Coaching that helps businesses thrive

Clinical and counseling psychologists throughout the nation are discovering how to apply their expertise to consult in the business world—a trend that is helping employers tackle, or even prevent, a host of thorny workplace problems. They are coaching leaders and teams to navigate difficult interpersonal dynamics, fallout from microaggressions, turnover from burnout, and more.

“Many organizational leaders do not have expertise in human behavior, and the biggest challenges they face are often related to other people,” said Shannon Jennings, PsyD, owner of Syncovate Business Psychology Consultants in Michigan. “They are hungry to gain a better understanding of themselves and the people they are trying to lead.”

Clinical psychologists who break into consulting bring skills in developing trust and rapport, identifying obstacles in relationships, and creating a plan for areas of growth. They often start with an interest in organizations and the people who work in these systems, and this curiosity fuels their motivation to pursue opportunities to gain additional training, network in the business community, and learn from other psychologists in the field.

Though clinical skills can be valuable in a business setting, certain aspects of consulting require formal industrial-organizational (I-O) training. Education in statistical and validation techniques is important for developing inclusive and fair programs for employee selection and assessment, said Alexis Fink, PhD, president of APA Division 14 (Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, or SIOP). “This type of assessment program must produce fair outcomes that are tied to work performance and are legally defensible,” said Fink.

Performance management is another area that I-O psychologists are specifically trained to tackle in organizations. Companies often hire consulting psychologists to design and implement a fair system to develop a policy for salary raises, determine how bonuses will be distributed, decide who will be promoted, and more. “There are tremendous opportunities to do this incorrectly, which can expose an organization to litigation,” said Scott Tannenbaum, PhD, president of The Group for Organizational Effectiveness in New York and president-elect for SIOP. “This type of work requires an understanding of complex organizational dynamics and the legal implications of metrics for making decisions about people.”

Jennings started thinking about organizational systems when she was working as a divorce and custody therapist early in her career. “I noticed that where people worked mattered when they were in the midst of a divorce,” she said. “When their jobs were stressful and inflexible, conflict increased between partners.” After several years in the field, Jennings felt burnt out working with patients involved in highly contentious situations. She found a new job facilitating leadership retreats at the Edward Lowe Foundation in Michigan, an organization focused on supporting companies that had recently moved beyond the start-up phase. She learned how to help leaders identify their leadership styles and strengths, gain a clearer vision for the company’s direction, and bond with one another.

“I saw how small business owners were hungry to learn,” Jennings said. To foster networking and mentoring relationships, she joined her local Renaissance Executive Forums, a global organization with chapters throughout the country. She facilitated a monthly forum meeting that included a dozen business leaders who discussed challenges they were facing and exchanged advice. Her current Indiana chapter includes 120 member companies, and forum groups have invited her to speak about topics such as mental health in the workplace, heuristics and cognitive biases in decision-making, and how family dynamics can influence a business.

She also regularly posts on LinkedIn to relay how her psychology expertise can help business owners. In a recent blog series, she invited people to take “The Ouch Test,” which involves posing questions to themselves with which they must agree or disagree, such as, “I enjoy the time I spend in my business.” She offers to help if the answers highlight areas of need.

Jennings has seen an uptick in demand for her services from small businesses that are affected by the increased costs of materials and wages in the past few years. More owners are facing decisions about mergers and acquisitions, and stakeholders may have differing opinions about whether to sell. She recently worked with a family who received an offer from a buyer that was higher than expected. One person in the family wanted to consider selling, but other members preferred to keep the company as a multigenerational business. She gathered the extended family for a retreat to discuss their values and goals, and members directly involved in the business met in a smaller group to talk about the acquisition decision.

For Ryan Warner, PhD, working as a psychologist in the military carved a path that led to his organizational consulting business, RC Warner Consulting. He started as a clinical psychology resident in the Air Force in 2018 and was later promoted to director of psychological health at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico, where he helped support the mental well-being of 20,000 military service members. The role allowed him to consult with high-level leaders and develop skills related to team dynamics, conflict resolution, and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).

