The concept of Big Self addresses a paradox at the heart of modern professional life. While organizations invest heavily in optimizing performance and building technical capability, they often overlook the fundamental factor that determines sustainable success: the inner capacity of their people.

Big Self represents the authentic core beyond the professional personas, achievement metrics, and organizational roles we adopt. It's the source of genuine leadership presence, resilient decision-making, and meaningful contribution.

In practical terms, when executives and teams operate from their Big Self:

Decision-making becomes clearer and less reactive
Innovation flows from intrinsic motivation rather than external pressure
Organizational relationships deepen beyond transactional exchangesResilience emerges naturally rather than through forced effort
Burnout diminishes as work aligns with deeper purpose

When leaders integrate their authentic core with their professional expertise, they create not just short-term results but enduring organizational value.

Big Self School serves forward-thinking organizations that recognize emotional intelligence and psychological well-being as critical drivers of business performance. Our work is particularly valuable for companies experiencing leadership burnout, high-potential talent attrition, team disconnection, or the cultural challenges that arise during rapid growth or transformation. We partner with organizations where technical excellence is already established, but where human factors—communication breakdowns, stress management, conflict resolution, or engagement issues—are limiting broader success. Our clients aren't looking for generic team-building or standard leadership training; they seek a research-backed approach that develops the emotional intelligence capabilities necessary for sustainable high performance. Whether you're navigating post-pandemic workforce dynamics, preparing leaders for the AI transformation, or building cultures that attract and retain top talent, Big Self School provides the frameworks, tools, and ongoing support that transform how your people collaborate, innovate, and thrive. Our approach is particularly effective for knowledge-work organizations where human connection and psychological safety directly impact business outcomes.

Burnout is more than just fatigue—it's a state of chronic workplace stress characterized by emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and reduced efficacy. It manifests when prolonged pressure outpaces recovery, creating a physiological and psychological deficit that significantly impairs performance. In teams, burnout acts as an invisible productivity tax: research shows it leads to 37% higher absenteeism, 18% decreased productivity, and up to 15% higher error rates. Creative thinking and problem-solving capabilities decline by 30%, while team communication breaks down as burned-out employees withdraw from collaboration. Most concerning for leadership, burnout is contagious—studies demonstrate that one team member experiencing burnout increases colleagues' risk by 50%. The financial impact is substantial: a burned-out employee typically delivers only 60-70% of their potential output while costing an organization approximately 150% of their salary when accounting for quality issues, missed opportunities, and turnover risk. Recognizing these early warning signs allows for intervention before burnout cascades through your entire team.

Unlike conventional approaches that treat burnout as merely a workload problem, Big Self School addresses the deeper psychological patterns and workplace factors driving exhaustion. We integrate cutting-edge neuroscience with personalized coaching and our proprietary Emma AI companion for daily reinforcement, creating sustainable transformation rather than temporary relief. Our approach doesn't just manage symptoms—it fundamentally rewires the relationship between sustained productivity and well-being so your team members don't just recover from burnout, they become resistant to it.

We use the Enneagram as a powerful tool for self-awareness and transformation. It helps identify your personality type's specific patterns that lead to stress and burnout. Understanding your type reveals your core fears, desires, and unconscious motivations, allowing you to see precisely how you sabotage yourself and what specific practices will help you grow. It's a roadmap for returning to your authentic self.

Expect to be challenged, to face uncomfortable truths, and to do the real inner work. Our approach combines coaching, psychological insights, mindfulness, and practical tools to help you and your team optimize your execution without burning out. We'll guide you through understanding your personality patterns, processing emotions, identifying core values, and confronting outdated beliefs. This isn't quick-fix self-help; it's a transformative journey.

Both. We offer leadership coaching for personal transformation as well as organizational training to create healthier workplace cultures. Our organizational work focuses on improving communication, reducing burnout, strengthening communication, and creating psychological safety through tools like the Enneagram and emotional intelligence training.

If you're questioning whether you're experiencing burnout, that's often a sign itself. We can help you assess your current state and determine whether what you're experiencing is temporary stress or something deeper. Either way, reconnecting with your Big Self will benefit your wellbeing, purpose, and relationships regardless of your current stress level.

We begin with a comprehensive assessment process that includes leadership interviews, employee surveys, and cultural observations. Rather than applying one-size-fits-all solutions, we identify your organization's unique patterns of communication, conflict, stress, and disconnection. This allows us to create customized interventions that address root causes rather than symptoms. We're particularly attentive to the gap between stated values and lived experiences within your organization.

We specialize in helping leaders navigate their personal patterns that impact organizational health. These include overfunction/underfunction dynamics, difficulty with healthy conflict, perfectionism and people-pleasing, burnout-inducing leadership styles, and challenges in creating psychological safety. We help leaders understand how their Enneagram type influences their leadership approach and how to leverage their strengths while mitigating blind spots.

We establish clear metrics at the outset based on your specific goals, which might include reduced turnover, improved employee engagement scores, decreased burnout rates, better communication effectiveness, or enhanced team collaboration. We conduct both quantitative and qualitative assessments at regular intervals throughout our engagement. Most importantly, we look for evidence of lasting behavioral changes rather than just short-term enthusiasm.

We view conflict as a natural and necessary part of healthy teams when approached skillfully. Rather than avoiding conflict, we teach teams to engage in what we call "productive discomfort." Using the Enneagram and emotional intelligence frameworks, we help team members understand their different communication needs and conflict styles. We then establish shared protocols for addressing tensions before they escalate into personal resentments or siloed behavior.

