We are Katzar.
A boutique team of workplace psychologists working alongside organisations that want stronger leadership, healthier teams, and better execution. We do not stop at purpose. We plant seeds, inspire change, and leave a mark that lasts.
A boutique team. Purpose for meaning.
Katzar is a people-focused consultancy led by industrial psychologists. We do not stop at purpose.
Purpose is the surface. Beneath it lives meaning - the unseen iceberg, the part that drives behaviour, shapes identity, and determines whether people truly commit to their work and to each other.
We plant seeds. We inspire. We leave a mark and a feeling. There is a pivotal shift we work towards in every engagement - the moment the penny drops. When a leader, a team, or an organisation realises something they cannot unrealise.
We are not a large firm. That is intentional. Our size means senior practitioners are present throughout every engagement.
“Showing up does not require perfection – just authentic participation in a world where every skill matters.”
The global benchmark for workplace psychology.
With integrity at our core, we evolve workplaces to adopt modern ways of working, using technology as a catalyst to unlock people as the competitive advantage.
Build scalable people capability.
We collaborate with organisations to cultivate transformational leadership that drives sustainable organisational performance.
A harvest does not happen by accident.
The name comes from the Hebrew idea of harvest - the result of careful preparation and cultivation over time. Leadership, capability, and meaning develop in exactly the same way.
Words from the Leader
Leadership is the melody played by the organisation. It comes from the top. It requires authentic feedback, a commitment to meaning over metrics, and the courage to say what needs to be said, even when it is uncomfortable. I will walk away from a client if we are not offering real value. That is not a threat. It is a standard I hold myself to.
Lena-Mari Josling
Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Katzar
Why organisations come to us
Most organisations are not short of ideas.
What they struggle with is the space between intention and execution. Leadership expectations become unclear. Systems evolve faster than habits. Teams work hard but not always in the same direction.
We meet people where they are at, not where the strategy says they should be. That is where real change begins.
- Leadership capability that does not scale alongside the business
- Change programmes announced but rarely adopted
- New tools introduced but habits never evolved
- Structure that creates confusion instead of clarity
- Decisions that slow down under pressure rather than speed up
- Teams working hard, but in different directions
- Growth outpacing the systems, processes, and people practices behind it
What We Do
The human side of performance.
Our work focuses on strengthening the systems that make organisations function. Click on any area to see what it means in practice for leaders, teams, and the organisation.
Strategic Navigation
Translating strategy into practical decisions, operating rhythms, and clear accountability that actually moves the organisation forward.
For leaders
Alignment around shared priorities and clearer decision-making. Exco effectiveness and psychological safety, by leaders, for leaders, built into how the leadership team functions day to day.
For teams
Less confusion about direction, less duplicated effort, and more confidence in what they are doing and why it matters.
For the organisation
A strategy that lives beyond the presentation deck. Operating rhythms, communication frameworks, governance structures, and accountability systems that give the organisation the discipline to follow through.
Typical work includes
- Leadership alignment sessions and strategy translation workshops
- Exco effectiveness and leadership efficiency programmes
- Psychological safety, by leaders, for leaders
- Communication frameworks for leadership and cross-functional teams
- Quarterly rhythm and review process design
Change Management
Understanding where change gets stuck, involving the right people in shaping solutions, and building adoption that lasts beyond the announcement.
For leaders
Understand where resistance lives and why. Learn how to communicate change in ways people can actually hear. Leader effectiveness and psychological safety, by leaders, for leaders, is at the heart of how we approach this.
For teams
Feel involved rather than done-to. Space to raise concerns and real support during transition rather than a communication plan and good luck.
For the organisation
Change that actually sticks. Measured adoption and learning from each transition that improves how future change is managed.
Typical work includes
- Change readiness diagnostics and impact assessments
- Stakeholder mapping, engagement, and communication frameworks
- Pilot programme design and iterative rollout support
- Adoption measurement, feedback loops, and course correction
- Change leadership coaching for executives and managers
Digital Transformation and Modern Ways of Working
Helping organisations adopt AI, cloud tools, and collaboration practices that change how people actually work. We drive habitual shifts.
For leaders
Understand how to lead in a digitally enabled workplace. Role-model the modern working habits that give teams permission to adopt them. Leader effectiveness and psychological safety, by leaders, for leaders, underpins all of it.
