Lesley Cooper is the founder and CEO of WorkingWell, an award-winning specialist consultancy that helps organisations manage pressure and stress in a way that facilitates a culture of sustainable high performance. Lesley and her team help clients understand workplace pressure and use this insight to empower every team member to get the best from themselves and each other.
- Can you tell us a little about your background and your company?
I have worked for 30 years in the design and delivery of all elements of employee wellbeing management programmes, paving the way to my role as CEO of WorkingWell. Over the course of my career, I have focused on championing a more proactive approach to wellbeing in the workplace, working closely with leading employers both domestically and internationally, and developing tools that enable effective measurement and management of wellbeing.
Our approach is built on the understanding that addressing the sources of poor wellbeing at work, along with fostering employee resilience, is key to creating a supportive environment. We provide tools that help leaders and managers quickly and easily assess the impact of pressure on an individual, a workgroup, a collection of teams or the organisation as a whole. By identifying both the root causes and the impact of stress, we assist companies in managing workplace pressure in a way that facilitates sustainable growth, rather than contributing to decreased performance and burnout. We were honored to be shortlisted for “Wellbeing Service Provider of the Year” at the Great British Workplace Wellbeing Awards 2025.
I’m also the co-author with Vicky Smith of “Brave New Leader: How To Transform Workplace Pressure into Sustainable Performance and Growth.”
- What inspired you to start your business?
Struggling to square the demands of a corporate job I loved with a baby and a three-year-old, paddling my own canoe seemed the only way to be able to combine my ongoing passion for my work with my equally strong desire to be present for my growing family. Working motherhood was not quite as well accepted as (quite rightly) it is now, so there was less cognitive and emotional flexibility amongst colleagues and bosses about the challenges presented by sickness bugs at nurseries! That is why I took the bold step of starting my own business.
- How did you create awareness for your brand?
At WorkingWell, we have built brand awareness by focusing on delivering tailored solutions and a personalised approach for each client. This has helped us establish a trusted brand, with many clients remaining with us over the years. I’m also an active contributor to the media on topics such as workplace wellbeing and sustainable high performance, helping to raise awareness and shining a spotlight on these crucial issues.
- What have been your biggest successes so far?
The longevity of the business – we celebrated 30 years of service quite recently and when I think back to my first hesitant steps as an independent consultant, I did not dare to think what I was building would still be growing three decades later. I would also count the length of many of our business relationships as a success too. Based on openness, true partnership and always seeking to get what we are offering exactly right for them, many of our original clients still seek us out today.
- What challenges have you faced, and how did you overcome them?
Small is beautiful, there is no doubt – it makes it much easier to innovate and be agile in our response, but it has meant that on occasions, particularly when client pressures accumulate, there is no time to do the forward planning. Because of what we do, we prioritise self-care, but that has meant, now and again, that we did not get the balance quite right between delighting the customer today and building our pipeline for the future. Awareness that there is such a thing as too much delivery in a small business has made us a little bit more specific about what is in and out of scope in order to keep enough time and resources back to work on the business, as well as in it.
- What are your future business plans?
There is still much to do in the world of improving workplace wellbeing and our mission remains largely unchanged – give companies the tools to improve wellbeing and performance by creating more safe and open workplace cultures and involving the people who work for them in regular dialogue about what works and what doesn’t.
- What advice would you give to aspiring female entrepreneurs?
Back yourself! 30 years on I still see latent fear amongst many young women that ‘I won’t be good enough’. You don’t necessarily have to be the expert before you strike out – experience and insight builds – growth is often less about how hard you work and more to do with how willing you are to listen to the insights of others and learn from them, folding them into your own thinking as you go. Be bold enough to leverage your knowledge as you acquire it – it does not have to be complete, in fact, it hopefully never will be, updating it is the fun part!
- What are your top three tips for entrepreneurial success?
Strong ideas, a passion for innovation and energy are obviously important, but 30 years on I realise that other less ‘sexy‘ behaviours are equally important. The trouble with having strong convictions, energy and a passion for winning, is that they can also lead you to develop tunnel vision, disinterest in the opinions or insights of others when they differ and poor listening skills in general. The world we are trying to operate in is increasingly complex and so the hard truth is we cannot possibly have all the answers. So-called ‘humble enquiry’, asking for the opinions of others and really hearing what they have to say, I now believe to be a necessity for learning and good decision making. A bit of vulnerability goes a long way too. Being ‘entrepreneurial’ often projects levels of capability that can discourage others from sharing something that might have been really useful, so saying “I don’t know – what do you think” now and again can be a very good habit to develop.
- What are your favourite inspirational or motivational quotes?
‘Thin skins lead to thick skulls’ (Brene Brown)
- Where can our readers connect with you?
The best way to connect with me is on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/lesley-cooper-5536302, and our website is: www.workingwell.co.uk.
