Dean Leak

Why organisations work with Dean Leak

• A working language for productive disagreement at the top of the house, captured in his “3 A’s” method (Absorb, Acknowledge, Ask), that teams can use the day after the session
• Direct operating experience inside Olympic gold-medal environments at Great Britain Taekwondo, British Canoeing, and British Shooting, not theory borrowed from sport
• A mentorship lineage to Professor Steve Peters and the Chimp Management model, applied with discipline to executive behaviour rather than repackaged as motivation
• Comfort moving between board rooms, military commanders, and elite athletes, which translates into a sharper read of how senior leaders actually behave under load

Biography highlights

• Worked directly with Olympic gold medallists including Jade Jones and Joe Clarke
• Held senior leadership roles at Great Britain Taekwondo, British Canoeing, and British Shooting
• Mentored by Professor Steve Peters, author of The Chimp Paradox, over a five-year period
• Graduate of UK Sport’s leadership programme
• Corporate clients include L’Oreal, IBM, Microsoft, LinkedIn, PwC, Baker McKenzie, Specsavers, Mars Group, Air New Zealand, the BBC, and the British Government
• Author of the “3 A’s” disagreement framework and the “Human iOS” model of behaviour change
• Member, Association for Coaching

Biography

Gold medals are not won by teams that agree with each other. They are won by teams that can disagree, in the room, on the day, without the relationship breaking. That observation is the foundation of Dean Leak’s work with senior leadership teams.

Leak spent more than a decade inside Olympic programmes, in roles that combined psychological skills coaching with operational leadership. He worked under Professor Steve Peters using the Chimp Management model, then took senior positions at Great Britain Taekwondo, British Canoeing, and British Shooting. The athletes he supported include Olympic gold medallists Jade Jones and Joe Clarke.

The corporate work followed the same logic. Boards and executive teams behave like elite squads under pressure: they need composure, role clarity, and a way to surface friction without retreating into politeness. Leak’s “3 A’s” method (Absorb, Acknowledge, Ask) gives teams a reusable structure for disagreeing well. His “Human iOS” framework treats change as a problem of biology and attention, not slogans, which is why his sessions tend to stick with operators who have already heard the standard transformation script.

Clients include L’Oreal, IBM, Microsoft, LinkedIn, PwC, Baker McKenzie, Mars Group, Air New Zealand, the BBC, and the British Government. He is a member of the Association for Coaching and a graduate of UK Sport’s leadership programme.

Key speaking topics

• High-performance culture
• Productive disagreement and healthy conflict
• Leadership under pressure
• Change leadership
• Team performance
• Psychological safety
• Imposter syndrome at senior levels

Ideal for

• Executive teams and boards working through restructure, integration, or strategic disagreement
• CHROs and chief people officers redesigning culture around performance, not engagement scores
• Leadership development directors briefing partner-track or senior management cohorts
• High-pressure operational environments (legal, professional services, elite teams) where stakes are personal and decisions are time-bound

Audience outcomes

• A shared vocabulary for naming and routing disagreement instead of avoiding it
• A clearer read on the behaviours that distinguish gold-medal teams from competent ones
• The 3 A’s method as a portable practice for senior conversations the next week
• A sharper view of where the team’s culture rewards comfort over accuracy
• Practical handles for managing personal composure under sustained pressure