Leadership Development
for Growth-Stage Teams

Your best people are ready to lead.
Give them the system to do it.

A 30-day structured program that builds the leadership identity, values, and daily behaviors your team needs to lead the next stage of company growth.

Schedule An Intro Call See How It Works

The Leadership Gap

Your team is growing faster than your leaders are.

Leadership Layer · Diagnostic Scaleup Phase · 25–150 FTE

What you're seeing

The same issue, solved three different ways.One manager escalates. Another absorbs it. A third lets it drift. Each feels correct in isolation.

Difficult conversations quietly skipped.Feedback gets softened. Performance gaps linger. Decisions get re-litigated in 1:1s you weren't in.

Great ICs stalling as first-time managers.They took the promotion. They're working hard. The results don't reflect it yet.

What's actually happening

→

No shared foundation.Each leader is running on whatever identity and values they picked up on their way here. Without a common baseline, you get ten different definitions of good leadership under one roof.

→

Culture is being set by default.When every manager models leadership differently, the team simply absorbs whichever version their manager happens to embody. You end up with as many cultures as you have managers.

→

The cost is compounding quietly.Small inconsistencies at the top show up as real friction lower down. By the time you see it in attrition, velocity, or trust scores, it's structural, and expensive to unwind.

The Leadership Evolution Sprint

30 days that build
a shared leadership foundation.

A structured 30-day program with live coaching, daily practice, and peer accountability, designed to change how your people show up as leaders. Grounded in neuroscience, behavioral design, and identity-based development.

Curriculum · 30-Day Sprint Format · 5 live sessions Cohort · peer-accountable Ref · UL-SPRINT-2026

Week 01 Day 01–07

Leadership Identity

Define who they are at their best. Participants codify a clear leadership identity and two-year vision that anchors how they show up day to day.

OutputPersonal Leadership Identity doc

Week 02 Day 08–14

Values & Principles

Clarify the values that drive decisions. Each participant builds a personal decision-making compass and practices using it under pressure.

OutputCore Values & Decision Compass

Week 03 Day 15–21

Behaviors & Rituals

Design daily habits that sustain leadership. Morning and evening bookends, deep work flow, reflection rhythms, and the keystone habits that hold it together.

OutputPeak Performance Protocol

Week 04 Day 22–30

Integration & Resilience

Integrate everything into an operating system they carry forward. Build the capacity to recommit faster, adapt stronger, and stay regulated under stress.

OutputFull leadership OS

Fig. 01 · Cohort Effect

Individual coaching vs. embedded cohort.

1 leader
alone

                5+ trained leaders · 1 shared language · 1 operating culture
              

Why An Embedded Cohort

One leader is valuable.
A team of leaders is unstoppable.

When five or more leaders from one company go through the Sprint together, three things shift at once.

Shared language

Same vocabulary for identity, values, decision-making. 1:1s get clearer. Feedback lands because it lands on common ground.

Shared standards

The cohort sets the baseline for what good looks like, and that baseline stays in the company long after the Sprint ends. Leadership quality becomes a property of the team itself.

Shared accountability

Thirty days in a peer cohort creates bonds that outlast the program — the scaffolding most development programs forget to build.

When leaders share a language, five separate judgement calls start to look like one coherent team.

What Participants Receive

Tangible tools they carry
long after the sprint ends.

Participant Kit · Packing Manifest Items · 06 Status · Included

SKU Item Description Qty / Spec

UL-01

Live Group Coaching Sessions

Interactive workshops facilitated by Matthew — real practice, peer feedback, and direct coaching in every session.

5 × 75 minlive + recorded

UL-02

Personal Leadership Identity Document

A codified self-concept: who they are at their best, how they lead, and the vision anchoring daily decisions.

Per personpermanent artifact

UL-03

Core Values & Decision-Making Compass

A personal framework for leading with conviction under pressure. Values clarified, principles locked, decisions grounded.

Per personfield-tested in wk 2

UL-04

Peak Performance Protocol

A daily operating system — morning and evening rituals, energy management rhythms, keystone habits tailored to each participant.

Per persondaily system

UL-05

Private Cohort Community

Dedicated Slack channel for daily check-ins, shared growth, and peer accountability throughout the 30 days.

