Case Study Snapshot:
Introduction
After six years of running a growing brick-and-mortar business with a team of four employees, a dedicated founder found herself at a breaking point. Despite investing in multiple coaching programs, operational systems, and leadership assessments, none brought lasting results. In fact, many contributed to her burnout. These high-performance, spreadsheet-driven models emphasized pressurized structure over substance, attempting to mold her team into standardized roles without honoring the human potential within the business.
This approach is all too common in today’s consulting landscape. While well-intended, many traditional methodologies are built on efficiency metrics and generalized frameworks, not the individuality of the people inside the organization. That’s where Human Centered Workplaces (HCW) comes in: a consulting practice grounded in the Science of Differentiation, tailored to align business function with human design, so leaders and employees can thrive without losing themselves in the process of collaborative work.
The Challenge
As a first-time small business owner and single mother, she had taken on far more than her role required, a reality many leaders silently carry. Traditional leadership culture promotes the belief that founders must have all the answers, be constantly available, and take responsibility for every facet of the business: strategy, execution, operations, and profit. Hustle culture had taught her that being a strong leader meant doing it all, no matter the cost.
In her case, that meant absorbing both the emotional and functional weight of the organization. She had unknowingly subscribed to a definition of leadership rooted in self-sacrifice and hyper-availability. The business systems and coaching programs she invested in only reinforced that model, emphasizing metrics and performance while overlooking energetic sustainability, human development, and role clarity.
Her story reflects a larger cultural shift: traditional workplace frameworks often prioritize structure and compliance, over holistic wellbeing and the development of human potential. While responsibilities matter, these models tend to treat employees as static functions rather than evolving individuals. As workforce values continue to shift, so too must leadership. It’s no longer just about oversight, it’s about cultivating environments where people, including the leader, can thrive.
Her business was no exception. Like many, she had never been taught how to develop others in a way that developed individuals while serving the organization as a whole. The result: chronic exhaustion, a capable but underutilized frustrated team, and a growing disconnect between her vision and the daily reality of her business.
Even her physical environment mirrored the weight she was carrying. The building was deteriorating, her lease end was approaching, and her clarity had begun to erode. The big question was, can I keep operating this way? She remained committed to keeping the business alive but she no longer knew how to do it without burning herself out in the process.
The HCW Process
We began with a Full Leadership Analysis using the BG5 system, which revealed she is an Advisor in leadership type, not a consistent doer or initiator, but a guide of systems, people, and process. In an ideal world, perfect for business ownership. She carried the Channel of the Alpha within the Workplace Small Unified Group Dynamic (penta), and the Strength of Higher Principles, both indicators of someone designed to lead from clarity and long-term vision, not from overextension or constant proving.
Like many Advisors, she had been unconsciously amplifying the emotional and energy dynamics around her, internalizing responsibility for everything, and unintentionally blocking the team’s self-sufficiency.
Through a Full Business Analysis, we discovered her entire staff were Classic Builders, reliable, energizing, and highly capable when provided proper direction. While she hadn’t seen herself as a micromanager, she had been compensating for unclear delegation, stepping in to do what her team could handle. The issue wasn’t a lack of support. It was a lack of functional alignment and trust in the process.
Implementation and Outcome
We restructured daily operations, clarified team roles, and appointed internal leads. She shifted into her rightful place as a guiding leader, focused on long-term development and vision, not task execution. Her team responded almost immediately. With aligned roles and transparent communication channels in place, they began to self-organize with confidence.
It became clear she had a strong and loyal team, what was missing wasn’t capacity, but the tools and mindset to delegate effectively. Like many leaders, she had never been shown how to lead in a way that protected her energy and empowered others. At Human Centered Workplaces, we see this as one of the most common and costly blind spots in leadership today. When businesses are structured by design and communication is clear, team performance activates organically.
By month three, the culture had already shifted. Frustration was replaced by flow. By six months, internal tension had given way to trust. She made the empowered decision to relocate the business, stepping into a new space that matched her refreshed leadership role. She then hired three new employees to meet the rising demand, all while having more time with her family. A win-win for the whole business.
Aligned Decision Making as a Leadership Keystone
One of the most profound shifts came through learning how to make decisions not reactively, but in accordance with her unique decision-making strategy. As an Advisor, she benefited from slowing down, listening inward, and discerning the right timing. Through our work together, she began making business decisions not from pressure, but from clarity.
Decision-making in leadership isn’t just personal, it’s structural. It sets the tone for how a business operates and how teams respond. When leaders choose from alignment, they not only preserve their well-being, they create emotional and operational coherence across the organization.
At HCW, this is a cornerstone of our work: you can’t lead effectively if you don’t understand how you’re built to decide. For this founder, that clarity became her anchor, giving her the confidence to say less, guide more, and expand with grounded authority in self-trust.
Emotional Intelligence & Energetic Awareness
As we worked through emotional intelligence awareness, she realized she had an undefined emotional function, meaning she had been unconsciously amplifying her team’s emotional tone. This explained the tension and the sense of walking on eggshells during staff interactions. It also explained why she often avoided difficult conversations and held back from delegating.
Once this dynamic was named and self recognized, she felt liberated. She learned to regulate her internal experience and lead with direct, compassionate clarity. What once triggered reactivity now invited grounded discernment and her team noticed the shift. They began inviting her input instead of avoiding it.
Emotional intelligence and decision-making are the keystones of conscious leadership. They are also the foundational skills we teach at Human Centered Workplaces, because they are the true infrastructure of sustainable success.
Reflections on the Science
This case illustrates the deep difference between generic management models and human centered business strategy. Her burnout wasn’t from a lack of effort, it was from trying to lead a deeply human enterprise through rigid systems that ignored the mechanics of people. Which in my view, is the most important part of any business or organization. It's about the people who power the business into success.
Her greatest takeaway? That putting the right people in the right roles, and communicating clearly about those roles, changes everything. With her team aligned by design, and her leadership guided by clarity and self-awareness, the business no longer required control to grow. It simply required trust, structure, and space.
At Human Centered Workplaces, we believe this is the future of work: businesses built by design, cultures led by self-recognition, and success defined by sustainability, not sacrifice.
At Human Centered workplaces we calm the chaos of leadership and business management.
About the Author
“The world values your aligned authenticity in leadership” - Lorraine Berg
Lorraine Berg is the founder of Human-Centered Workplaces, a leadership and business consultancy grounded in the Science of Differentiation. She is a 3/5 Emotional Initiator on the lifework theme of Rulership.
With over 20 years of experience across entrepreneurship, education, and team development, she helps leaders and founders create sustainable, aligned success by building businesses that honor and respect humans differentiation. Lorraine is a certified BG5 Career & Business Consultant, guiding clients through strategic design, role clarity, and conscious communication. Her mission is to calm the chaos of leadership and business management by helping others lead from purpose, not pressure—one aligned decision at a time.
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