For teams
Build genuine confidence with new tools. Develop practical habits around AI-assisted collaboration. Reduce digital overload and reclaim focus.
For the organisation
Technology that is actually used. Habitual shifts that outlast the project. A workforce genuinely more capable, not just technically trained, but behaviourally ready.
Typical work includes
- Microsoft 365 and collaboration platform adoption support
- AI-supported workflow enablement and governance design
- Habitual shift programmes, embedding new behaviours, not just new tools
- Digital ways of working for hybrid and remote teams
- Operating model design for digital-first organisations
Leadership Development and Coaching
Building the self-awareness, emotional intelligence, and decision practices that define good leadership in complex environments.
For leaders
Develop the self-awareness to understand how you impact those around you. Leader effectiveness and psychological safety, by leaders, for leaders, is a consistent thread through all our leadership work.
For teams
Leaders who can hold difficult conversations, give feedback that is actually useful, and create the kind of psychological safety that allows people to take risks and do their best work.
For the organisation
A leadership culture that compounds over time. Leaders who develop others and drive performance through people rather than pressure.
Typical work includes
- Executive and senior leader coaching programmes
- Leadership development journeys and immersive programmes
- Exco effectiveness and leadership efficiency
- Psychological safety, by leaders, for leaders
- Coaching for founders and first-time executives in scaling organisations
Organisational and HR Diagnostics
An honest view of how the organisation actually functions, with practical improvements and clear owners rather than a report that collects dust.
For leaders
An objective view of what is working and what is not, without the political noise that makes internal assessments unreliable.
For teams
Confidence that their experience of the organisation is being properly heard. Clearer role expectations and better people practices.
For the organisation
A structured, honest picture of organisational health with practical recommendations, clear priorities, and named accountability.
Typical work includes
- Organisational design reviews and operating model assessment
- HR audits, policy reviews, and people practice diagnostics
- Employee experience, understanding how work feels from the inside
- Climate survey, measuring the state of the people and the organisation
- HR foundations for startups and growing organisations
Team Development
Structured facilitation that helps teams rebuild trust, clarify how they work together, and perform more consistently under real pressure.
For leaders
An outside perspective on team dynamics difficult to see from inside the system. Leader effectiveness and psychological safety built into how the team operates.
For teams
Space to address what has been quietly accumulating. Clearer agreements about how the team operates and how conflict is handled constructively.
For the organisation
Teams that communicate more effectively, surface problems earlier, and hold each other accountable without the friction that derails performance.
Typical work includes
- Leadership team facilitation and team effectiveness sessions
- Exco effectiveness and leadership efficiency
- Psychological safety, by leaders, for leaders
- Team working agreements and operating norms design
- Cross-functional team alignment and collaboration improvement
Strategic HR
People strategy that connects to business strategy. Workforce planning, reward, and HR architecture aligned to where the organisation is heading.
For leaders
A clear line of sight between business goals and the people decisions that get you there. A people strategy an Exco can actually use, not an HR plan that sits in a drawer.
For teams
Decisions about structure, reward, and capability that feel deliberate rather than arbitrary. A workforce plan managers can see and act on.
For the organisation
HR positioned as a strategic function, not an admin centre. Workforce, reward, and capability decisions that compound over time.
Typical work includes
- People strategy design and review
- Workforce planning and capability mapping
- Reward and remuneration strategy
- HR operating model design
- HR business partnering at executive level
Operational HR
The disciplined day-to-day of running people practices well. Policy, compliance, employee relations, and performance practices that hold up under scrutiny.
For leaders
HR processes that are legally sound, current, and consistently applied. Confidence that the operational basics are handled, so leadership attention can be spent elsewhere.
For teams
Clear expectations, fair process, and people practices people can actually read and apply. Conflict and performance handled properly rather than avoided.
For the organisation
A reliable operational backbone. Reduced risk, fewer surprises, and HR practices that scale as the organisation grows.
Typical work includes
- HR policy design, review, and practical guidance
- Employee relations and case management support
- Performance management practices and review rhythms
- Onboarding and people practices design
- HR compliance, audit, and risk reviews
Recruitment and Talent Management
Bringing the right people in, keeping the right people growing. End-to-end recruitment, psychometrics, and talent practices built for accuracy and culture fit.
