Les Kayanan is a Partner of the firm specializing in leadership development, executive coaching, strategy scenario modeling, and operations research.  He has broad expertise as an internal company and external consultant/coach in the development, modeling, and implementation of future-oriented strategies, together with building the leadership capability necessary to successfully carry them out.   

Les’ approach to leader development and coaching starts with his belief that effective leadership is an extension of the leader’s most effective patterns of thinking and communicating.  It follows that most of his work with leaders centers on how they use communication to connect with people, build trust, and achieve the business outcomes for which they are being held accountable.  One of the tools Les uses in his work with clients is Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), a structured science that focuses on how communication patterns are developed and changed.  His work in the NLP is quite extensive and he is currently certified as at the Master Practitioner level.  .

Prior to joining HPS Les’ consulting work involved serving in leadership roles on Department of Defense transformation projects, including the design and facilitation of detailed strategy simulations for the Chief of Staff of the US Army.  The focus of this work was to model future states based on current and projected strengths, as well as determining optimal strategies for stretching existing capabilities.  Central to all of this work was modeling the leadership capability that would be necessary to achieve success.  Les is currently beginning to apply some of this work in the healthcare arena.  Before his transition to the private sector Les served twenty years as an Army officer where he served in a variety of leadership and leadership coaching positions.  Even after retirement and transition to the private sector, Les continued to train commanders and staff leaders at all levels of the military leadership hierarchy. 

Les earned his undergraduate degree from the United States Military Academy.  He later earned a Masters degree in Management from Troy State University, where his work focused on the parallels of leadership in the military and private sectors.  In Les’ spare time he plays music professionally and is also an accomplished singer/songwriter.  Les and his wife, Joey, live in Williamsburg, VA with their two daughters, one of which trained alongside her father to earn her black belt in Taekwondo.