The Ascent Leadership Program
For leaders stepping into greater scope.
A 10-month cohort experience for executives taking on broader scope, greater organizational complexity, and increased enterprise responsibility. For high-potential and newly senior executives stepping into a larger role or the first threshold of enterprise responsibility.
Request a conversationThe challenge
The leadership challenge has changed.
At greater scale, expertise and decisiveness still matter, but they are no longer enough. Leaders must make sense of uncertainty, draw intelligence from across the organization, and build teams that can perform without waiting for direction from the top.
The Ascent teaches that contemporary skill set through a research-backed, 10-month process of group experiences and individual coaching: developed out of research by Dan Fisher, PhD and Steve Garcia, EdD, published in The End of Leadership as We Know It.
What leaders need now
The leadership skills our times demand.
- Lean into complexity and uncertainty.
- See your own blind spots: the habits of mind that quietly cap your impact.
- Get more from your people by unleashing them rather than controlling them.
- Build a team that stays resilient and high-performing under sustained pressure.
- Make sound decisions when the data are ambiguous and the stakes are high.
- Be part of the team, not insisting on carrying the role alone.
How you will lead differently
Ascent helps accomplished executives adapt how they lead as their scope expands.
- Providing answers through personal expertiseDrawing better answers from across the organization
- Directing execution closelyCreating clarity and accountability without overcontrolling
- Moving quickly to certaintyHolding direction while remaining open to new evidence
- Reacting to disruption as it landsSensing change early and shaping the response
- Leading through their own expertiseLeading through relationships and influence
- Carrying the role in isolationGrounded in a trusted community of peers
A year of transformation
A thoughtful, research-based program.
Each executive develops new leadership skills by balancing in-person and virtual experiences, group and individual development work, and support for both the leader and the team they lead.
01
Basecamp
A three-day cohort experience that disrupts how you think about leading, grounds you in your leadership story, values, and purpose, and forges the high-trust peer relationships that carry the rest of the year.
02
Micro-sessions
Virtual sessions on specific, pragmatic skills for leading in complexity: from coaching and decision-making under uncertainty to building resilient teams and executive storytelling.
03
Peer Consulting
Gatherings of the cohort to support one another on individual leadership growth by working through a specific, real challenge each leader brings.
04
One-to-One Coaching
Individual coaching with a coach trained in contemporary leadership transformation, personalized to each leader's development plan.
05
Team Insight
Team evaluation and feedback that tracks the impact of the leader's transformation on the people they lead.
At a glance
The program in numbers.
10
Months
3
Day Basecamp
Monthly
Cohort sessions
Monthly
1:1 coaching touchpoints
Peer
Consultation groups
12 mo
EdgePoint membership
Investment
Contact us to discuss program fees and organizational sponsorship.
What you will gain
Concrete, durable gains from a year of applied growth.
A clear read on yourself
A picture of your strengths, your blind spots, and your default patterns under pressure.
A wider range of moves
The ability to coach, influence, tell a compelling story, and decide well in ambiguity.
A more resilient team
Measured gains in your own team's engagement and resilience.
A grounded sense of purpose
Knowing your values and true north so you can make important decisions when the pressure is highest.
Progress on real work
Tangible movement on a genuine enterprise priority you bring into the program.
A network that lasts
A small group of senior peers who understand your context, plus the option to continue in the EdgePoint community after the program.
Readiness for what is next
The presence, agility, and resilience to take on a larger mandate with confidence.
"Ascent gave me the language to describe the systems I was seeing, and the confidence to lead within them."
: SVP, Global Operations
Program faculty
Led by faculty with deep executive experience.
The program is led by CLA faculty and senior EdgePoint coaches, including Dan Fisher, PhD (EdgePoint Founder), Christyl Lucille Murray (Executive Director, EdgePoint), and other practitioners trained in contemporary leadership transformation.
Sector Cohort
Life Sciences & Healthcare Ascent
A 10-month invitation-only cohort of senior leaders from pharmaceutical, biotechnology, diagnostics, medical technology, and health-system organizations.
View the Life Sciences & Healthcare Ascent →Investment
The Ascent
$48,500 / program year (includes $36,000 annual General Membership)
A 12-month cohort experience for ascending enterprise leaders and high-potential VPs preparing for expanded enterprise mandates.
This engagement includes full annual EdgePoint General Membership, a $36,000 standalone value, for the duration of the program year.
What comes with it
- Two-day in-person Basecamp immersion in New York, with facilitation, curriculum, and curated events included
- Comprehensive assessment battery: Hogan Assessment Series, DiSC behavioral profile, and qualitative 360
- Dedicated one-on-one executive coaching debriefs and ongoing developmental sessions with certified faculty
- Monthly virtual applied curriculum micro-sessions and facilitated peer consulting circles
- Multiple team assessments across the program year
- One-day in-person graduation ceremony
- Full year of EdgePoint General Membership included
Sponsored through corporate L&D budgets, high-potential succession allocations, or executive development stipends. Multi-leader cohort rates available on request.
Interested in the next cohort?
Participation is by application. We're glad to explore fit, timing, and organizational sponsorship.