We address blockers to thriving cultures, including narcissists and psychopaths, and bullying, predatory, and coercively controlling behaviours.
We create workplace and organisational cultures in which people thrive.
From the founder.
I have worked for decades with organisations, individuals, and communities on creating cultures in which people thrive.
The most important thing I have learnt working with CEO’s and executives, customer interfacing people, those working in support, in mining, banking, charities, in religion and so on, is that it can take just one person to destroy all the work that goes into building great cultures and engaged people.
The far-reaching negative impact of narcissistic or psychopathic behaviours, including bullying, manipulation, exploitation, fabrication, coercion, grooming, rumour creation, intimidation, and ‘gas lighting’, doesn’t just destabilise or harm organisational cultures and teams but destroys the lives of individuals.
As a society we are not well-equipped to recognise, accept, or address destabilising, controlling, and polarising personalities, particularly as these people can also present as compelling and knowledgeable.
I have spent years working with and studying these types of people and have connected with others around the world who have done the same, so that together we can provide services which assist with the creation of truly thriving cultures, environments, and communities.
Dr Karen Mitchell, Founder and CEO
I have a strong belief in the power of individuals to achieve extraordinary results, given the right environment, confidence, and capability.
I also have a great passion for people leading lives that they love.
Our services.
Creating thriving cultures.
Addressing blockers to thriving cultures.
Culture change and reinvigoration.
“Culture is so incredibly important because it is the foundation for all future innovation. People with passion can change the world.”
Brian Chesky
CEO Airbnb.
“Create the kind of workplace and company culture that will attract great talent. If you hire brilliant people, they will make work feel more like play.”
Richard Branson
Entrepreneur.
Inclusiveness, women, and leadership.
“Karen and the others that work with her at Kalmor have a highly sophisticated understanding and deep level of experience in the barriers to women’s corporate and career success and how these can be addressed.
More importantly, Karen and her colleagues have excellent change management, facilitation, and coaching skills so their ability to impact attitudes and ultimately behaviours of people in organisations is exceptional. Their level of professionalism and sensitivity in working with others, including very senior people, in this somewhat political area, is outstanding.
They also have a keen awareness of the need to link diversity-related issues to commercial outcomes. I would have no hesitation in recommending Kalmor to any organisation.”
Group Managing Director
Human Capital, Telecommunications.
Narcissists, psychopaths, and destabilisers.
“12% of corporate senior leadership displays a range of psychopathic traits, which means psychopathy is up to 12 times more common among senior management than among the general population.”
“When some of the defining traits of psychopathy include egocentricity, predatoriness, recklessness, a lack of empathy, and a propensity for manipulation and exploitation, it doesn’t take a great leap of the imagination to see how a high percentage of unrecognized psychopathy in senior management could lead to all kinds of problems for organisations, their employees, their customers, and society at large - including billions of dollars of losses annually and reduced shareholder wealth.”
Distinguished Professor Simon Croom
University of San Diego.
“More often than not, they are NOT murderers or rapists, burglars, or leaders of cults. They are people quietly endangering people in many different, constant, and not easily transparent ways.”
M Scott Peck
People of the Lie.
Bullying, toxic, predatory, and coercively controlling behaviours.
In a study of several thousand managers and employees exposed to toxic behaviours:
78% said their commitment to the organisation declined.
48% decreased their work effort,
66% said their performance declined.
How Toxic Colleagues Erode Performance.
Porath and Pearson.
“I have encountered people who I believe went to the effort of gaining professional credentials to gain status and power which would enable them to abuse children without being subject to questioning by people who put their trust in them and held them in high esteem. For example, priests and teachers. I have witnessed these many times”
Investigator, child sex abuse in the Catholic Church
Karen Mitchell’s PhD.
Clients past and present.
A sample of participants in Karen Mitchell’s PhD research which informs our approach.
Dr Emma Katz
World leading expert in coercive control.
Professor W. Keith Campbell
World leading expert in narcissism.
Professor Tamas Bereczkei
World leading expert in Machiavellianism.
Professor Cynthia Mathieu
World leading expert in psychopaths, Machiavellians, and narcissists in workplaces.
Dr Nathan Brooks
World leading expert in high functioning psychopaths.
Mr Simon Davies
Director of Culture, Risk & Professional Standards for the Jesuits, an international Catholic religious order of male priests and brothers.
Mr Mark MacKizer
27 years as an FBI agent; lead investigator working internationally and domestically on crimes of abduction, homicide, sexual exploitation; expert in both overt and covert forms of harm-related behaviour, including behavioural analysis relating to risk, personality, and threat.
Mr Charlie Bezina
High profile criminal apprehension specialist and lead investigator into deaths in police custody, fatal encounters by police and public, suspicious circumstances of missing persons, armed robbery.