30 dayscohort-wide

UL-06

Certificate of Completion

A LinkedIn-shareable credential recognizing completion of the Leadership Evolution Sprint.

Per personshareable

The Science

Built on the science
of how leaders actually evolve.

Most leadership programs fail the behavior-change test. A weekend workshop ends before new neural pathways form, a self-paced course has no accountability loop, and content by itself rarely installs habits. Habits are what determine how a leader shows up when the room gets hard — so that's what the Sprint is designed to build.

Principle 01 § Self-Concept Theory

Principle Identity before behavior.

Mechanism Lasting change starts with a clear self-concept. New tactics land on top of that foundation; without it, they slide off.

In the Sprint Week 1 codifies who each participant is as a leader at their best. Every subsequent week reinforces that identity through practice.

Result · behavior follows identity

Principle 02 § Habit Formation

Principle Repetition over exposure.

Mechanism Habits form through consistent daily practice over time. A single workshop exposes people to ideas; only repetition gets those ideas into the body.

In the Sprint 30 days of daily reflection plus weekly live coaching creates the repetition window where new patterns take hold.

Result · durable change that outlasts motivation

Principle 03 § Adult Development

Principle Cohort accountability.

Mechanism Adults change faster alongside peers doing the same work. Accountability is the variable most programs leave out.

In the Sprint Cohort structure builds accountability directly into the program architecture, so it runs every day as part of the rhythm.

Result · peer scaffolding that outlasts the program

Grounded in the work of Optimize / Heroic, BJ Fogg's behavioral design research, and the adult development literature.

How It Works

Simple to procure.
Easy to run.

You choose the people. We handle the rest.

Phase

01 · Align

02 · Enroll

03 · Run

You
do

Step 01

Share your goals on a 30-min call

Tell us about your team's development goals, timing, and what a successful cohort looks like.

~30 min

Step 02

Nominate 5+ participants

Select the rising leaders you want to invest in. Intros to them, and no prep work beyond that.

~1 hour

HandoffStep 03

Step back.Handoff

You'll get a summary report at the end. No day-to-day lift from you during the 30 days.

0 min / week

We
do

ListenStep 01

Confirm fit.

If it's the right match, we move straight to enrollment. If not, we'll say so.

OnboardStep 02

Welcome your people

Onboarding materials, cohort Slack access, and calendar invites go out before Day 1.

Week 0

DeliverStep 03

Run the full 30 days

Live coaching, daily practice, peer accountability. Certificates to participants, summary report to you.

30 days

Schedule An Intro Call 30-minute conversation · no commitment required

From Leaders He's Developed

This work started long before the program did.

Featured

The frameworks Matt taught me are things I still use every day, years later. He took the time to understand each person on the team and invested in developing us as whole leaders — professionally and personally. I've never experienced that level of intentional development anywhere else in my career.

Megan Ash

Director of Support

"Matt is the kind of leader who develops the people around him just by working alongside him. Highly productive, clear-minded, emotionally intelligent — and he leads entirely by example."

Buckley Sawyer

President of Operations

"Working under Matt's leadership made me a meaningfully better leader. He created an environment where feedback was real, standards were high, and everyone felt genuinely supported in reaching them."

Holly Benjamin

Talent Acquisition Manager

Matthew Racz

FOUNDER — UNIFIED LEADERS

Your Guide

15 years of building teams
from the inside.

Team DevelopmentCertified Optimize CoachPeak PerformanceBehavioral Design

Matthew Racz

FOUNDER — UNIFIED LEADERS

I've been building and scaling companies for over 15 years. I co-founded an edtech startup, raised $3.5M, grew the team to 45 people and 100+ higher education clients, and exited in 2019. After that, I joined a company as COO at 10 people and $800K/month in revenue and helped scale it to 250 people and $15M/month.

Every team I've led, I've developed. Coaching people into better leaders was always the part of the job I cared about most. The Leadership Evolution Sprint is the program I wish I'd had for every team I've ever built.

I'm a certified Optimize Coach through Heroic, trained in the science and practice of behavioral change, habit formation, purpose-driven leadership, and helping individuals close the gap between their highest potential and their daily actions.

Schedule An Intro Call

What You Get As The Sponsoring Leader

What changes in your company after 30 days.

Before · Day 0

→ 30d →

After · Day 30

01 · Leadership Layer

Every manager leading a different way.

