Member spotlight: Dr Burak Koyuncu

Leadership advisor Burak Koyuncu brings a researcher’s curiosity, a consultant’s experience, and a longtime love of dance to the IPPA community.

Ask Dr Burak Koyuncu what he would do in a completely different field, and his answer comes with a rather substantial qualification: he has already done it.

“I’d be a dance instructor,” he says. It is a career he knows well.

For 13 years, Burak taught Argentine tango, traveling and dancing around the world, alongside his other professional work. Eventually, he decided that continuing with two jobs was no longer possible. He still loves dancing and sometimes misses teaching it.

What has stayed with him is the experience of improvisation. As he describes it, the next step in tango asks you to stay present. For Burak, dance remains a personally restorative part of life.

It is an unexpected detail about a UK-based Leadership & Transformation Advisor at Emote Group. It also makes him an intriguing person to meet in a community interested in the many ways people experience and apply positive psychology.

An idea that kept drawing him back

Burak first encountered positive psychology during his doctoral studies, around 20 years ago. It intrigued him then, but its relevance became more immediate later, while he was working in strategy consulting and helping clients with organizational culture.

He began to feel that organizations needed more positive psychology in their everyday interactions. Each study or book he read drew him further into the field.

“Having a positive approach at work and in life feeds my soul and gives me hope.”

One concept he returns to is positive deviance. In describing his own approach, Burak emphasizes learning from behaviors that stand out positively and considering how people might bring more of them into their work and lives.

He carries that interest into consulting and coaching, as well as his writing and teaching. His focus invites a useful question for anyone reflecting on workplace culture: which positive behaviors around us deserve closer attention?

Burak is also working on a book that brings positive psychology research together with a somewhat spiritual approach to helping organizations and leaders become more conscious. The project reflects the combination of interests he brings to the field, and the questions he is still exploring.

Joining while there is still plenty to discover

Burak is relatively new to IPPA, his account of membership captures the experience of someone beginning to find his way into the community, with more still to explore.

“IPPA offers a space and a community for learning more with other people who have a passion for positive psychology.”

“I am impressed by the people in this community and am looking forward to learning more from them,” he says.

He has already enjoyed collaborating within the Work and Organizations Division and taking part in Positive Work Conversations. These are early connections in a membership experience he hopes to develop further.

Burak brings experience in research, consulting, and teaching, and plenty of curiosity about what others can teach him. His interest in the community begins with that willingness to learn.

For now, Burak is looking forward to discovering more of IPPA, with his next chapter as a member still taking shape.