Leading from True Self
This retreat works beneath the surface, updating the inner operating system that drives everything else.
One of the most formative experiences a founder can have
This is not another leadership training. Not a networking event. Not a framework you will read about and forget.
At a certain stage of building, the external challenges of growth are surpassed by an internal one: the patterns that once drove your success start to limit it. Overdrive, control, reactivity, isolation: these are not character flaws. They are protective strategies, wired into your nervous system, that once helped you move fast and survive uncertainty. But they now shape your culture, your decisions and your relationships in ways you may not yet fully see.
Small & carefully selected
10 founders maximum. Intimate enough for genuine psychological safety. Diverse enough to expose blind spots and challenge one another.
Evidence-based deep work
We use Internal Family Systems (IFS), one of the most powerful evidence-based therapeutic models, applied specifically to the inner life of founders and the challenges of scaling under tremendous uncertainty and the highest expectations for results.
Outdoors, in the Alps
A significant part of the work happens in nature: hiking, silence, somatic practice in the mountains. The environment is not incidental. It is one of the teachers.
Friendships that last
A small cohort of founders navigating similar thresholds. The trust built in four days typically becomes a peer group that continues long after the retreat ends.
Your leadership is only as evolved as your inner system
Bob Anderson's leadership research, drawing on over 3 million leadership assessments, identifies two fundamentally different modes of leadership, with fundamentally different outcomes.
Anderson's data show an almost one-to-one correlation between creative leadership, leadership effectiveness and business results.
For founders, both the stakes and the challenges are unusually high. You are not just a leader: you are your company's nervous system. Your reactive patterns become your culture. Your blind spots become your team's constraints. Your unresolved inner conflicts surface in every board meeting, every hard conversation, every strategic decision made under pressure. And it is doubly hard to stay centred when ambition meets complexity.
This retreat is that work.
Leading from a centred, self-authored place: from clarity, purpose and genuine values. Creative leaders are less concerned with how they are perceived and more oriented toward what actually matters. They build trust, develop people and navigate complexity without tightening control.
Being run by protective patterns: by fear of failure, by the need for approval, by the compulsion to control, by the impulse to withdraw when things get uncertain. Identity and behaviour are shaped by external pressures and old safety strategies rather than by genuine values and vision.
Internal Family Systems: the path to leading from true Self
Internal Family Systems (IFS), developed by Dr. Richard Schwartz, is one of the most powerful evidence-based approaches available for deep personal change. Its core insight is simple and profound: every person has a Self, a centred, clear, compassionate core that is capable of genuine leadership, and a system of protective parts that, under stress, can take over and run the show.
These are not character flaws. They are protective strategies, formed early, often brilliant in their original context, and now silently limiting your leadership.
This is exactly where Anderson's framework and IFS converge: reactive leadership is what happens when protective parts are in charge. Creative leadership is what becomes possible when the Self leads. The shift from reactive to creative is not a behavioural change. It is an inner reorganisation: the Self stepping forward into leadership of the whole system.
As a founder, you already know these parts intimately.
- The part that micromanages because it doesn't trust the team.
- The part that avoids hard conversations to keep the peace.
- The part that pushes relentlessly, long past the point of diminishing returns.
- The part that withdraws when things get uncertain.
- The part that needs to be the smartest person in the room.
Four dimensions of deep development
Your inner operating system
Identify the reactive patterns (controlling, pleasing, overdrive, withdrawal) that were once protective and are now shaping your leadership. See them clearly. Understand where they come from.
Parts work & true Self
Through facilitated IFS sessions, individual and in group, meet the parts that drive your most challenging founder patterns. Access the Self that can lead them, rather than be led by them. Begin to update and evolve your protective parts.
Embodiment & contemplation
Somatic practice, breathwork, meditation and contemplative inquiry, much of it outdoors in the Bavarian Alps. Reconnect with the body and nature as a source of intelligence and life force.
Peer connection & ritual
Real trust with a small group of founders at a similar threshold. Honest peer council, witnessing, and a closing ritual marking what you are leaving behind and what you are stepping into.