For leaders
Visibility on the talent in the system, who is ready, who is developing, where the gaps are. Hires made with rigour rather than gut feel.
For teams
A recruitment experience that respects their time. Career conversations that are honest about what is possible and what it takes to get there.
For the organisation
A pipeline of capability that matches where the business is going. Lower regretted attrition, better hires, and succession that is not a surprise.
Typical work includes
- End-to-end recruitment and structured interviewing
- Job profiling and competency frameworks
- Psychometric assessments for selection and development
- Career frameworks and progression design
- Talent reviews and succession planning
We strive to leave people, teams and organisations in a better place than we found them.The Standard We Hold Ourselves To
Specialised Offerings
Beyond consulting. Experiences that shift behaviour.
Our workshops, retreats, and talks are designed for leaders and teams who want more than a presentation. They are practical, psychologically grounded, and built for real organisational contexts. Click any card to learn more.
Customised Leadership Workshops
Tailored facilitated sessions designed around your leadership team's specific challenges. Built for your context, not from a generic template.
We design each workshop from scratch based on what your leadership team actually needs. Upfront time is spent understanding the real challenges before a single slide is built. Sessions typically cover decision-making quality, communication patterns, accountability culture, or strategic clarity. We facilitate; we do not lecture. Leaders leave with practical tools they can use from Monday morning.
Executive Team Building
Structured team development for executive and senior leadership groups. Trust, communication, and shared working agreements that hold under pressure.
Executive teams are often a collection of high performers who have never been taught how to work as a team. We address the real dynamics: unspoken tensions, competing priorities, unclear norms around how decisions are made and how disagreement is handled. Our team building is structured and psychologically grounded, not rope courses and trust falls. Teams leave with concrete agreements about how they operate and a shared language for holding each other accountable.
Leadership Coaching
One-on-one executive coaching and group coaching circles. Self-awareness, emotional intelligence, and decision clarity for modern leadership.
Our coaching is focused on the specific leadership challenges each person faces in their actual context. We use psychometric tools, 360 feedback, and direct observation to understand what is really happening, then we work on it. Coaching engagements run over 6 to 12 months to allow genuine behaviour change to take root. We also run group coaching circles for leadership cohorts who want to learn alongside peers.
Retreats and Immersive Experiences
Half-day to multi-day offsite experiences for leadership teams. Reflection, honest conversation, and renewed direction. Including our "When Purpose Isn't Enough" programme.
Our retreats create the conditions for conversations that do not happen in boardrooms. Away from the daily noise, leadership teams can reflect honestly on where they are and where they need to go. We design and facilitate every retreat specifically for the team attending. Our "When Purpose Isn't Enough" programme is a structured immersive for leaders who need to reconnect with meaning, not just motivation.
Keynote Talks and Speaking
Thought-provoking talks for conferences, company events, and leadership forums. Modern leadership, workplace psychology, change adoption, and digital ways of working.
Lena-Mari speaks on the intersection of leadership, psychology, and modern organisational life. Topics include the psychology of change, what modern leadership actually requires, communication as infrastructure, and the future of work from a human perspective. Every talk is tailored to the audience and designed to provoke useful thinking rather than deliver generic inspiration.
Workplace Counselling and Wellness
Short-term, work-focused counselling and wellness support for employees and leaders. Practical, confidential, and connected to organisational context.
Staffed by registered professionals, our workplace counselling offering provides short-term, solution-focused support for employees navigating stress, conflict, difficult transitions, or performance challenges. Unlike generic EAP programmes, our counselling is contextualised within the organisation. We understand the work environment, the leadership culture, and the pressures people are actually facing.
Online Learning and Webinars
A suite of online courses and live webinars covering change management, modern adoption, employee rights, ethics at work, and HR fundamentals. Accessible, practical, and priced for individuals and smaller teams.
Coming SoonHow We Work
Disciplined. Collaborative. Grounded in real work.
Start with an honest diagnosis
What is really happening inside the organisation matters more than what appears in a strategy document. We look at leadership behaviour, team dynamics, and decision routines without the political filter.
Meet people where they are at
Not where we think they should be. Not where the strategy says they ought to be. Where they actually are. That is where real change begins.
Co-design with the people inside
Change imposed from the outside rarely lasts. Solutions are shaped with the leaders and teams who will live them, not for them.
