Author Speakers

Nik Kinley

Leadership Expert, Psychologist, Consultant and Author of The Power Trap

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At a Glance

Leadership Behaviour Expert

Leadership and culture expert with over 30 years’ experience working as a coach and consultant for some of the world’s biggest organisations. 


Psychologist and Psychotherapist

Trained as a forensic psychotherapist, with experience assessing everyone from life-sentence inmates to CEOs, royalty, politicians, children, and more.


Leadership Assessor

Former Global Head of Leadership Development & Employee Engagement at Barclays, and Global Head of Assessment and Coaching for BP. 

Award-Winning Author

Author of multiple business books specialising in leadership and behavioural change, including Changing Employee Behaviour and Re-writing Your Leadership Code. 


Works with World-Leading Organisations

Advised over 60% of the top 20 FTSE companies, helping some of the world’s biggest firms create the leadership strategies they need to succeed.


The Power Trap

New book explores how power changes people, and what individuals and organisations can do about it

Leading Organisational Psychologist

Nik Kinley is a renowned London-based leadership and culture expert with over 30 years’ experience assessing leaders, changing people’s behaviour, and evolving 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 1,000 senior executives primarily for CEO and C-Suite roles. He is an expert in understanding how a person will adapt to a new role and challenges they may face based on their personality traits and behaviours.  

Formerly a Director at YSC, a global leadership strategy consultancy that forms part of Accenture, Nik’s professional background also features 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 60% of the top 20 FTSE companies and has also coached boards and executive teams 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 is also a regular lecturer at some of the world’s most prestigious business schools, including University of Cambridge’s Judge Business School and the IMD Business School in Switzerland. 

Award-Winning Author

Nik has published a successful series of books on leadership and talent management, including Changing Employee Behaviour: A Practical Guide for Managers and Leadership OS: The Operating System You Need To Succeed 

His previous book, co-written with his long-time collaborator Professor Shlomo Ben-Hur, 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 and has been shortlisted for The Business Book Awards 2025. A ground-breaking study of how our early experiences shape our workplace behaviours, the book is based on decades of research and shares a detailed analysis of how to better manage and utilise your underlying leadership instincts whilst working under pressure or stress. It was featured in Fast Company, Harper’s Bazaar, HR Magazine, and more.

Book Speaker

Author of The Power Trap: How Leadership Changes People, and What to Do About It

We have an entirely messed-up relationship with power. It is something that almost everyone wants, that promises much and can help us achieve great things. Yet power isn’t something we openly talk about or understand, and that’s a problem. While power is an essential part of every leadership role, it is also a difficult and sometimes toxic partner that changes everyone who holds it. And often, in ways that make being a good leader much harder. 

Approached carefully, however, the worst of power’s negative effects can be avoided and balanced by its positives. In The Power Trap, Nik Kinley reveals what power does to people, and how it both affects them as leaders and the people they lead. And it shows how, in turn, leaders can affect the positions of power they hold, too. 

Incorporating the latest neuroscience, the book offers clear lessons for how to successfully manage power.

Ready To Speak To The Media

Nik is an experienced and entertaining speaker who is available for keynotes, interviews and expert commentary on topics including:

What does power do to leaders, and what – in return – do leaders to the positions of power they hold? 

How do our personalities and behaviours change with positions of responsibility? 

Can nice people be bad leaders – and vice versa?  

How does being in a position of power change how we feel about ourselves?

Has power made us paranoid? How leaders view threats – and what it tells us about the concerns of those at the top 

Beware ambitious, confident and articulate leaders! How and why these traits can breed a toxic work culture  

Are you making people feel cared for? 3 ways to tell – and 3 ways to change 

Why businesses should stop looking for personality matches in their new hires 

The secrets of a CEO assessor: who gets the top job, and why? 

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