How professionally managed is your business? Take the Official Professional Management Assessment and find out.

Lead Your Business with Competence and Confidence through Course for Presidents®

Aileron’s flagship program teaches you how to implement the DOC System, a proven approach for running a thriving business that has transformed thousands of businesses for more than 25 years. This immersive two-day workshop includes three months of Business Coaching where you can process what you’ve learned and how to move forward and a follow-up Peer Group three months after the workshop to check in and reflect with your cohort.

Lead Your Business with Competence and Confidence through Course for Presidents®

Aileron’s flagship program teaches you how to implement the DOC System, a proven approach for running a thriving business that has transformed thousands of businesses for more than 25 years. This immersive two-day workshop includes three months of Business Coaching where you can process what you’ve learned and how to move forward and a follow-up Peer Group three months after the workshop to check in and reflect with your cohort.

Clay Mathile speaks to Course For Presidents class

In Course for Presidents, you’ll:

  • Onboard to Aileron’s DOC System of Professional Management.
  • Step out of the day-to-day, assess the most critical components of your business, and envision a brighter future.
  • Connect with and learn from fellow presidents who have faced similar challenges.
  • Adopt an intentional mindset to take charge of your thoughts, business, and life.
  • Harness the confidence and courage to implement professional management in your organization.
  • Meet one-on-one with an Aileron Business Coach for three months to maintain your momentum and move your business forward.
  • Get back together with your cohort—a small group of like-minded presidents and business owners—three months after the workshop in a follow-up Peer Group to check in and reflect on what you’ve learned.

Download the Course for Presidents One-Page Service Sheet

Explore Course for Presidents more offline or start a conversation about it with a colleague with this digestible one-page service summary.

Course for Presidents Service Sheet | Aileron
Aileron's DOC Model Graphic

Onboard Your Team to the DOC System

The DOC System creates the most positive change when it’s implemented across your leadership and management team – and we can help. We offer three levels of DOC System implementation programs, each designed for specific roles within your organization.

Discover Professional Management Course for Presidents® Activating Professional Management
Who Presidents, owners, and CEOs Presidents, owners, and CEOs Senior-level executives
Price $0 $2,300 $975
What Learn about a practical and proven system for running a better business and leave with an actionable plan for creating change in your organization. A deep dive into the DOC System complete with a custom growth plan and one-on-one Business Coaching An onboarding for change leaders who want to understand the DOC System and how they can support future growth
Business Coaching included
Implementation Plan included
Estimated Hours of Learning 2 20-22 18

Discover Professional Management

Who
Presidents, owners, and CEOs

Price
$0

What
Learn about a practical and proven system for running a better business and leave with an actionable plan for creating change in your organization.

Business Coaching included
No

Implementation Plan included
No

Estimated Hours of Learning
2

Course for Presidents®

Who
Presidents, owners, and CEOs

Price
$2,300

What
A deep dive into the DOC System complete with a custom growth plan and one-on-one Business Coaching

Business Coaching included
Yes

Implementation Plan included
Yes

Estimated Hours of Learning
20-22

Activating Professional Management

Who
Senior-level executives

Price
$975

What
An onboarding for change leaders who want to understand the DOC System and how they can support future growth

Business Coaching included
No

Implementation Plan included
No

Estimated Hours of Learning
18

Take Aileron’s Official Professional Management Assessment

Seven minutes can tell you which areas of your business are thriving, which need your attention, and whether Course for Presidents can help.

Aileron Professional Management Assessment

Upcoming Course for Presidents

 

Date Location Start Time End Time Registration
November 4-5, 2025 Aileron Campus 8:00 am 5:00 pm Register Now
January 27-28, 2026 Aileron Campus 8:00 am 5:00 pm Register Now
March 24-25, 2026 Aileron Campus 8:00 am 5:00 pm Register Now

What Our Community is Saying About Course for Presidents

“The Course for Presidents gave us hope. The Aileron team understood what we were going through and had a system to help us move forward.”

Lisa Wolters, Yellow Springs Brewery

“I’m a skeptical person. I’ve been through a bazillion seminars. By the end of the Course for Presidents, I knew Aileron’s system was exactly what I needed to grow as a leader and to set our company up for our next season of growth.”

David Crnkovich, Follow the Eyes and Quantifi Digital

“I learned more about leading my business, and about myself as a leader, during the two days I spent at the Course for Presidents than I have in just about any other setting.”

Cooper Munroe, The Motherhood Inc.

“If you own or operate any business and are looking for help growing your business, look no further than Aileron! I just recently finished Course for Presidents. I feel like I got a Master’s Degree in business management in two days.”

John Dahl, President, Tri-County Feed Service

Course for Presidents FAQs

Course for Presidents is intended to be exclusively for business owners, partners, founders, presidents and CEOs. If you want to bring someone with you, it should be someone who is both helping you make strategic decisions about the direction of the company and has decision-making authority.

We have two other workshops – Activating Professional Management and Understanding Professional Management – for senior-level managers, change leaders, and team members.

Course for Presidents is a great resource for companies undergoing a leadership transition. This experience is valuable for both people transitioning the business to someone else, and the person who will be stepping into the president or CEO role. While it’s great if both people can attend together, you’ll still get value out of attending on your own, regardless of which position you’re in.

If you’re planning a succession and don’t know who you’re transitioning the business to, that’s okay. We encourage you to come alone and ask them to attend once you’ve identified that person. We recommend using your time with your Business Coach to discuss your transition more.

The content in Course for Presidents is designed for people who are out of the startup phase and are looking for the next level of growth. You can register, but a lot of the content focuses on leadership and culture building at a well-established company, which might not be relevant to a small team, solopreneur, or startup.

The content in Course for Presidents is designed for for-profit, privately owned small business leaders. You can register, but some of the content may not be relevant to nonprofit management.

The content is Course for Presidents is designed for privately owned small business leaders. You can register, but some of the content may not be relevant to corporate management.

You’ll spend your time together building an Implementation Plan – a clear path to get you from where you are to where you want to be.

People from around the world attend Course for Presidents. And since it’s designed for business owners and CEOs, you can expect to be surrounded by leaders facing the same problems as you. You’ll learn from your facilitator and your peers in a small group setting of 10-15 participants.

Course for Presidents is industry agnostic. Business leaders from manufacturing to micro-brewing have transformed their businesses through this work. While we can’t guarantee that there will or won’t be someone from your industry in the room, we can guarantee that you’ll learn from your peers in other industries who face similar problems and can offer new perspectives.

You may need to bring something, depending on whether you’re taking the program in-person or virtually. If you need to bring anything to Course for Presidents, you’ll find instructions via email after you register.

Businesses of all shapes and sizes come to Aileron to solve a variety of pain points facing their businesses. You can read more about the leaders who have transformed their businesses and their lives in our collection of Client Success Stories.

Still Have Questions? We’re Here to Help.

When you tell us you’re ready to learn more, your Aileron journey can begin with a simple conversation that costs you nothing more than your time. The session is casual and candid; you don’t need to come with anything prepared. We’ll talk through what’s working, what’s not, and where you want to be.

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