About our founder
Kerstin Jatho, our CEO, was born in a small town in Germany and raised in Johannesburg. She’s a teacher by heart, and her life purpose is to transform people’s lives and design positive organisations. Kerstin has diverse experience in the corporate financial sector and as an entrepreneur. She has served on many boards, and has extensive business knowledge on leadership, corporate governance, risk management, internal compliance and auditing, fraud investigations, coaching, training, mentoring, workshop content design, analysing organisational assessments, writing, and motivational speaking. Having personally experienced the challenges middle and executive management are confronted with in their professional and personal lives, Kerstin is aware of the intricate balance and complexity of integrating work and family into a united, harmonious, and fulfilling life.
Kerstin Jatho
Founder & Coach | 4Seeds Consulting
Kerstin is a renowned consultant and lecturer on cultural change, organisational change management, leadership, and employee well-being. She’s a Positive Psychology practitioner and coach, and has made it her mission to enable people to thrive while being happy at work. As an ICF-accredited PCC (Professional Certified Coach) coach, Kerstin specialises in assisting leaders to lead with courage, confidence, and ethics, This involves balancing peak performance and productivity with happiness and well-being for the leader and the team.
She holds a Master’s Degree in Positive Psychology from the University of East London in the United Kingdom, making her an expert in employee well-being in the modern hybrid working environment. Kerstin is an ardent student, and is currently working towards her PhD in Applied Leadership through Monarch Business School in Switzerland.
Kerstin’s unique skill is to distil complex scientific theories and research into practical, interactive, and fun understanding for participants. Her teaching style is thought-provoking, gentle, infectious, and practical. She is personally engaged in each client intervention, ensuring that the learning and development journey is bespoke, has a lasting impact, and is a positive experience for the team.
Kerstin’s personal “why”
Like many entrepreneurs who start a business, there’s an underlying passion, a burning desire to change something in the world. Kerstin’s was to change the working environment into a happy one where each employee can be their authentic self, can flourish, and can reach their potential.
We spend up to 75% of our day working, and it’s often our unhappiest place. You may ask why it matters to Kerstin that you’re happy at work. It’s because she cares about you, our society, and the economy.
If your well-being level is in a balanced state, you cope with life and you become a better mother, father, wife, husband, daughter, son, sister, brother, or friend. You care for the people at work, in your community, in your society, and this has a ripple effect. You will be more likely to raise your hand at work to volunteer, assist, and support others. We’ll all collectively shift from an “I” to a “We” mindset. If you’re in a positive well-being state, you’ll be more productive, which means that customers receive quality service, and organisations will grow. In return, the organisation can employ more people, which will reduce unemployment and poverty, and uplift the economy. When your well-being is balanced, you’re more resilient and have coping mechanisms that serve as a buffer against stress and mental illnesses such as depression, anxiety, and addiction. This means that there will be a very good chance that you’ll experience flourishing.
In a nutshell, Kerstin’s passion is to impart well-being and mental health tools and techniques so that you and your organisation can flourish and pay it forward to someone else.
Background and qualifications
Kerstin’s time in the corporate world provided her with the ability to identify many of the situations leaders and managers are currently facing. Having been an employee, a leader, and a business owner, she understands the various challenges in each role. This helps her to effectively support people to recognise the real opportunities that may be hidden behind the common perceptions and problems we experience at work.
In progress (Estimated completion date 2025)
PhD in Applied Leadership with UGSM-Monarch Business School Switzerland
2020
Course completed from the University in California, Berkeley (United States) on Empathy and Emotional Intelligence, Mindfulness and Resilience at Work, and Happiness at Work
2019
Certificate in Organisational Crisis Management from UGSM-Monarch Business School Switzerland
2017
ICF Global internationally accredited PCC Coach
2016
Master’s Degree in Applied Positive Psychology from the University of East London (United Kingdom)
Coaching Diploma for Positive Psychology Coaching from the School of Coaching Mastery (United States) as well as being the designated coach trainer for Positive Psychology coaching
2012
Rigorously trained on the core competencies of coaching through a United States coach training school
2009 – 2010
Certified Inner Life Skills Coach, and an internationally recognised Life Coaching Diploma with the Life Coaching Institute in the United Kingdom
Global accreditation as a Happiness @ Work Facilitator, and part of a select Master Group responsible for implementing and actively endorsing the Science of Happiness @ Work in South Africa
