Nik Kinley is a renowned London-based leadership and culture expert with over 30 years’ experience assessing leaders, changing people’s behaviour, and developing organisational cultures.
Nik started his career as a forensic psychotherapist, working in prisons for over a decade. Since then, he has applied his expertise in the fields of assessment and behaviour change to the business world, assessing over 1,200 senior executives primarily for CEO and C-Suite roles.
Formerly a Director at YSC, a global leadership consultancy now part of Accenture, Nik’s professional background also includes commercial and senior corporate positions including the Global Head of Assessment and Coaching for the BP Group and Global Head of Learning at Barclays.
As a consultant, Nik has worked with over 80% of the top 20 FTSE companies, advising boards and coaching executives in organisations of all sizes, industries and regions, from founder-led portfolio companies to multinational businesses with over 100,000 employees and assets worth over $500bn.
He has been interviewed by leading media outlets such as The Economist, appeared as an expert on the BBC, and lectured at some of the world’s most prestigious business schools, including IMD Business School in Switzerland and University of Cambridge’s Judge Business School
He has published a successful series of books on leadership, including Changing Employee Behaviour and Leadership OS: The Operating System You Need To Succeed. His most recent book was published in 2024 titled Re-writing Your Leadership Code: How Your Childhood Made You The Leader You Are, And What You Can Do About It - a ground-breaking study of how our early experiences shape our workplace behaviours that has been featured in Fast Company, Harper’s Bazaar, HR Magazine, and more. His latest research focuses on how power affects leaders, and how leaders can in turn affect the positions of power they hold.