Schliersee, Bavarian Alps
The retreat takes place at Jens' private mountain chalet in Schliersee, one hour south of Munich, surrounded by alpine peaks, forest and water. Nature is not the backdrop here. It is part of the work: the mountains, the silence and the pace of a different kind of time all support the inner movement that this retreat invites.
Our space is comfortable and quiet: pool, sauna, pond, gym, fireplace, home-cooked seasonal food, and no outside noise. The kind of conditions that genuine inner work requires.
Founders at a real threshold
This retreat is for founders who sense that the next stage of their company requires a different version of themselves. You may recognise one or more of the following:
- You are running fast and effective, but something is burning underneath. You have stopped asking whether you are okay.
- You notice patterns repeating: in how you respond under pressure, how you make hard decisions, how you lead your team. You cannot yet see clearly how to change them.
- You feel disconnected from the original motivation that drove you to build, and from the people around you.
- Your company is growing, but your leadership has not yet grown with it. The patterns that got you here are starting to limit what comes next.
- You want work that goes beneath the surface: not another framework, but a genuine shift in how you lead and how you live.
World-class retreat leaders, committed to your success
Dr. Jens Riese
Former Senior Partner at McKinsey (Munich and Silicon Valley), where he co-led the Innovation and Sustainability practices and served as global Dean for Leadership Development. After McKinsey, Jens co-founded and invested in several start-ups. Today he works as a therapist, executive coach and leadership guide, supporting founders, investors and leadership teams in deep transformation journeys. He brings together leadership science, Internal Family Systems (IFS) and trauma-informed therapy, somatic practice and nature-based wisdom, all grounded in his own experience of building, leading and making the inner journey himself. He holds a PhD from Cambridge and has worked with leaders across 25+ countries.
Alexander Volz
Alexander coaches CEOs and founders at the highest levels of ambition and complexity, from first VC funding through $10B+ valuations. His clients include Europe's fastest-growing AI companies and CEOs of companies with thousands of employees. As founder of a B2B start-up he built and sold, a strategy consultant at McKinsey, and leader of the CEO office of a unicorn, he has lived every stage of the journey himself. He is trained in ontological coaching and IFS therapy, working at the intersection of trauma-informed therapy, leadership transformation and spirituality. He has led multiple founder retreats in the Alps. His work rests on a single conviction: that the next generation of world-changing companies will be built by leaders who learn to lead from love, not fear.
Founders on working with us
“Every minute and every hour matters. As a founder, you must spend time on what is most important. Spending a weekend in nature, planning for the future in an environment where your best ideas are flourishing was such a good investment.”
“Jens stands out amongst Executive Coaches in that he combines his own experience as senior leader and as a family man with great therapeutic skills and warm empathy.”
“Working with Jens has deeply changed me as a person and as a founder. I am incredibly grateful.”
“From our first conversation, Alexander brought a calm clarity that cut through the noise. As a strategic thinking partner, he combined business insight with a depth of spiritual growth that helped me become a better leader and person. That inner growth translated directly into sharper decisions, faster execution, and the confidence to scale from €1M ARR to €10M ARR while hitting every major milestone along the way.”
“Alex is by far the strongest coach I have ever worked with. Perhaps most importantly, working with Alex has made me realise that being a founder of a fast growing company does not need to be a chaotic and overwhelming endeavour, and that actually, by bringing the level of reflection and rigour to my thinking that Alex's coaching promotes, I can massively accelerate my company's progress whilst in parallel cultivate a healthy, balanced life that I rarely see other founders attaining.”
“Jens can seamlessly pull from a broad range of practices from the fields of coaching, developmental learning, therapy, consulting, to meet the unique needs of individuals or groups.”
How to join
1–5 April 2027 · 10 founders maximum. Spaces are filled by conversation: apply to begin. Scholarships are available for early-stage founders on request.
- Apply
Send a short email about yourself and your company. It takes two minutes.
- Talk to us
A brief one-to-one call to explore fit and answer your questions.
- Get your spot
If it's the right fit, we will invite you in.
- Join the cohort
Begin your deep work journey in Schliersee.
Apply for Cohort 2
To apply or enquire, write to Jens directly. Alexander Volz can be reached at alexander.volz@european-leadership-institute.info.