BE THE CHANGE
I help leaders turn conflict and uncertainty into high-performing championship teams
Leadership.
Culture.
Team Performance.
Leadership. Culture. Team Performance.
“100% the most powerful workshop I’ve ever attended” - PwC
Hi, I’m Dean Leak, an expert in high-performance culture, and human potential. I’m an international keynote speaker, coach, and performance strategist who’s worked with Gold Medal Olympic teams, the Commanding Officers of the British Army, and I’ve partnered with some of the world’s most respected organisations - including the L’Oréal, WeWork, IBM, LinkedIn, Baker McKenzie, Specsavers, mars Group, PwC and more. I work with leadership teams & organisations to build sustainable performance cultures.
HOW I CAN HELP
Dean is a highly sought-after speaker, delivering keynotes around the world on all aspects of high-performance culture and teamwork. He’s delivered over 200 talks and impacted 100,000’s of people in his work.
KEYNOTE SPEAKING
HIGH PERFORMANCE CULTURE SPRINTS
Dean’s goal is to help accelerate your company culture, making it united, focused and adaptable. His signature 3-step system works within your complex system to build habits, structures and skills that stick.
LEADERSHIP TRAINING
Whether leadership offsites, in-person or virtual workshops, or extended projects, Dean works closely with your senior leadership team to create tailored, high-impact strategies that address your organisation's unique challenges.
Examples of Dean’s work
…And why Dean is regularly referred for keynotes, offsites and advisory
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![Two people, a woman and a man, standing indoors next to a poster that says "Race to Win" with a large cosmetic jar from L'Oréal on top. Behind them, a wall has the quote "Beauty is a powerful force that moves". The woman is wearing a black dress and heels, and the man is wearing casual clothes with a badge around his neck. There is a fire extinguisher and a door to the right.]()
Supporting L'Oreal with it's 'Race to Win' culture
Building Healthy Conflict
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![A man in a suit giving a presentation on stage with a large screen behind him displaying the word 'FEAR' and related words 'Feel it,' 'Expect it,' 'Accept it,' 'Respond to it,' along with a photo of himself and a crown icon.]()
In Montpellier with Mars Group, Royal Canin
Developing mental fitness
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![A man giving a presentation on a stage to a seated audience. The large screen behind him displays three smartphone screens with text, titled 'Leadership Manifesto' and numbered points. To the right of the stage, a large screen shows a diagram labeled 'ACTIVE UPRISING' with a square divided into four parts labeled 'U' and 'A'. There are three chairs on stage, and branding logos are visible below the screen.]()
London Queen Elizabeth II venue for cross-industry keynote
Leading through change
About
Dean’s clients include Olympic gold-medal teams, Commanding Officers in the British Army, Senior Government Advisors, and global organisations such as IBM, LinkedIn, L’Oréal, Baker McKenzie, Specsavers, and Air New Zealand
Dean focuses on:
Disagreeing Well & Difficult Conversations: The Hidden Superpower of Making Better Decisions & Building Trust
Leading Through Change in a Disrupted, Disengaged, and Distracted World
High-Performance Culture: What separates good teams from exceptional teams?
Full Bio
So, I’ve spent the last 20 years (wait for the but…) building performance cultures most people only see from the outside. Olympic Gold Medal-Winning Teams, FTSE 100 companies, global brands, governments, and the miltary.
Elite sport taught me early that medals and success don’t come from motivational posters or individual heroics. It was having a healthy obsession with learning faster, and figuring out how to bring a group of individuals together and turn them into a united team.
I was lucky to work in elite sport. They invested heavily in us to learn from the best workplaces, including Pixar, NASA, Special Forces, The Royal Ballet, top Children's Hospitals, the New Zealand All Blacks, Apple, and many others.
And along the way, I’ve been able to apply my lessons working with champions such as Jade Jones and Joe Clarke, and led UK-wide talent programmes for Great Britain’s future Olympic champions, figuring out how to create performance environments that built a pipeline of multiple World and Olympic medallists.
But here’s the real story… I didn’t grow up confident, fearless, or ‘high-performing’. I came from humble beginnings. My legendary mum grafted as a cleaner and hairdresser (although I've never forgiven her for allowing me to have a bleached Nike tick on the back of my head!), and my Dad was ex-Army solider, turned lifer at BT. I was anxious, desperate to be liked, riddled with imposter syndrome, and hated speaking in groups. I was known as the ‘nice’ boy - hence ‘quit playing nice’.
So something had to change.
I became fascinated by psychology in order to help myself. Credit to my family, our mantra in life was, ‘If you don’t ask, you don’t get’. So it turned out that I had a knack for asking questions and asking for help – building what I now call your luck surface area.
In fact, my biggest sliding doors moment was in 2008 when I gatecrashed Professor Steve Peters’ medical students' lecture, introduced myself at the end, and asked for his help. It worked out well – he became my mentor for 5 years. That single act changed the direction of my career and my mental fitness.
I no longer see fear, self-doubt, or conflict as weaknesses to hide. I’ve learnt how to work with them and use them as fuel. Today, I speak on stage in front of 1000’s (and enjoy it!) and consult with the world’s largest companies.
So whilst I spent decades running away from conflict, it’s a full circle moment where I now teach it to leaders and teams. I genuinely believe success in business is a team sport, yet when you bring together a group of individuals, it’s complex, messy and dysfunctional. I help teams untangle that to create clarity, trust and agency.
