Comparison
Executive Coaching Builds a Better Executive. Corporate Graduation Builds a Founder.
If you want to stay and get better at the job, hire an executive coach. If you want to build something of your own, executive coaching wasn't designed for that. Leaving to become an executive coach usually isn't the answer either.
The test is one question: do you want to get better inside the company, or own something outside it? Executive coaching answers the first.
Corporate Graduation®, a term coined by Matt Doan, answers the second. It's the move from Corporate to Founder in one year, for Directors, VPs, and Executives with 15 to 25 years of career capital.
By Matt Doan, founder of Corporate Graduation. Last updated .
Side by side
| Hiring an executive coach | Becoming an executive coach | Corporate Graduation | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Built for | Leaders who want to grow inside the company | Leaders on the way out who already coach their teams | Directors, VPs, and Executives who want to build something of their own |
| The question | How do I get better at this job? | How do I sell what I already know? | How do I go from Corporate to Founder? |
| Where you end up | A better executive, in the same company | Out of the building, selling hours | A founder business built on your career capital |
| What you own | Nothing new. The role is theirs. | Your time, at a rate. | An idea, IP, and product. |
When executive coaching is the right call
If you like the company, want the next role, and want to lead better, hire an executive coach. That's exactly what it's built for.
If you're asking this question at all, you probably suspect the job isn't the problem. Getting better at a job you've outgrown is better lighting in the same cage.
Leaving to become an executive coach
It's one of the most common moves for senior leaders on the way out. You've been coached, you've coached your teams, and people tell you you're good at it.
It's also Rented Expertise. Most often it's Corporate Replication: the leadership work you already did, sold by the hour, under a title thousands of other people share. When a prospect compares you, the only thing left to compare is the rate. And the income stops the day you stop.
Coaching can be a founder business when it's built on your own category and IP. Sold by the hour under a generic title, it's rented.
What Corporate Graduation does instead
It covers the move executive coaching wasn't built for: from a corporate identity to a founder one, then the business. It runs in a fixed order.
- Space: compress the job and make room to build. This phase uses executive coaching skills, pointed at shrinking the job so it takes less of you.
- Self: rebuild who corporate made you.
- System: build the IP, product, and business.
Many people start with the job still in place, keeping the paycheck while they build.
The bottom line
Hire an executive coach to get better at the job. Become one if you want a flexible way to sell what you know. If you want something you own, that's a founder business, and that's what Corporate Graduation is for.
Questions people ask
What's the difference between executive coaching and a program that helps you leave corporate?
Executive coaching improves your performance inside a company. Corporate Graduation takes Directors, VPs, and Executives from Corporate to Founder in one year: the identity work first, then an idea, IP, and product they own.
Should I become an executive coach after leaving corporate?
If you want a flexible way to sell what you already know, it can work. It's still time for money, under a title thousands of other people share. If you want something you own, build coaching on your own category and IP, or build a different kind of founder business.
Can executive coaching help me leave my job?
It can help you get clear on what you want. It wasn't designed to take you through building a business of your own.
Is executive coaching the same as Corporate Graduation?
No. Executive coaching improves your performance inside a company. Corporate Graduation is a 12-month program that takes Directors, VPs, and Executives from Corporate to Founder. It uses executive coaching skills in its first phase, Space, to compress the job and make room to build.
Do I have to quit my job first?
No. For many people, it starts with the job still in place: ramp down corporate, ramp up founder. You set the date.
What is Corporate Graduation?
Corporate Graduation® is the move from Corporate to Founder in one year, a term coined by Matt Doan in 2021. Directors, VPs, and Executives turn 15 to 25 years of career capital into an idea, IP, and product they own. Full definition: What is Corporate Graduation?