Pilot, learn, and refine
We test ideas with small groups first, gather feedback, and adjust. Progress comes from learning as much as from planning.
Build capability that lasts
The goal is not dependency on consultants. We build internal capability, systems leaders can run and habits they can sustain.
Work should make sense. People should make sense of what is expected of them. Leaders should be able to make clear decisions without creating confusion, fear, or unnecessary friction.
” What good work looks likeHow We Think
A few things we have learned.
Most performance problems come down to three things. Leadership clarity. Team habits. Organisational systems. When those three align, organisations move faster and people work with more confidence.
Leadership behaviour sets the tone
Teams pay far more attention to what leaders do than what organisations say. Development has to show up in daily behaviour, not workshop feedback forms. A leader's habits ripple outward - through their team, into adjacent teams, eventually into the culture.
Structure shapes behaviour more than culture programmes do
When roles overlap and decision rights are vague, teams spend energy navigating confusion. Clear design - who decides, who delivers, who is accountable - removes a surprising amount of friction. Structure is the silent operating system that runs in the background.
Technology changes little without behaviour change
Digital transformation is as much a leadership challenge as a technical one. Tools deliver value only when teams evolve their habits alongside them. New software introduced into old habits produces faster versions of the same problems.
Communication is the infrastructure, not the announcement
Strip communication away from an organisation and watch what happens. Unfiltered information creates rumour, assumption, and fear. Organisations need communication systems - forums, cadence, feedback loops, and channels that flow in both directions. Good strategy cannot survive dehydrated communication.
Ego is the most expensive overhead in any organisation
As a leader, as a team member, as an organisation - there is no place for ego. Ego closes off feedback, slows decisions, and isolates leaders from the people who carry the truth about what is actually happening. The leaders who grow fastest are those who get curious about what others see.
“If you are unsure about communicating something to your workforce, communicate anyway. In the absence of communication, people assume the worst.”Lena-Mari, Founder and CEO
Who We Work With
Organisations that want people systems that perform.
From founder-led startups to listed corporates and mission-driven non-profits. We work with leaders across South Africa and into the rest of the continent who are serious about turning intention into execution.
Types of organisations we serve
Startups and fast-scaling organisations
Building from scratch or growing fast. We set HR foundations, design operating models, and help founders create people systems before the cracks become expensive.
Enterprise and corporate divisions
Complexity slowing execution. We run diagnostics, redesign workflows, coach leaders, and help large teams make decisions with more clarity and less friction.
Financial services and insurance
Leadership conversations, people diagnostics, operating model work, and targeted capability building in regulated, high-pressure environments.
Non-profit and mission-driven
We strengthen leadership, improve clarity, and build people systems that support purpose without relying on purpose alone to carry the organisation.
Mid-market and founder-led firms
Where growth outpaces structure. We clarify roles, design operating models, support leaders, and help teams mature without losing their energy.
Logistics and multi-site operations
Small breakdowns quickly disrupt the wider system. We strengthen operational clarity, manager capability, communication rhythm, and accountability.
Industries we have worked across
Client Voices
What our clients say. In their own words.
Real feedback from real engagements.
Looking back, I recognise the team at Katzar as the catalyst for a period of significant personal and professional growth. Because they build trust quickly I was able to embrace the sessions of self-reflection, feedback and goal setting. I am a better leader because of it. Performance contracting stands out - they gave me the vehicle for accountability and mentored me in maturing it.
Katzar takes care of all our HR needs in a professional, efficient and friendly manner. They bring a wealth of experience to the table and have genuinely helped transform our business by making people our most important asset.
I am grateful that Katzar could be part of my journey as a newly appointed People Officer from the early stages. I feel understood, and the coaching sessions are extremely valuable. Katzar is making a measurable impact. Thank you to Lena-Mari for the support and guidance.
I have known Lena-Mari since being a postgraduate student more than 10 years ago. Since then she has established herself as a professional and highly sought after industrial psychologist. She has extensive experience in people development. Her skills as a professional life coach, leadership developer and counsellor are exceptional.
Lena-Mari has excellent work ethic and passion for people. She is creative, thinks outside the box and is not afraid to challenge paradigms. She also makes each and every person she interacts with feel special by taking time to know people, without judgement.
