Paul Tolley

Paul Tolley – Elite Performance & Mental Health Speaker

Paul Tolley is a former RAF fast jet pilot and Big 4 management consultant, and currently an elite performance coach working with professional cricket teams, and is a speaker on high performance and mental health.

Paul began his career as a fast jet pilot in the Royal Air Force (RAF), where he honed his elite performance skills, including leadership, teamwork, and risk-based decision-making under extreme pressure. Beyond the cockpit, he achieved high performance levels in several other disciplines, including captaining the RAF Combat Shooting Team and qualifying as a scuba diving instructor.

After leaving the RAF, Paul transitioned to operational management consultancy, working for Deloitte, where he established a reputation for rescuing strategically critical projects and delivering complex transformational change. As a qualified Deloitte Coach, he also delivered their Operational Excellence training programme and built high-performing teams in challenging environments.

He currently works as a Senior Operations Delivery Specialist, having transformed a struggling £35m software managed service into a high-performing operation.

Paul is also a speaker on mental health and wellbeing. His RAF career was cut short by a significant physical illness. Later, his marriage ended on the day he was due to find out whether he had cancer, meaning he had to get to grips with becoming a single parent to two young children whilst recovering from another serious illness (which fortunately was not cancer).

Both of these events took a huge toll on his mental health from which it took time and effort to recover. Today, as a direct result of his experiences of poor mental health, he is a qualified Mental Health First Aider and helps organisations to design and deliver employee mental health & wellbeing strategies.

SPEAKING TOPICS 

When helping individuals, businesses and professional athletes to maximise their personal and team performance, Paul draws on this rare combination of elite military and elite corporate experience, coupled with deeply personal insights from his own life outside work. Paul’s tried and tested method blends continuous improvement techniques, self-understanding, and a strong focus on personal and team mental health & wellbeing to deliver peak results.

His speaking topics include –

• Peak Performance and fulfilling potential – Drawing on his experience from elite fast jet flying operations, Paul understands the importance of fostering a culture of trust, collaboration and excellence for elite performance. This involves creating environments where individuals feel supported to reach their potential and perform at their best, as well as being empowered to take individual accountability and focus on collective goals.
• Mental health, wellbeing and resilience – Sustained high performance is not possible without a strong foundation of mental health & wellbeing and psychological safety. Paul has led initiatives that integrate mental health & wellbeing support into organisational culture, promoting resilience, reducing burnout, and enabling individuals to thrive.

Topics covered in his talks include –

• Peak performance and growth mindset
• Resilience
• Leadership
• Mental health
• Wellbeing – eating well, sleeping well, moving well, relaxing well, the importance of talking
• Effective communication
• Teamwork
• Risk management
• Marginal gains
• Continuous improvement
• Building high performance teams
• Stress and pressure
• Embedding behaviours and culture
• Fulfilling potential
• Reframing

Paul is always happy to liaise with event organisers to ensure that their essential themes are incorporated into his talks and presentations to deliver maximum impact and results.