S11 Ep 02: How to manage the emotional crossovers between work and home with Vibeke Hartkorn
Sun Feb 01 2026
Ever struggled to keep your work stress from spilling into home life, or vice versa? In this episode, Helen Beedham sits down with communication advisor, strategic executive coach, psychotherapist, and bestselling author Vibeke Hartkorn to explore how leaders and teams can navigate the emotional overlaps between work and home and why it matters more than ever.
With a career spanning news anchoring, board leadership, and psychotherapy, Vibeke brings unique insight into why honest, open conversations at work are essential, not only for our individual happiness, but for the long-term success of organisations.
Helen and Vibeke discuss:
⭐️ What impact the porous boundaries between our work and home lives have on our professional relationships
⭐️ Real-life examples of what happens when personal challenges show up in our performance or mood at work
⭐️ The risks for employees when sharing personal struggles and how making it safe for people to speak up is a gradual process that starts at onboarding and builds, one small conversation at a time.
⭐️ The need to train leaders in holding emotional “check-ins” and acquiring relationship skills which aren’t routinely taught to those entering the world of work
⭐️ Practical tips for building trust, setting boundaries, and fostering meaningful connection even in high-pressure workplaces
⭐️ What workplaces can learn from couples therapy to support stronger, more authentic teams.
About Vibeke Hartkorn:
Vibeke Hartkorn is a Danish-Nigerian Communication advisor and Executive strategic business coach. Working mainly with international top executives and boards on leadership development, executive team communication, she ensures business results and effective stakeholder management through methods for psychological safety, business strategy enforcement and effective dialogue.
Vibeke Hartkorn´s work emphasizes that sustainable leadership and high-performing teams are built on trust, openness, and the ability to handle crisis situations and difficult conversations. As a communication specialist and CEO of consultancies, and with a longstanding Board of Directors career she draws from her own executive experience, and brings a deep understanding of leadership and business challenges into her coaching and advisory work. After a career as a journalist and news anchor she trained as a psychotherapy specialist in Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) and has translated this method from couples therapy into workplace contexts to strengthen collaboration and trust. She is also the author of three bestselling business books and has been awarded Best Leadership Agency twice since 2023.
Vibeke’s executive coaching business Hartkorn Communications.
Vibeke’s counselling business Great Relations.
Vibeke on Linked In.
Order Helen’s new business book, the Amazon Bestseller People Glue: hold on to your best people by setting them free. Help others to discover it too by leaving a book review and/or rating here.
Download free retention tools from Helen’s website here, including the Freedom Index and 8 ways to diagnose your retention risks.
Listen to Helen’s special podcast episode about People Glue with guest host, CEO and tech entrepreneur Jen Sundberg.
Discover Helen’s award-winning first business book The Future of Time: how ‘re-working’ time can help you boost productivity, diversity and wellbeing. Browse the reviews or rate it/post your own review here.
Join Helen’s mailing list here.
Follow Helen on LinkedIn and Instagram.
(Tip: click the bell icon on the top right of her Linked In profile to automatically see all her posts in your feed.)
Amy Edmondson’s post on Linked In about bringing your best self to work.
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Ever struggled to keep your work stress from spilling into home life, or vice versa? In this episode, Helen Beedham sits down with communication advisor, strategic executive coach, psychotherapist, and bestselling author Vibeke Hartkorn to explore how leaders and teams can navigate the emotional overlaps between work and home and why it matters more than ever. With a career spanning news anchoring, board leadership, and psychotherapy, Vibeke brings unique insight into why honest, open conversations at work are essential, not only for our individual happiness, but for the long-term success of organisations. Helen and Vibeke discuss: ⭐️ What impact the porous boundaries between our work and home lives have on our professional relationships ⭐️ Real-life examples of what happens when personal challenges show up in our performance or mood at work ⭐️ The risks for employees when sharing personal struggles and how making it safe for people to speak up is a gradual process that starts at onboarding and builds, one small conversation at a time. ⭐️ The need to train leaders in holding emotional “check-ins” and acquiring relationship skills which aren’t routinely taught to those entering the world of work ⭐️ Practical tips for building trust, setting boundaries, and fostering meaningful connection even in high-pressure workplaces ⭐️ What workplaces can learn from couples therapy to support stronger, more authentic teams. About Vibeke Hartkorn: Vibeke Hartkorn is a Danish-Nigerian Communication advisor and Executive strategic business coach. Working mainly with international top executives and boards on leadership development, executive team communication, she ensures business results and effective stakeholder management through methods for psychological safety, business strategy enforcement and effective dialogue. Vibeke Hartkorn´s work emphasizes that sustainable leadership and high-performing teams are built on trust, openness, and the ability to handle crisis situations and difficult conversations. As a communication specialist and CEO of consultancies, and with a longstanding Board of Directors career she draws from her own executive experience, and brings a deep understanding of leadership and business challenges into her coaching and advisory work. After a career as a journalist and news anchor she trained as a psychotherapy specialist in Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) and has translated this method from couples therapy into workplace contexts to strengthen collaboration and trust. She is also the author of three bestselling business books and has been awarded Best Leadership Agency twice since 2023. Vibeke’s executive coaching business Hartkorn Communications. Vibeke’s counselling business Great Relations. Vibeke on Linked In. Order Helen’s new business book, the Amazon Bestseller People Glue: hold on to your best people by setting them free. Help others to discover it too by leaving a book review and/or rating here. Download free retention tools from Helen’s website here, including the Freedom Index and 8 ways to diagnose your retention risks. Listen to Helen’s special podcast episode about People Glue with guest host, CEO and tech entrepreneur Jen Sundberg. Discover Helen’s award-winning first business book The Future of Time: how ‘re-working’ time can help you boost productivity, diversity and wellbeing. Browse the reviews or rate it/post your own review here. Join Helen’s mailing list here. Follow Helen on LinkedIn and Instagram. (Tip: click the bell icon on the top right of her Linked In profile to automatically see all her posts in your feed.) Amy Edmondson’s post on Linked In about bringing your best self to work. Loved this episode? Follow The Business of Being Brilliant, rate and review the show, and share it with friends and colleagues who care about building brighter, fairer workplaces.