Tracy Duggan’s Journey to Empowering Women Leaders to Thrive with Freedom 

For any business to thrive, people are the backbone that can make it possible. And leaders like Tracy Duggan are guiding businesses to reimagine how to attain sustainable success. Alongside being a leadership and organisational culture expert, professionally qualified executive coach, and business mentor, Tracy is also the founder of Skillslocal, a consultancy dedicated to helping people and businesses flourish.

Throughout her career, she has been helping women founders step back from the day-to-day, build confident teams, and create businesses that thrive without depending on them for everything. With more than 30 years’ experience working across the private, public and third sectors, Tracy understands what it takes to build a successful business, and the personal cost when growth comes at the expense of the person leading it.

Her work is driven by a simple belief, “You shouldn’t have to sacrifice your freedom, wellbeing, or sense of self to build a successful business.” 

Working alongside business owners, founders and senior leaders, she helps them navigate growth, change, and the challenges of leading people. By guiding organisations to strengthen their leadership, transform workplace cultures, and improve employee engagement, Tracy empowers them to achieve long-term business growth.

Through her years of experience in supporting businesses and leaders, Tracy has recognised a recurring pattern, particularly among women founders. They build successful businesses, recruit talented people, and create opportunities for others. Yet, somewhere along the way, they become the person everyone depends upon.

The women leaders make the decisions, solve the problems, carry the emotional load, and feel guilty when they’re not available. The business grows, but their freedom doesn’t. It’s this challenge that inspired Tracy to create Beyond the FoundHER™. A new leadership and business growth programme, this initiative is designed for women founders who have built successful businesses but are ready to change their relationship with them.

Made for every woman who loves what they’ve created but is tired of being indispensable, the programme helps them move beyond the guilt of stepping back. Moreover, it helps them build accountable leadership teams, and build the structures, behaviours, and culture needed for sustainable growth. 

Rather than encouraging women to work harder, become more productive, or squeeze even more into already demanding lives, Tracy challenges them to rethink what successful leadership looks like. Because being a successful founder shouldn’t mean being permanently available. 

Her approach combines practical business mentoring, leadership coaching, behavioural insight and organisational development. It helps founders understand not just what needs to change in their businesses, but what they may need to change in themselves. At its heart is a powerful shift: from being the person who holds everything together to becoming the leader who enables others to succeed.

Tracy’s work is underpinned by her own FLOURISH® Framework, which connects strong business foundations, effective leadership, and organisational culture with the conditions that enable people and businesses to thrive.

She believes that business performance and employee wellbeing are not competing priorities. When leaders create clarity, trust, accountability and opportunities for people to contribute, organisations become stronger, more resilient and better equipped for growth.

As an accredited executive coach with the International Coaching Federation (PCC), Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute and licensed Investors in People Practitioner, Tracy brings professional credibility alongside extensive real-world experience.

But it’s her straight-talking, down-to-earth approach that clients particularly value. She’s not interested in complicated theories that look impressive but change very little. She believes in honest conversations, practical action and helping leaders develop the confidence to do things differently.

Tracy’s personal motto, “Feel the fear and do it anyway,” reflects her belief that meaningful growth often begins when we’re willing to challenge familiar behaviours and step outside our comfort zones.

Based in the beautiful Peak District, Tracy runs Skillslocal® while enjoying the freedom to spend extended periods travelling around Europe with her husband and their two cocker spaniels.

For her, this isn’t simply a lifestyle choice; it’s a reflection of what she believes business ownership should make possible. She states, “The freedom to choose how you spend your time. The confidence to trust the people around you. And the opportunity to enjoy the life you’re working so hard to create.” 

Through Beyond the FoundHER™, Tracy is on a mission to help more women founders reclaim that freedom, strengthen their leadership, and build businesses that flourish without requiring their constant presence.

Tracy Duggan’s message is simple: “You’ve built the business. You’ve built the team. Now it’s time to build the freedom you deserve.”