Coremation & Guide Matching

Coremation is Chief’s internal term for the Core Group formation process. New Core Groups are formed every other month and include new members and tenured members who wish to join a net new group. Members’ onboarding survey responses (including but not limited to what Journey they wish to be in and their scheduling availability) directly inform their group placement.

Within each journey, we look at the factors most relevant to members’ paths, such as stage, role, company size, personal life stage, and scope of responsibility, to create the best possible peer fit. The goal is to place each member with a group where they can learn, grow, and achieve meaningful outcomes together.

After Core Groups are created, the Core and Guides teams work together to match Guides to groups based on their Guide matching surveys. New Core Groups will be announced every other month: January, March, May, July, September, and November.

You can typically expect the first Core meeting to occur in the month of Coremation or the first week of the following month.

Guide Matching Process

Chief will send a matching survey to eligible Guides in accordance with our bi-monthly Coremation schedule. Please fill out the survey with as much availability as possible. All Guides who complete the matching survey will be notified within 3-5 business days whether they are matched with a new group. 

Guide eligibility remains the same, and we will continue to consider the following criteria for Guide matching in the new Core experience. 

  • Availability 

  • Areas of expertise, shared in the Guide Knowledge Base Survey 

  • Location (for local Core Groups) 

  • Performance (CSAT, attendance, member feedback, survey feedback, etc.) 

  • Current portfolio of work 

  • Representation 


We are using the information that Guides shared in the most recent (2025) Guide Knowledge Base survey to inform matching across Core and Coaching, as well.

FAQ

  • The Coremation email includes the M1 date and time, a link to view your Core members on Chief.com and a few reminders, including the meeting materials, facilitation Guide, and Wrap Slides.

  • Core members can add on coaching at any point in their membership. They can purchase either:

    • a 1-session add-on ($1,000), or

    • a 4-session Accelerator package ($3,900) in a topic like Career Transition, Board Readiness, Personal Brand, or Leadership.

    When a member purchases coaching:

    • They can choose to work with their current Guide (you) or with a subject-matter expert from one of Chief’s Accelerator coach pools. 

    • If a member chooses you as their coach, the Coaching team will partner with you to scope and schedule those sessions separately from Core.

    • If a member works with another coach, your role in Core remains unchanged: continue to facilitate a space for peer advisory, accountability, and leadership growth.

    If you believe a member in your group could benefit from an Accelerator, encourage them to reach out to concierge@chief.com to explore options. For questions about what each Accelerator covers, you can email coaching@chief.com.

  • We encourage you to reach out to introduce yourself to the group via email or the chat function on the Chief platform once you have received the Coremation announcement. If you notice a new member is added to your group between the group announcement email and your first meeting, please reach out to that person individually as well. 

    Additionally, some Guides send a connection request via LinkedIn with a brief introduction in addition to the email or chat message they send.

    The goal is to build excitement and initial connections during the transition period ahead of your first meeting together.

  • We encourage you to send a calendar invite to the members of your group for M1 which includes your meeting Zoom link. After M1, you can optionally continue to send meeting invites for future meetings, or encourage members to download their Chief calendar invites to their personal calendar. You can also address the importance of commitment and attendance in your welcome email.

  • Transitions can occur between the Coremation announcement and M1 for many reasons. Most often, transitions happen because of one of the following reasons:

    • A member has a conflict with the meeting time of their originally matched group that they did not know about when they filled out their onboarding survey 

    • There is a known conflict with another member of the group (e.g., works for a client of theirs, works with a family member, is a competitor, etc.) and requests a Core Group change. 

    • Members register for Coremation late and we slot them into groups that have space pre-M1 meeting