Doug loves listening deeply, asking probing questions, unearthing data, discerning patterns ... helping people tune into defining clues buried in their life journey. 

He calls this human archaeology.

He enjoys empowering people to live from their God-given core identity, and enabling organizations to clarify and operate according to their mission and values. He helps assemble and make sense out of life's jumble of data, and ferrets out limiting constraints or critical blockages. He has a penchant for offering paradigm-shifting perspective at defining moments.

Doug is passionate about seeing individuals and organizations unleashed to fulfill their potential. He thrives on helping people discover breakthrough insights — developing the personal clarity, inner fortitude, support systems, and life patterns necessary to bear lasting fruit and finish well. He is a seasoned mentor, popular conference speaker, and trusted advisor to an array of national and international leaders.  

People who know Doug well use words like catalytic, encouraging, loyal, stimulating, perceptive, and persistent to describe him. He is known for speaking honestly and, if need be, courageously, in difficult circumstances. His dogged commitment to values and principle can make him intense at times. But playfulness and a high "fun value" offset his equally high value for intentionality. 

Specialties

Specializing in executive coaching, founder transitions, sustainable development, and change management, Doug has worked in dozens of countries on five continents. In this season he is prioritizing work in the fintech, government, business, non-profit, and international development sectors. 

At present Doug’s consulting energies are focused on creating fresh synergies amongst international businesses, governmental agencies, and NGOs committed to human flourishing. He enjoys quietly but strategically investing in the development of sustainable, multi-sector transformation initiatives that make way for fundamentally new stories to be written for and between communities, ethnic groups, and nations. 

Fresh corporate engagements often flow out of relationships with founders or key stakeholders - or from recommendations by those who have worked with Doug in years past. This relationship-forward, human-centered, slow-capital approach has become a trademark of Doug’s work globally, in both for-profit and non-profit sectors.

Doug prioritizes coaching within established organizational and network relationships, and does a limited amount of ad hoc executive coaching as time allows.

Of Further Interest 

Doug is a proactive husband, father of two adult married children (Justin, Janelle) he loves hanging out with, and a jovial grandfather. He is ever on the lookout for new friends and mentors, and for new horizons — both internal and external.

An award-winning travel photographer, Doug shares galleries of images from his global wanderings at Worldview Photography. You can follow Doug's photography on Instagram and on Facebook. Stories behind the photos and reflections on life from a photographic perspective can be found on his Behind the Lens photo blog.

The Fikes

Doug and his wife Charlene are digital nomads based in Washington, DC. After a long season of transitioning and downsizing, they occupy a small footprint and carry little overhead. They love exploring far-flung corners of the globe and being there for friends when it matters — and are delighting in a stage of life where they are able to do a lot of both. 

Together they enjoy encouraging fellow journeyers, investing in dreamers, resourcing entrepreneurs. And beach-combing and wine-tasting and seeking out primates in the wild. Periodically the Fikes share some of their favorite travel discoveries and create transformational bounded open spaces by hosting intimate, immersive coached travel experiences through Toccati.com. 

The Fikes have launched an array of successful businesses in sales & marketing, real estate, and the hospitality industry. As Presidential Master Coordinators with the Shaklee Corporation, their call to move from survival, to success, to living lives of significance is known throughout the Shaklee world. 

Putting feet to their corporate motto ("Crafting Lives That Matter"), Charlene and Doug — working in conjunction with their adult children — developed the widely-acclaimed Working Smart suite of resources and training programs for business professionals, and have trained thousands of entrepreneurs throughout North America and beyond over three decades.