Available to book
Lena Thompson
Lena Thompson helps professionals stop hiding behind "I'm fine" and start having the honest conversations that protect confidence, careers, and relationships. A corporate consultant turned burnout recovery speaker, Lena has worked with organisations including Microsoft and Bank of Kuwait.
Lena Thompson is a former corporate consultant and transformational mentor who helps leaders and high achievers develop emotional independence, self-trust, and more authentic ways of working and living.
Lena spent more than 15 years in corporate consulting, working with organisations including Microsoft, Bank of Kuwait, and Anglo Irish Bank. Outside her consulting career, Lena competed at in elite level sports, representing South Africa in fencing at two Commonwealth Games and completing multiple marathons. Her own experience of burnout and an emotional breakdown prompted a profound reassessment of how fear, expectations, and the need for approval had shaped her decisions.
Drawing on that experience, Lena explores the connection between emotional patterns, leadership, communication, and performance. Her work helps professionals recognise the behaviours that keep them reactive, set clearer boundaries, handle difficult conversations, and make decisions with greater confidence. She also addresses the human impact of digital overload, pressure, and always-on working.
Her sessions give audiences practical ways to understand emotional triggers, communicate what they need, manage energy under pressure, and develop greater self-awareness. Leaders can apply these ideas to decision-making, team relationships, workplace communication, and organisational culture.
With experience across corporate consulting and international technology and leadership events, Lena brings personal experience and practical tools to conversations about leadership, wellbeing, and sustainable performance.
Topics, sessions and talks
Lena Thompson examines the quiet cost of always saying "I'm fine" when the truth is closer to exhausted, resentful, or done. Drawing on fifteen years in corporate consulting, including her burnout and emotional breakdown, she traces why professionals stay silent about what they need and the part they play in situations that frustrate them. The talk reframes phrases like "no worries" and "I don't mind" as habits worth breaking, leaving audiences with language for the conversations they have been avoiding.
Lena Thompson tackles the emotional patterns that quietly run the show during high-pressure moments, the reactive habits that override good judgement before anyone notices. Rather than teaching emotional management, she works from the premise that emotions can be mastered rather than suppressed or muted. Drawing on her own experience of burnout, Lena shows professionals how to recognise these patterns in real time and make clearer, calmer decisions under pressure, building resilience that lasts beyond the room.
Lena Thompson addresses the particular exhaustion of always-on work, where constant connectivity has blurred the line between productivity and depletion. She helps professionals cut through the noise of endless notifications, meetings, and multitasking to find clarity about what actually matters in a given day. The session draws on her own background in corporate technology environments, offering practical ways to protect focus and energy without stepping back from ambition or performance.
Lena Thompson explores what leadership setbacks and breakdowns can actually teach, rather than treating them purely as failures to move past quickly. Drawing on her own emotional breakdown after fifteen years in corporate consulting, she shows leaders how reactive, stress-driven decisions differ from confident ones, and what shifts when people stop managing crises and start learning from them. The talk leaves leaders with a clearer read on their own patterns under pressure and steadier judgement when it counts.
Lena Thompson spent fifteen years consulting for organisations including Microsoft, Bank of Kuwait, and Anglo Irish Bank before rebuilding her career on her own terms. That combination of corporate credibility and lived experience gives her a grounded view of what keeps people from bringing their authentic selves to work.
Testimonials
often considered together
James Hewitt
Effective Leadership
Dealing With Pressure
High Performance
Cici Coleman
Resilience
Confidence
Emotional Intelligence
Djahane Banoo
Effective Leadership
Stress Management
Communication
frequently asked questions
Something we've not covered here?
To book Lena Thompson, email lena.thompson@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 Lena'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.
No. PepTalk adds no booking fee, so you pay the speaker's fee and nothing beyond it. The service, from shortlist through to contracts and event-day logistics, is included. For repeat or multi-event bookings, PepTalk can agree preferential rates with your procurement team.
Share your event date, audience, format, objectives and budget, and PepTalk sends a hand-picked shortlist within 24 hours. Each suggestion comes with a profile, a fee and a recommendation on the strongest fit. Once you choose, PepTalk handles contracts, travel and logistics through to event day.
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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