Main Content
Adrian Wheeler
We work with owner-managers of creative businesses that have hit a plateau and are frustrated or confused as to what the next steps should be.
Our unique business acceleration program is born out of 30 years experience in the design industry and masters-level research into the psychological barriers that owner-managers of creative businesses impose on themselves. We help our clients remove those barriers and take their business to an optimum level of performance, income and life balance in a period of one year or less.
On this programme we work together to streamline the low yield activities, both business and personal and optimise the high yield activities resulting in a business that is more confident in its direction, financially sound and personally rewarding.
Areas of expertise
| People: | Coaching • Mentoring • Training |
| Business Processes: | Business strategy & planning |
Experience in the design industry
Design industry experience: +20 years
Thirty years in the design industry, fifteen years as a hands-on designer, twelve years running my own award-winning agency and three years working internationally gives me a depth of experience and empathy that qualifies me an expert in this industry.
Five years training in the psychology, linguistics and neuroscience of coaching and behavioural change, culminating in a masters degree from Henley Business School gives me a level of expertise that sets me apart from other coaches in this sector.
Professional affiliations
Royal Society of Arts (RSA)
Coaching you
I act as your ‘thinking partner’, helping you make sense of the obstacles you face, and do your very best thinking to overcome them. We then co-create the space and the insight you need to understand and deal with any obstacles that might hold you back. My clients discover new ways to think and reconnect with their inner resources. They tend to experience renewed energy and clearer direction in whatever it is they want to achieve.
Talk to me if you, or one of your senior team are:
- Taking on a major new challenge
- Preparing for a new role or new responsibilities
- Moving to, or redefining a leadership role
- Wanting more enjoyment from what you do
- Planning your future
- Returning to work after having children or planning a family
- Wanting an unbiased sounding board
- Searching to find your ‘element’
Coaching your leadership team
If you and your leadership team are clear about your goals and united in how to achieve them, everybody wins. Where coaching can be useful is in helping to: open up their thinking, creating the right environment for discussion, and deciding how new initiatives should be introduced.
I can assist you when you are:
- Setting direction and building strategy
- Understanding and harnessing your culture
- Transforming the effectiveness of your team
- Bringing coaching into your business
- Defining your employee value proposition
Coaching your team
My research shows that many design business owners are frustrated that their creative teams don’t consistently produce the high standard of creativity that they’re capable of. Unfortunately, this often results in over-managing them or trying methods of motivation that either don’t work or are counter-productive. I will teach how to use coaching as a more effective way to motivate and manage your people and to create a culture within your business that will free you and your staff to get on with what you all should be doing to the best of your abilities.
Access to a powerful network
I founded The Fairlight Project in 2013 to bring together a group of top-flight coaches with ‘c-suite’ credentials from diverse business backgrounds. I bring with me access to this unrivalled breadth and depth of knowledge from successful business people working client-side, who are at the top of their game.