debate Maker – Where Opinions Evolve Into Optimal Solutions
  
  

Live Zoom Session:
Visionary Leadership – Paving the Way for Unstoppable Demand & Project Success

Week 15

Amplifying Demand: Accelerating Impact and Engagement

Assignments:

• Watch | Edward Freeman – Business Is About Purpose
  
  

• Read | #GSD Post – The Case for Ensuring Demand Before Launching Your Project
  
  

• Watch | J. Scott – Engineering Project Alignment: How to Crowdsource Project Definition & Guarantee Demand
  
  

• Read | #GSD Post – Your Transformation Project Has Been Funded, Now What?
  
  

Download:
Irreverent Guide to Project Leadership – Book & Templates

Week 16

Project Leadership & Execution: Delivering 227% Better Results

Assignments:

• Read | HBR – Primal Leadership: The Hidden Driver of Great Performance
  
  

• Watch | J. Scott – Plan to Succeed: Proven Planning Techniques for a 98% Success Rate
  
  

• Read | #GSD Post – The Investor – Deliver a Return on Investment
  
  

• Read | Excerpt – The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz
  

Live Zoom Session:
Crush Your Goals – Work Your Project Plan & Drive 227% Better Results

High-performing managers are 120% intentional about everything they do.

If a leader doesn’t know what’s going on, they can’t possibly be leading. Create an echo chamber, create teamwork, create a team of teams.

Every ounce of effort is focused on advancing objectives that measurably improve client satisfaction, team satisfaction, and profitability (The 3-Pillars), none at the expense of the others. That is how we avoid trade-offs, short-term thinking, and align disparate teams around a single way of working that avoids conflicting interests.

We communicate to lead, period.

People and organizations are optimized for the results they are getting. If a person or organization wants to get different results, they need the people in their organization to do their jobs differently. Before people will do their jobs differently, they need see the world differently. Vision drives behavior, behavior Drives Outcomes.

The First Law of Transformation: People need to think differently before they will do differently. The first step in a successful transformation is “Getting Shift Done.”

Intentionality, Discipline, Trust, Transparency & Accountability. We Communicate to Lead

Untrained Leaders are reactive, and focused on the problem Du Jour, they are stressed out, burnt out, and fostering a reactive culture of urgency by design.

Symptoms: Their team members respond to missed deadlines and insufficient outcomes by complaining that they have too many #1 priorities, and too much work on their plates, and their solution is always external - better tools, more people, better management, less work.  

Execution Leaders aren’t reacting to the future, they are 100% focused on creating the future. They are intentional about only working on things that will measurably improve the three pillars, they are intentional about the battles they take on, they have a fierce commitment to team alignment and clear expectations,  and foster a culture of discipline, trust, transparency, and accountability.

Symptoms: Their way of working results in a high-performing team that isn’t stressed out, burnt out, or working nights and weekends. They have esprit de corps, high levels of engagement, teamwork, and success.

Execution failure is not neutral.
It compounds quietly through stalled initiatives, wasted capacity, and leadership drag. When leadership teams operate without a shared execution system, organizations pay for it every quarter.

Where the Money Leaks

1. Priority Churn

• Strategic priorities change without completion

• Work starts, stops, and restarts

• Teams stay busy while outcomes slip

• Cost: sunk labor, delayed ROI, lost opportunity
  
  

2. Rework & Decision Drift

• Decisions are made in silos, then revisited

• Interdependencies surface after execution begins
  “Alignment” happens downstream, if at all
  Cost: rework, missed deadlines, credibility erosion

3. Burnout-Busy Leadership

• Leaders firefight instead of lead

• Execution depends on heroics and escalation

• High performers absorb the load until they burn out or leave
  Cost: attrition, disengagement, execution fragility
  
  

4. Portfolio Waste

• Too many initiatives, not enough finish

• Projects compete instead of compound

• Success is defined politically, not economically
  Cost: capital spread thin, value leakage, low return density
  
  

The Financial Reality

Most organizations don’t fail because of bad strategy.
They fail because execution never stabilizes.

Without a shared execution operating system:

• Leadership time is misallocated

• Investment returns are unpredictable

• Accountability is subjective

• Risk remains invisible until it’s expensive

This is not a leadership problem.
It’s an Leadership System problem.

ELPA installs a discipline of execution that:

• Aligns priorities before work begins

• Forces decisions into the open, early

• Reduces rework and escalation

• Converts leadership effort into measurable outcomes

Organizations that install this system achieve:

• 227% better performance

• 98% execution success rates

• Predictable delivery without burnout or heroics

The cost of ELPA is finite.
The cost of inaction compounds every quarter.

Short answer: This is not a leadership program.

Leadership programs teach ideas and hope behavior changes later.
ELPA installs a leadership operating system inside live work, under real pressure.

Nothing in ELPA happens in theory:

• No case studies
  

• No simulations
  

• No hypothetical exercises
  
  

Every discipline is applied to work you are already accountable for.

If the system is not visible in:

• priorities

• decisions

• commitments
  execution evidence

then it hasn’t been installed.

That’s why ELPA produces 227% better performance with a 98% execution success rate.
Not because leaders are smarter.
Because the system forces different behavior when it matters most.

If you want inspiration, credentials, or a break from the business, this is not it.
If you want execution to change inside the business, this is real.

It will disrupt waste and stabilize execution.

ELPA does not add work on top of the business.
It replaces:

• fragmented planning
  

• redundant meetings
  

• priority churn
  

• late-stage escalation
  

• rework caused by misalignment
  
  

With:

• one execution rhythm
  

• one shared definition of priority
  

• one visible commitment system
  

By week 4–6, most teams report:

• fewer meetings

• fewer escalations

• clearer decisions

• calmer execution
  

The business does not slow down.
It becomes predictable.

If your current system depends on heroics, urgency, or escalation to function, that will be disrupted.
That’s not instability. That’s removing a structural liability.

Yes. And that’s why it works.

ELPA requires an Executive Sponsor who:

• leads the accelerator

• models the behaviors

• protects the operating rhythm

Executives do not observe ELPA.
They lead it.

If leadership delegates this work, the system will not install.
That’s not a risk. That’s a filter.

The upside:

• Leadership behaviors change at the source

• Mandate is real

• Adoption happens fast

If the system fails to install, it is immediately visible.
No politics. No hiding. No ambiguity.

That clarity is intentional.

ELPA is not easy.
It is not comfortable.
It is not optional.

It is a system install for leadership teams who are done tolerating:

• execution drift

• burnout-busy leadership

• misalignment disguised as autonomy

If this feels intense, it’s not for you.
If it feels like the standard you’ve been missing, it’s time to talk.