Dean Leak

Most organisations treat conflict as a threat, but Dean Leak, a renowned keynote speaker and Olympic performance strategist, proves that it can be a competitive advantage. He teaches leaders how to turn tension into progress through effective conflict resolution.

Dean’s core message is both bold and practical: high-performing cultures aren’t those without conflict; they are the ones that know how to design it. He brings a unique blend of insights from three high-performance arenas:

• Olympic sport (pressure-tested performance)
• British Military & UK Government (high-stakes decision-making),
• FTSE 100 boardrooms (complex organisational leadership).

Across these areas, Dean has observed the outcomes when pressure rises: teams either break or break through. The key difference lies in not disagreeing less or agreeing more, but in Disagreeing Well.

Through his Disagreeing Well System™, Dean inspires organisations to foster cultures where individuals can speak up, challenge thinking, and navigate discomfort without damaging trust. The result is momentum that propels innovation, accountability, and sustained high performance.

Dean’s worked in Olympic gold-medal teams playing a significant part in Jade Jones and Joe Clarkes Gold Medal success, worked with 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. His approach integrates personal experience, elite performance science, behavioural psychology, and practical leadership tools to facilitate courageous conversations and effective decision-making.

Trained by Professor Steve Peters (The Chimp Paradox), UK Special Forces leaders, and a leading hostage negotiator, Dean is known for his grounded, human-centred approach. In elite sport, he has helped Olympians build mindsets that thrive under pressure, and now he applies that same clarity and emotional intelligence to business, guiding teams from avoidance to alignment, and from politeness to progress.

His keynote presentation, Disagreeing Well: The Hidden Superpower of High-Performance Culture, challenges the misconception that a 'positive culture' equates to maintaining peace. Instead, Dean illustrates how healthy friction serves as the fuel for growth, innovation, and collective success.