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Dean Leak
Master the art and science of productive disagreement with Dean Leak, speaker and Olympic performance strategist. Dean works with global leaders to enhance conflict readiness and resolution, build psychological safety, and drive innovation, delivering proven frameworks for IBM, LinkedIn, and L'Oréal.
Dean Leak is an Olympic performance strategist and international keynote speaker who teaches leaders how to turn tensions into competitive advantages through his Disagreeing Well System™.
Dean has worked with Olympic gold medal winning teams, Commanding Officers in the British Army, and senior government advisors. His clients include IBM, LinkedIn, L'Oréal, Baker McKenzie, Specsavers, and Air New Zealand. Trained by Professor Steve Peters, UK Special Forces leaders, and a leading hostage negotiator, he brings insights from elite sport, military operations, and FTSE 100 boardrooms.
Dean helps organisations build cultures where people challenge thinking and work through discomfort without damaging trust. His approach combines performance science, behavioural psychology, and practical leadership tools to enable courageous conversation and effective decision-making. Rather than teaching teams to avoid disagreement, Dean shows how to design conflict that drives momentum. This shift transforms high pressure situations from breaking points into breakthroughs, creating environments where innovation and accountability flourish.
Audiences learn how to speak up constructively in high-stakes situations, navigate difficult conversations that strengthen rather than fracture relationships, and build psychological safety that supports both challenge and cohesion. Dean delivers practical frameworks that move teams from avoidance to alignment and from politeness to measurable progress.
Book Dean to equip your organisation with the skills that separate teams who manage conflict from those who harness it.
Topics, sessions and talks
In this talk, Dean Leak addresses the rapid pace of change that leads to "Emotional Jet Lag" within organisations, highlighting the disconnect between organisational shifts and human adaptation. He emphasises the importance of emotional regulation in high-pressure situations and the need for both psychological safety and accountability to thrive. Attendees will learn how to foster courageous conversations that cultivate adaptable teams capable of delivering sustained excellence, even in challenging environments.
In this insightful talk, Dean Leak explores the common traits of the world’s elite teams, emphasising that culture, not just talent, drives success. He discusses how mindset training enhances performance and how pressure tests a team's culture. Attendees will discover that a balance of challenge and support fosters excellence, transforming individuals into a cohesive, adaptable team capable of sustained performance under pressure. Participants will leave with actionable strategies to cultivate a high-performing team culture.
Dean Leak draws on his experiences with Olympians and British Army Commanding Officers to illustrate how to cultivate mental resilience under pressure. He shares that mental fitness is developed, not innate, and that resilience must be established before challenges arise. Attendees will learn techniques to regulate emotions and lead effectively in high-pressure situations, as well as the importance of training the mind just as one would train any other skill.
In this session, Dean Leak reveals how imposter syndrome can be transformed into a powerful asset for career success. He shares insights from his own experiences, emphasising that self-doubt signals growth and should be viewed as data rather than danger. Attendees will learn to reframe fear into focus and understand that confidence stems from taking action despite uncertainty. This session will empower participants to leverage their doubts as a catalyst for professional development.
In his talk, Dean Leak highlights the importance of conflict readiness over conflict resolution. He explores the five powers of disagreement that transform conflict avoidance into a performance-driven culture. Attendees will discover how high-performing teams embrace conflict, the value of constructive challenges, and how healthy friction fosters innovation, trust, and accountability. By the end of the session, participants will learn to harness productive disagreement to drive momentum and enhance team performance.
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frequently asked questions
Something we've not covered here?
To book Dean Leak, email dean.leak@getapeptalk.com or call PepTalk on +44 20 3835 2929 (UK) or +1 737 888 5112 (US), and one of our speaker agents will contact you within hours to confirm Dean's availability and speaking fee. If you can, please include your budget upfront – it helps us fast-track your request. It’s also helpful to know the date, format (virtual or in-person), location, and about your audience.
Dean Leak structures his talks around a named proprietary framework — the Disagreeing Well System™ — through which he delivers practical tools drawn from elite sport, military operations, and behavioural psychology. He uses case material from his direct work with Olympic gold medal-winning teams and British Army Commanding Officers to ground each framework step in documented high-pressure contexts.
Dean Leak speaks on emotional resilience under pressure, high-performance team culture, and mental fitness, drawing on his work with Olympic gold medal-winning teams and British Army Commanding Officers. He is an Olympic performance strategist whose clients include IBM, LinkedIn, L'Oréal, and Specsavers, and he was trained by Professor Steve Peters, author of The Chimp Paradox, and UK Special Forces leaders.
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The typical fee range is the speaker's standard in-person fee in their home market, shown in their local currency. It moves with format, location, date and session length: virtual sessions and shorter slots usually cost less, while international travel and peak dates cost more. Send your brief to PepTalk and the team will confirm the exact fee in your currency.
Not all of them, and it makes no difference to your booking. PepTalk's network of 15,000+ speakers covers talent the team works with directly alongside speakers represented by agents and agencies worldwide. PepTalk approaches the speaker, negotiates the fee and handles contracting either way.
Three to six months ahead is comfortable for most events, and 12 months is better for large conferences, peak-season dates or one specific in-demand speaker. Shorter timelines are workable, and PepTalk regularly fills last-minute and replacement bookings within days. Availability is the constraint, so get in touch as soon as you have a date.
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