Leadership Relay: How Jespers Torvekøkken Works with Leadership Well-Being
The efforts focus primarily on two areas: self-leadership and support with administrative tasks. Read why in this interview with CCO Kristina Steenfeldt Madsen.
By Pia Fuglsang Bach, Communitychef at CfL, October 2025.
What excites you as a leader? What weighs you down in your work life? How does your organization support your well-being?
That was the overarching set of questions when CfL in 2024 decided to explore the well-being of Danish leaders. A key contributor in formulating the right questions was the City of Copenhagen, which that same year conducted an extensive qualitative mapping of leadership well-being.
CfL was given the opportunity to build on many of the qualitative findings, and today—two studies later—we know that the three most important drivers of leadership well-being are:
We have returned to Senior Consultant Mette Kjærgaard Svendsen, who has led the cross-organizational efforts on leadership well-being at Work Environment Copenhagen.
We ask how the various initiatives, such as the establishment of leadership networks, have progressed.
The short answer from Mette Kjærgaard Svendsen is that the municipality continues to work with a strong focus on leadership well-being.
On one hand, many good initiatives are already underway across several departments. On the other, a number of cross-organizational efforts are still being driven by Work Environment Copenhagen through PS – the Mental Health Initiative in the City of Copenhagen.
The slightly longer answer is that it’s easiest to move forward with initiatives that can be launched by individual leaders or leadership teams. In these cases, it’s relatively simple to get started, follow through, and make a tangible difference.
Larger strategic initiatives, however, are immediately heavier and more complex to implement.
Mette Kjærgaard Svendsen highlights the desire for cross-organizational, facilitated leadership networks as one such example:
“The need is evident both in leadership surveys and among many of the leaders we meet in the municipality, but here we have to be patient.”
“We work in a politically governed organization where many stakeholders and leadership layers must be involved and agree that it’s a good idea,” the senior consultant says, noting that there are many competing agendas.
“A general perspective is that the factors that inspire and protect primarily lie with the individual leader, within the leadership team, or in the relationship with their immediate superior, whereas the burdensome factors mainly stem from the organizational arena or the broader societal context.”
“Therefore, strengthening leadership well-being requires initiatives on multiple levels—and if one aims for the greatest impact, it also requires larger organizational efforts,” she adds.
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Bonus: 3 Dialogue Tools
Since spring 2024, Work Environment Copenhagen has been gathering insights on leadership well-being through a wide range of workshops, theme days, and other initiatives. Combined with the latest knowledge on the subject, this has resulted in three concrete dialogue tools focused on leadership well-being:
The material is freely available on the City of Copenhagen’s website. Anyone interested in working with leadership well-being can access the tools free of charge.
The dialogue tools are from September 2025. You can find them here
Several departments have had positive experiences and great success with leadership networks, but overall, there is still a long way to go in many areas.
With 45,000 employees, the City of Copenhagen is Denmark’s largest workplace, and the organization understandably focuses on how leaders spend their time and what it should be devoted to.
“It should go toward solving tasks and leading people, and spending time on leadership networks isn’t always understood everywhere — and that’s a real paradox,” says Mette Kjærgaard Svendsen, explaining:
“What creates the most well-being for leaders is contributing to achieving results and supporting employees. Leadership networks do, in fact, take leaders away from their workplace and their staff for a while, so it’s important to understand that, in the longer term, the time spent in these networks is actually well worth it.”
“Leadership networks strengthen leadership quality, leader well-being, and—perhaps most importantly—leader engagement. And both our core mission and our welfare society are in great need of that,” she says, emphasizing that the dialogue is far from over.
“We’re working to build understanding among the right partners within the municipality. There’s a movement underway, but these things can take time in a large and politically governed organization like the City of Copenhagen.”
Within PS – the Mental Health Initiative in the City of Copenhagen – efforts are currently focused on paving the way for leadership networks for new leaders. This is being done in collaboration with various partners.
“As your study shows, there is a tremendous need to support new leaders,” says the senior consultant, referring to the 2025 Leadership Well-being Analysis, which reveals that the well-being and loyalty of new leaders decline significantly within the first 4–5 years.
CfL is a leadership institute owned by its members, offering a unique opportunity to share perspectives and experiences.
In a new round of our relay, we’re giving the floor to a number of leaders from our member organizations—this time to hear how they work with leadership well-being.
After each interview, the relay is passed on with a new question. In this way, we explore how one of the major leadership agendas unfolds in Danish workplaces.
The final interview in this round is with Mette Kjærgaard Svendsen, Senior Consultant and Project Manager at PS – the Mental Health Initiative in the City of Copenhagen, who for several years has worked with well-being, stress, and leadership.
"If I had to guess, I would have said the decline would be greatest after two years, but I’m not surprised that new leaders are under the most pressure. Unfortunately, that aligns with our experience, so it’s good to have it confirmed in black and white.”
“Many of the more experienced leaders beyond their long leadership careers, often have all sorts of network connections, which makes things easier for them. As a new leader, you face challenges not only in terms of tasks, because you’re learning how to lead on the go, but it’s especially difficult when you don’t have any established relationships.”
One of the newest initiatives at Work Environment Copenhagen is a series of workshops for leaders of leaders within the municipality. They hold a special role — both as role models and as those who can influence structure and culture.
“This level is incredibly important because leaders of leaders impact the individual leader, the leadership group, and the entire organization.”
“We’ve held several workshops and have more planned in the near future, and it’s been encouraging to see the strong participation and engagement in creating frameworks that enable leaders to succeed, thrive, and remain in the organization for longer,” says Mette Kjærgaard Svendsen.
She returns to what she considers perhaps her most important point:
”Regardless of whether we work with key stakeholders, leadership groups, or leaders of leaders, we see a common pattern: when participants identify specific opportunities for improvement, they often act quickly on the immediate, individual, or team level — whereas organizational improvements, such as better administration, communication, and cross-departmental collaboration, require a longer and more persistent effort.”
That’s where the challenge lies.
Organizational initiatives will always compete with many other agendas — such as restructurings and reforms — and the question is whether the organization as a whole can maintain focus and continue its efforts to strengthen leadership well-being in the long run.
“Leadership well-being will always compete with other agendas.”
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