For leaders, HR and organisations

Business psychologist for leaders and organisations

Conflict, pressure on the leadership role and stress among employees cost wellbeing, time and skilled people. As business psychologists we help leaders and organisations understand what is happening between people at work, and act on it: conflict management, leadership coaching, stress prevention, motivation and employee surveys.

Authorised psychologist, PhD · Across Denmark and online · Full confidentiality

Business psychology

The business psychologist works with the human factors that determine whether an organisation performs: leadership, collaboration, motivation and wellbeing. Assignments typically come from the executive team, HR or an individual leader, and range from targeted interventions to longer programmes.

• Mediation in conflicts between employees or within a team, with advice to the leader along the way
• Coaching of leaders and leadership teams on decisions, stakeholders and difficult conversations
• Stress prevention, support during sick leave and planning the return to work
• Identifying what motivates employees, and how leadership puts it into practice
• Employee surveys with analysis of the relationships between leadership, wellbeing, motivation and retention
• Workshops and talks for leadership teams and departments

Conflict management

Disagreement is part of all collaboration. The problem arises when disagreement becomes personal and locks in: collaboration deteriorates, sickness absence rises, and skilled employees start looking elsewhere. The longer a conflict is left to develop, the more it costs in time, wellbeing and productivity.

As business psychologists we step in as a neutral third party. That may be mediation between two colleagues, a programme for a whole team, or advice to the leader before, during and after. We work with what is actually at stake and reach concrete agreements on how collaboration will work going forward. Cases involving bullying and offensive behaviour are handled with particular care and in line with the Danish Working Environment Authority’s rules on the psychosocial working environment.

Leadership coaching

The leadership role is full of competing expectations. The board or executive team wants results, employees want direction and recognition, customers and partners want answers, and then there is the leader’s own manager. In the middle of it all, the leader must make decisions, hold difficult conversations and still have energy left.

Leadership coaching is a confidential space where the leader works through concrete situations with a business psychologist who knows both leadership theory and practice: an employee who is not delivering, a change that meets resistance, a stakeholder pulling in a different direction. The coaching can take the form of supervision, focusing on the leader’s own reactions and patterns in the role. The aim is better decisions, clearer communication and a leadership role that is sustainable over time.

Stress prevention

The share of Danes reporting a high level of stress has been rising for more than a decade according to the Danish National Health Profile, and stress-related sick leave rarely affects only the person who falls ill. Colleagues take over tasks, the leader loses a key person, and uncertainty spreads. Prevention is therefore both a working-environment responsibility and a leadership task.

We work on three levels. Preventively, we look at influence, meaning, predictability, social support, recognition and appropriate demands, known in Danish working-environment research as the six golden nuggets, and help leaders spot the early signs. During sick leave we offer sessions for the employee and sparring for the leader on contact and expectations. And when the employee is ready to return, we design a plan with a gradual build-up, clear agreements and follow-up, often using the Danish partial sick-leave scheme.

Motivation

Leaders rarely have precise data on what motivates their employees. Pay and titles matter, but motivation research consistently points to three other needs as the strongest drivers: influence over one’s own work, the experience of mastering it, and belonging to a community where one is seen. This is the core of self-determination theory, one of the best-supported accounts of what motivates people at work.

We map what motivates your employees specifically, and help leadership shape the work, the feedback and the recognition accordingly. This happens through workshops, leadership programmes and, where useful, short surveys that show differences between departments and professional groups.

Employee surveys

Many wellbeing surveys end up as a report of bar charts and a few percentage points up or down. A survey that is to be used for prioritising must show relationships: which conditions in leadership, collaboration and working conditions are associated with motivation, retention, wellbeing and team cohesion in your organisation.

We design the survey with validated questions on motivation, retention, stress prevention, job satisfaction, team cohesion and leadership. The analysis uncovers the statistical relationships behind the organisation’s soft performance factors and translates them into prioritised action plans. Results are presented to leadership and fed back to employees, and a follow-up survey shows whether the effort is working. The survey can be linked to the statutory workplace assessment (APV), which must be carried out at least every three years and also covers the psychosocial working environment.

Why EGOLAB

Business psychology at EGOLAB is anchored with an authorised psychologist holding a PhD in work and organisational psychology, a background in business and many years of teaching leaders at MSc and MBA level. We combine research-based methods with a practical understanding of how organisations work, and we measure the effect wherever possible.

Everything said in coaching, supervision and sessions is covered by the psychologist’s duty of confidentiality. In employee surveys we never report at a level where individuals can be identified.

Your business psychologist

Max is clinic director at EGOLAB, an authorised psychologist and holds a PhD in work and organisational psychology. Before psychology he worked as a business lawyer, and he has since taught leaders at MSc and MBA level and advised organisations on stress, motivation and staff dynamics.

It is this combination of leadership expertise and psychological expertise that underpins EGOLAB’s business psychology. Read Max’s profile →