Meaningful organizational change rarely happens in one-off workshops. Our engagements typically span 3-12 months, depending on the scope and depth of the work needed. We often begin with a more intensive phase of assessment and foundational training, followed by ongoing coaching and integration support. This allows new awareness and skills to take root within your culture rather than becoming another "flavor of the month" initiative.

Yes, we provide both in-person and virtual training experiences. Our virtual programs are specifically designed for digital engagement—not simply in-person workshops moved online. We use a combination of synchronous learning, asynchronous reflection activities, digital collaboration tools, and smaller group breakout sessions to ensure depth and connection in the virtual environment.

We design for integration from the beginning. This includes practical application exercises between sessions, leader-led reinforcement practices, accountability partnerships, and follow-up coaching via Emma, our AI coach assistant. We also work with your organization to identify and modify systems or policies that might be undermining the very behaviors you're trying to cultivate. Real change happens when insights are translated into daily practices within supportive structures.

We recognize that a startup has different needs than a healthcare system or an educational institution. We adapt our language, examples, pace, and implementation strategies to your specific context. Before beginning work, we immerse ourselves in understanding your industry challenges, organizational history, and cultural nuances. This allows us to connect our frameworks to your real-world scenarios rather than offering generic business examples.

We expect and respect resistance as a natural part of any change process. Rather than trying to overcome it, we get curious about it. Resistance often contains important wisdom about what the organization truly values or fears. We help leaders distinguish between healthy skepticism (which improves initiatives) and entrenched resistance that prevents growth. Our Enneagram-based approach is particularly effective at addressing the underlying fears that drive different types of resistance.

Knowing is only the beginning—doing is where transformation happens. We build progressive practice opportunities into all our programs, moving from low-stakes exercises to real-world applications. What sets us apart is our continuous support model: we stay with you throughout the entire journey, from initial assessment through implementation and follow-up reinforcement. Our proprietary AI companion, Emma, provides daily micro-learning moments, personalized feedback, and habit-formation support between live sessions, addressing the neurological reality that new behaviors require consistent repetition to become habits. This combination of expert training and AI-enhanced practice helps participants navigate the inevitable challenges that arise when implementing new approaches in complex organizational systems, ensuring lasting behavioral change rather than temporary insights.

Unlike conventional leadership programs that focus primarily on skills and strategies, we address the inner landscape that drives leadership behavior. Leaders learn not just what to do differently, but why they default to certain patterns and how to work with their own psychology to create lasting change. We integrate personality dynamics, emotional awareness, somatic experience, and practical leadership tools for a holistic approach that transforms both the leader and their impact.

We work across the spectrum from high-functioning teams seeking optimization to those experiencing significant dysfunction. However, we're honest about prerequisites for success—the leadership team must be willing to model vulnerability and engage in their own development work. Without this commitment from the top, attempts to transform team dynamics rarely succeed. We'll have candid conversations about readiness before beginning intensive team work.

We have extensive experience coaching leaders remotely, working with executives, entrepreneurs, and professionals across various industries to enhance their leadership effectiveness, emotional intelligence, and resilience. Our remote coaching approach is designed to be deeply personal, highly engaging, and results-driven. We use video conferencing (mainly Zoom) to foster face-to-face connection, ensuring that even in a remote setting, we establish trust and rapport. We integrate collaborative tools to track progress, facilitate exercises, and document insights in real-time. AI-powered coaching tools and assessments (Emma, Enneagram, Leadership Circle Profile 360) allow for data-driven insights and continuous reflection between sessions.

We customize our coaching through comprehensive assessments, including the Enneagram, to identify each leader's unique style and challenges. For visionary, big-picture leaders (often Enneagram 7 or 8), we focus on translating vision into execution, developing delegation skills, and creating accountability systems. With empathetic, people-oriented leaders (typically Enneagram 2 or 9), we strengthen boundary-setting, conflict navigation, and assertive communication. For leaders with rigid thinking patterns, we challenge fixed mindsets while preserving their analytical strengths. Our approach evolves as leaders grow, using continuous feedback and real-world application to help them leverage their natural strengths while developing complementary capabilities essential for their specific leadership context.

Managing remote teams requires intentional leadership, strong communication, and a balance of trust and accountability. I coach leaders to navigate these challenges by focusing on clarity, connection, and adaptability while leveraging their unique leadership style.

Leaders often struggle with team engagement and accountability in remote settings. We coach them to establish clear expectations, define their success metrics, workflows, and decision-making autonomy.

We focus on fostering a culture where team members feel heard, valued, and empowered to contribute.We help leaders manage remote teams by equipping them with communication mastery, trust-building strategies, engagement techniques, and performance systems that drive results while keeping teams motivated, connected, and psychologically safe.

We offer the Leadership Circle Profile 360º review, a core values inventory, and the Maslach Burnout Inventory. We provide additional assessments on a case-by-case basis depending on the needs and circumstances.

Definitely not. You just need to read a credible source and begin the process of self-observation and inquiry. The truth is, people like tests. But creating an authoritative test is far more complex than meets the eye, and that is why there are so few good ones. The free ones tend to be surface level and highly inaccurate. Download our (affiliate free) resource guide here for our vetted assessments of credible books, organizations, podcasts, tests, and other Enneagram-related resources.