Executive Potential Program
Twelve months building the portfolio a Qualifications Review Board reads.
About the EPP
The Executive Potential Program is a 12-month competency-based leadership development program providing training and developmental experience for high-potential executives at GS 13-15 or equivalent. The theme is Leading Change. The objective is to equip leaders with the information, tools and experience to serve at the highest levels of government.
The curriculum is focused on OPM’s Executive Core Qualifications with a concentration on Leading Change — a qualification OPM retired on October 1, 2025, whose content now sits across Achieving Results (strategic thinking, innovation) and Merit and Competence (agility and resilience). Training runs as four one-week sessions. Teams work together during and between sessions using the action learning process to take on real problems and produce recommendations with direct impact.
This program is not a Senior Executive Service Candidate Development Program, though many of its components are equivalent to SESCDP ones. Participants do learn about the SES and the process of applying to it, and the ECQ portfolio built here is what an application draws on.
What the program sets out to do
- Learn to lead change at the most senior levels of government
- Connect with peers across departments, agencies and sectors
- Build a portfolio of accomplishments tied to the Executive Core Qualifications
- Tackle real problems through action learning and action leadership
Cohorts and dates
Twelve months end to end, of which 4 weeks are in session. The rest is the assignment work below, done inside your own agency.
- Week 1September 28 - October 2, 2026
- Week 2January 11 - 15, 2027
- Week 3May 3 - 7, 2027
- Week 4September 13 - 17, 2027
Dates are as published for the current intakes and can move. Ask us to confirm the next one, or ask about running the program as a private cohort for a single agency.
Who it is for
Employees at GS 13-15 or equivalent. The grade range is guidance rather than a gate, and readiness for the next level of responsibility matters more than the number. The program is for you if:
- You are interested in leadership at the most senior levels of government
- You want to learn how to lead change, not just manage a stable operation
- You want to connect with peers across the whole of government
- You want a portfolio of accomplishments mapped to the ECQs before you write an SES package
- You want to work real problems through action learning rather than case studies
What participants actually do
These are completion requirements, not suggestions. Most of them happen between the training weeks, which is why a supervisor has to be on board before an application goes in.
Retention of a mentor
Secured at the start, at a higher level of leadership than the participant and preferably at the Senior Executive Service level.
Leadership Development Plan
Built on objectives drawn from the Leadership Effectiveness Inventory 360 assessment, tracking program requirements against core competencies, and approved with the first-line supervisor and the agency program coordinator.
Action learning project
A small team carried through the whole program, taking on a current issue facing federal leaders and producing recommendations that can have real impact. Worked during and between the training weeks.
Developmental assignments
A minimum of eight weeks, giving exposure to different leadership and managerial experiences and perspectives. Participants secure their own.
Shadow assignments
Three days shadowing one member of the Senior Executive Service, or three separate executives on different occasions, to see managerial duties and leadership styles at that level directly.
Executive interviews
Five interviews with federal senior executives, flag rank officers, or high-level executives in the private or non-profit sector.
Leadership book reviews and presentations
Two or more books on leadership and management, reviewed and presented, to broaden the field and sharpen analysis.
Program impact paper
A reflection on the year: personal achievements, lessons learned, the benefit to the organization, and the next steps.
How the program is built
Individual development
The mentor, the Leadership Development Plan, the eight-week developmental assignment and the executive interviews: a year of structured work outside the training weeks.
Action learning
A real problem, a team of people who have never worked together, and recommendations that go somewhere. The part participants report as the hardest and the most useful.
Assessment
The Leadership Effectiveness Inventory 360 sets the development objectives, and the ECQ-aligned instruments show where a candidate stands against what a Qualifications Review Board looks for.
What comes out of it
For the participant
- Challenged out of your comfort zone in ways that build resilience and confidence, and show what leading at the highest levels takes
- Real problems worked with a team you have never worked with, producing results with real impact
- Best practice in the leadership and fundamental competencies tied to the Executive Core Qualifications
- Insight into the challenges other departments and senior leaders face, across government and outside it
- A peer network you can keep relying on
For the organization
- A senior bench developed deliberately rather than hoped for
- Recommendations on live problems, produced by cross-agency teams
- Candidates who arrive at an SES application with a documented ECQ portfolio
How to apply
Tuition is $8,350 and covers all materials. Most participants are funded by their agency on an SF-182.
Check the requirements
Read the program requirements above and confirm the grade range fits. The grade is guidance, but the requirements are not.
Get your agency’s approval
Your supervisor, and your training coordinator if you have one. Check whether your agency runs its own internal competitive process for these seats, because many do.
Register for the session
Choose the cohort you want and start the application. You will be asked for an email address first, then the application itself.
Complete the application
As thoroughly as you can. It is read by a person.
Attach the funding document
A completed SF-182 or equivalent. If your agency is paying by government purchase card, give the name, email and phone number of the person responsible for payment instead. The application cannot be submitted without one or the other.
Confirmation, then approval
You get a confirmation on submission. Once we approve the application you are asked to accept the approval, and our finance team invoices your agency against the funding document you supplied.
Before you commit someone: withdrawals and substitutions more than 14 days before the start are free, a cancellation inside 14 days carries a $1,000 processing fee, and once orientation begins the tuition is non-refundable. Full enrollment and refund policy.
Stuck on any of it, call (202) 314-3580 or send us a note. Graduate School USA holds GSA Multiple Award Schedule contract 47QRAA24D004K, so a contracting office can order under FAR Subpart 8.4 without an open-market procurement.
Interested in the Executive Potential Program?
Tell us who you are putting forward and roughly when. We will come back with the next intake, what the application needs, and whether a private cohort makes more sense.