Douglas Howe is an executive coach, team coach, and workshop facilitator with more than fifteen years of experience coaching senior executives and leadership teams across five continents and twenty-five countries. His work spans pharmaceuticals, financial services, insurance, luxury retail, media, technology, and other complex industries. He helps leaders strengthen their executive presence, communicate with greater influence, navigate change, and lead effectively through increased complexity and scrutiny.
Douglas previously served as Global Head of Coaching and Facilitation at a global behavioral science consultancy. In this role, he led a network of more than 500 coaches and facilitators and co-created the evidence-based coaching methodology used across the organization’s client base. Earlier in his career, he coached and assessed executive talent at an international leadership consultancy.
Before entering leadership consulting and coaching, Douglas served as Executive Artistic Director of an international arts organization. As the leader responsible for the organization’s P&L, he gained firsthand experience making difficult decisions, managing competing priorities, and leading people through uncertainty and change.
A classically trained actor, Douglas brings together performance craft and behavioral science in his coaching. He helps leaders understand how their attention, presence, and internal state affect the way they communicate and how others experience their leadership. Rather than asking clients to adopt a manufactured leadership persona, he works from the inside out, helping them develop an approach that is both authentic and appropriate for the demands of the moment.
Douglas’s coaching follows a commitment cycle of committing, acting, reflecting, and recommitting. His style is direct, warm, and candid. He creates space for honest reflection while remaining willing to name the issue others may be avoiding. This approach helps clients convert insight into practical action and sustain meaningful behavioral change.
Douglas frequently supports leaders facing a significant increase in scope, visibility, or scrutiny. His clients include leaders transitioning from individual execution to leading through others, high performers whose technical credibility has outpaced their strategic visibility, and executives who must influence peers and stakeholders without formal authority. He helps leaders take calculated risks, strengthen their leadership voice, define and advocate for expanded responsibilities, and approach difficult conversations with greater confidence.
In addition to executive and team coaching, Douglas facilitates leadership development programs and workshops focused on executive presence, communication and influence, change management, and team effectiveness. His combination of business leadership, behavioral science, and performance expertise enables him to help leaders align how they intend to lead with how their leadership is experienced by others.