Donna Ward-Higgs

Donna Ward-Higgs is an executive coach, systemic team coach, leadership development consultant, and supervisor.

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Her work spans organisational and leadership contexts where roles carry complexity, responsibility, and competing demands, supporting individuals and teams to make sense of what they are navigating and how they want to lead.

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Donna’s practice combines executive coaching, systemic team coaching, leadership development, and reflective supervision. Her approach is grounded and pragmatic, creating space for clear thinking, honest reflection, and responsible decision-making without taking that responsibility away from the people she works with.

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Key Skills

• Executive and leadership coaching

• Systemic team coaching and team development

• Supporting leaders to think clearly in complexity and uncertainty

• Working with responsibility, authority, and professional judgement

• Navigating role transition, stretch, and identity shift

• Inclusive and neuro-inclusive leadership practice

• Working across difference, power, and competing perspectives

• Reflective practice, supervision, and ethical awareness

• Difficult conversations, boundaries, and accountability

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Coaching hours

Donna has been coaching for over 20 years as a manager and leader within organisations and has worked as an independent, formally qualified executive coach since 2015.

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She currently delivers approximately 750 hours of coaching per year, including one-to-one executive coaching, leadership coaching, and systemic team-based development work.

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Supervision

Donna regularly attends one-to-one and group supervision and for the last 12 months this equates to approximately 60 hours.

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Relevant experience

Alongside her work as an independent Executive Coach, Donna has built her practice working with a wide range of organisations and leadership teams operating in complex and values-led contexts.

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Her client work includes public sector, local authority, university, and charity organisations, supporting senior leaders and teams through executive and leadership coaching, capability and skills building, systemic team coaching, and reflective practice. This work often involves engaging across multiple roles, disciplines, and perspectives within the same system.

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Donna also brings substantial leadership and people-management experience from earlier in her career, including senior management roles with responsibility for performance, capability, and leading teams through change. This experience continues to inform her understanding of organisational dynamics, authority, and the practical realities of leadership.

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