I have worked with Lena on various projects and found her very professional in her approach and execution. She has good insight in human behaviour and applies her knowledge and experience to co-create workable solutions. Her clients have always been very satisfied with the variety and options she puts forward. Lena is very good at establishing context for solutions and implementing tasks to a very high standard. Her willingness to learn and grow makes her an asset in any team.
I have done my business and personal coaching with Lena-Mari Josling and I highly recommend her sessions. Lena-Mari provides personalised coaching which is geared towards enhancing one's uniqueness while developing you into a holistically better human being. She also offers valuable life advice and life skills. Any individual whose aim is self-identification, realisation and actualisation would benefit a great deal from the sessions offered by Lena-Mari - her sessions are specially recommended for people in leadership and management.
To Lena-Mari, I would like to thank you for the valuable contributions you have unknowingly made to my career. Ideas you taught me, and tools you gave me, are still being implemented today. I wish you the very, very best. Keep making a difference.
I will definitely keep in touch and thank you from the bottom of my heart for your help. I got invaluable value out of it. I can also feel a big difference in my mood.
Looking back, I recognise the team at Katzar as the catalyst for a period of significant personal and professional growth. Because they build trust quickly I was able to embrace the sessions of self-reflection, feedback and goal setting. I am a better leader because of it. Performance contracting stands out - they gave me the vehicle for accountability and mentored me in maturing it.
Katzar takes care of all our HR needs in a professional, efficient and friendly manner. They bring a wealth of experience to the table and have genuinely helped transform our business by making people our most important asset.
I am grateful that Katzar could be part of my journey as a newly appointed People Officer from the early stages. I feel understood, and the coaching sessions are extremely valuable. Katzar is making a measurable impact. Thank you to Lena-Mari for the support and guidance.
I have known Lena-Mari since being a postgraduate student more than 10 years ago. Since then she has established herself as a professional and highly sought after industrial psychologist. She has extensive experience in people development. Her skills as a professional life coach, leadership developer and counsellor are exceptional.
Lena-Mari has excellent work ethic and passion for people. She is creative, thinks outside the box and is not afraid to challenge paradigms. She also makes each and every person she interacts with feel special by taking time to know people, without judgement.
I have worked with Lena on various projects and found her very professional in her approach and execution. She has good insight in human behaviour and applies her knowledge and experience to co-create workable solutions. Her clients have always been very satisfied with the variety and options she puts forward. Lena is very good at establishing context for solutions and implementing tasks to a very high standard. Her willingness to learn and grow makes her an asset in any team.
I have done my business and personal coaching with Lena-Mari Josling and I highly recommend her sessions. Lena-Mari provides personalised coaching which is geared towards enhancing one's uniqueness while developing you into a holistically better human being. She also offers valuable life advice and life skills. Any individual whose aim is self-identification, realisation and actualisation would benefit a great deal from the sessions offered by Lena-Mari - her sessions are specially recommended for people in leadership and management.
To Lena-Mari, I would like to thank you for the valuable contributions you have unknowingly made to my career. Ideas you taught me, and tools you gave me, are still being implemented today. I wish you the very, very best. Keep making a difference.
I will definitely keep in touch and thank you from the bottom of my heart for your help. I got invaluable value out of it. I can also feel a big difference in my mood.
Our Team
Small by design. Senior by default.
Katzar is a small, senior team of workplace psychologists and organisational practitioners. Our size is deliberate: clients receive thoughtful analysis and senior-level support throughout, not just at the start.
Lena-Mari is a registered Industrial Psychologist who works with leaders navigating growth, complexity, and change. She focuses on strengthening leadership behaviour and building systems that actually support execution.
Vivian works with leadership teams to design better ways of working and embed change that lasts. Her focus is on organisational structure, behaviour, and improving how work gets done in practice.
Denise supports organisations in building practical people systems that drive performance. She works across organisational design, employee experience, and change, translating complexity into clear, workable solutions.
Jared supports recruitment, performance management, and people processes. He brings a structured, detail-focused approach to strengthening day-to-day HR operations.
Lee-Anne works across recruitment, employee relations, and HR processes. She focuses on bringing structure to people practices and supporting managers in handling employee matters with clarity.
Start the Conversation
Ready to strengthen your organisation?
Leadership capability and organisational change are not quick fixes. They require honest conversations, disciplined practice, and leadership willing to learn. Katzar partners with organisations that are ready for that work.
Or write to us at collaboration@katzar.co.za