He was particularly drawn to DEI work that used assessment data to evaluate the level of biases among team members, whether diverse employees had a voice, and the need for more inclusive policies. He enjoyed coaching leaders about how to maximize team performance and improve morale by creating a culture that valued diversity. When he left active duty in 2022, Warner started working as a consultant with leaders in the military and other organizations, such as the Cheesecake Factory, the United Nations Development Programme, and Airbus. Recently, a unit in the U.S. Department of Defense hired him because the use of microaggressions was affecting the team. He taught the group about the concept of microaggressions, how to recognize them, and how to respond when they occur.

He also dedicates about 20% of his time to seeing patients in his clinical practice. He treats many patients of color who are struggling with racial discrimination and distress, and the insights he gains from working with them informs his consulting work.

It is not uncommon for consulting psychologists with a clinical background to continue working part-time in a specialty outside the organizational context. Daniel Lattimore, PhD, a consultant for the Pixel Leadership Group, also provides individual and group interventions in the community for youth at risk of psychosocial stressors, including food and housing insecurity. He enjoys helping youth learn how to process trauma, manage emotions like anger, and learn cognitive behavioral skills.

Lattimore began considering consulting when he was a postdoctoral fellow at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in Cincinnati in 2022. He attended events of APA Division 13 (Society of Consulting Psychology), networked with other members, and volunteered to help facilitate sessions. Several members of the division have hired him to consult with clients, and one of his areas of expertise is the intersection of humor with racial experiences in the workplace. “Even the best-intentioned jokes can land poorly,” he said. “My work helps leaders and teams embrace this vulnerability and turn it into a growth opportunity.”

During a recent engagement with leaders in a health care system, participants identified potential effects of unconscious bias in the workplace. Lattimore facilitated open dialogue that included various forms of humor, such as jokes leaders can use to poke fun at themselves to downplay the power dynamic in the room. The leaders took time to develop an action plan to mitigate bias at the organization.

The technology industry is another business sector teeming with companies in need of personnel support from psychologists. Joanie Connell, PhD, was working as an electrical engineer in Silicon Valley when she started seeing a pattern: Engineers were promoted to managerial roles, but they were much more interested in solving technical problems than leading people. Many also had little or no training in management. Connell was interested in helping people with a technical background become effective leaders, which motivated her to work for Personnel Decisions International (now Korn Ferry), a global consulting firm, and earn a doctoral degree in psychology.

“I help technical people understand that feelings are data, too,” said Connell. She uses Hogan personality and leadership assessments and 360-degree assessments to collect data that she can translate into feedback to leaders. The demand for team coaching has surged since the Covid-19 pandemic because of the increase in transitions to virtual work. Many employees joined teams either just before this transition or have joined since then and never had the opportunity to get to know one another. “They are still missing out on opportunities to chat before or after meetings, so I help them build relationships and talk about challenging team dynamics,” she said.

Like Connell, Liz Sweigart, PhD, MBA, discovered her interest in consulting psychology after she worked in the business world, first as a financial executive at a nonprofit and later as a partner at PwC. “I realized how interdependent business was with psychology, and I saw an opportunity to bridge that gap,” she said. Sweigart enrolled in a doctoral psychology program for organizational leadership at the Chicago School for Professional Psychology. After graduating in 2021, she started working as a consultant for a start-up company in the education technology sector that was focused on helping children be safer online. That work helped her make connections that led to engagements with emerging technology companies involved in blockchain, cryptocurrency, and decentralized social media.

“One of the unique things about the emerging tech industry is that the leaders tend to be very young, and they carry tremendous responsibility to generate funding from investors and venture capital,” Sweigart said. “I help them cultivate perspective and increase professional maturity.” She recently worked with an overseas company that is developing a social media application for people who are not comfortable using platforms like X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook because they worry about how their personal data are being used. During an offsite meeting, she helped the leaders create a 6-month product roadmap by prioritizing goals for the new application and delegating roles and responsibilities for different leaders.

Psychologists’ own assumptions about the need for technical expertise can prevent them from consulting in the technology industry, said Sweigart. Common limiting beliefs include the following: I don’t know enough about technology, these leaders are too young, or the tech culture is not open to psychology. But Sweigart’s experience proves otherwise. Many leaders are eager to partner with her and learn together. She makes a habit of sharing both her successes and failures in meetings with teams. “Creativity, innovation, and failure are encouraged in these companies,” she said. “They are looking for psychologists who are curious and willing to try.”