Decisions made on personal instinct. Team experience depends on who they report to.

01 · Leadership Layer

A consistent leadership layer.

Shared language, aligned decision-making framework, common daily practices. Every team gets the same quality of leadership regardless of which manager they sit under.

02 · Retention

High-potentials quietly wondering if they're seen.

Your strongest people fielding recruiter DMs with nothing concrete anchoring them in.

02 · Retention

High-potentials who feel invested in.

A real credential and a development program signals you see them and are building them into the company's future.

03 · Visibility

Guessing where the leadership layer is strong.

Engagement scores are too lagging. 1:1 summaries are too subjective.

03 · Visibility

A summary report from the cohort.

Themes, patterns, recommendations — so you see where your leadership layer is strong and where to keep investing.

04 · Development Path

Reinventing leadership development every quarter.

A new workshop, a new book club, a new off-site. Nothing sticks as a system.

04 · Development Path

A repeatable development path.

One proven cohort. Run it again for the next class of rising leaders. The Sprint becomes how you develop people at scale.

Pricing

Straightforward investment.
Lasting return.

One price per participant. Everything included. No upsells, no hidden fees, no multi-month contract. You enroll your people, we deliver a complete 30-day leadership development experience.

Custom pricing is available for teams of 20 or more. Reach out to discuss.

Program Specification REF · UL-SPRINT-2026

Per participant

$500/ seat

5-seat minimum per enrollment

What's Included

5 live group coaching sessions (75 min each)
Personal Leadership Identity document
Core Values and Decision-Making Compass
Peak Performance Protocol (daily system)
Private Slack community for accountability
Certificate of Completion (LinkedIn-shareable)
Post-sprint summary report for sponsoring leader

Schedule An Intro Call 30-minute intro call · no commitment required

FAQ

Common questions from people leaders.

The Sprint runs for 30 days. Participants attend five live 75-minute group coaching sessions (roughly once per week) and spend 10-15 minutes per day on reflection prompts and habit tracking. Total time investment is approximately 8-9 hours over the full month.

All live sessions are recorded and available for participants who can't attend in real time.

Yes. In fact, cross-functional cohorts tend to produce some of the strongest results. When leaders from different parts of the org go through this together, it creates a shared leadership language that translates across teams.

Live attendance is strongly encouraged because the coaching and peer interaction are core to the experience. That said, all sessions are recorded and accessible. Participants who miss a session can watch the recording and stay current with the daily practice.

Each participant leaves with their Leadership Identity document, Values Compass, and Peak Performance Protocol. These are permanent tools they carry forward. The sponsoring leader receives a summary report covering themes, growth areas, and recommendations for continued development.

For teams that want to continue, we can discuss ongoing coaching or follow-on Sprint cohorts.

Yes. At the conclusion of the Sprint, the sponsoring leader receives a written summary covering the themes that emerged, areas of growth observed, and recommendations for how to continue building on what participants developed. No individual performance evaluations are shared without participant consent.

Participants who complete the Sprint receive a Certificate of Completion from Unified Leaders, recognizing their participation in the Leadership Evolution Sprint. The certificate is designed to be shared on LinkedIn and serves as a tangible marker of their investment in leadership development.

Most workshops deliver content over a day or two and hope it sticks. The Sprint is a 30-day structured program with daily practice, live coaching, and peer accountability. The design is grounded in behavioral science: installing new habits and shifting identity takes consistent repetition across weeks. The Sprint gives participants that repetition window with coaching alongside it.

At $500 per person, this is a fraction of what most leadership development programs cost. Each participant gets 5 live coaching sessions, permanent leadership tools, and a certificate. The sponsoring leader gets a summary report. Compare that to a single offsite or a multi-thousand-dollar workshop that produces no lasting behavioral change.

We're happy to provide a brief overview document you can share internally to support the business case.

Get Started

Ready to develop your next generation of leaders?

A 30-minute intro call to understand your team's goals and confirm the Sprint is the right fit.

Schedule An Intro Call

Your best people are ready to lead. Give them the system to do it.

Your team is growing faster than your leaders are.

30 days that build a shared leadership foundation.

One leader is valuable. A team of leaders is unstoppable.

Tangible tools they carry long after the sprint ends.

Built on the science of how leaders actually evolve.

Simple to procure. Easy to run.