The Change.
It was February 2020 and it happened. I decided to finally start my own business. Only 10 years of procrastination and hmm’s, ahh’s and maybe’s.
And for once, this isn’t a COVID story of the time.
It was a bit of rush job. I opened up to my network and boom, a big piece of work needed me to set-up my business much quicker than I’d anticipated… not that I was moaning about that!
But whereas I would say my strengths are in understanding people, culture and performance, I am not the most inventive and creative type when it comes to branding and creative.
People have asked me over the years, what does ADA in ADA Leadership stand for? Agile, Driven, Assertive? Advice, Dialogue, Autonomy? Accountability, Decision-making, Approach? Nope, none of the above. Nor is it that much of an enigma wrapped in a mystery either. It’s simply my initials, Anthony David Atherton. And I only respond to Anthony when my mum or dad call me.
So, on a long flight home recently I decided I needed a change of brand, to focus on what I genuinely and uniquely bring to a very busy market. Why do people select ADA Leadership over others?
I reached out to a friend who had just re-branded their company and they put me in touch with the very wonderful Laura Coggles who is an expert in marketing and brand. We met virtually and got on brilliantly. Laura challenged my thinking, drew out my values and what is important to me and asked me lots of great questions to tease out what my business really was about. Let’s be honest, a one-man band that produces no physical product is not so easy to pigeonhole.
After all that, we realised that the differentiator to my competitors and other suppliers isn’t just my experiential methods, whether it be virtual or in person. It was me.
This isn’t a self indulgent ego trip or ‘hey people look at me’, Laura teased out that what makes my business successful, what clients sign up to and come back for more on. It is the passion and focus I bring to clients, the way I challenge them and most of all, the honesty, delivered in a way to help and grow, not deminish.
We talked for hours about how I want to help people, teams and leaders to be better tomorrow than they are today and to always see that the best way to superior results is through your people.
So after all that discussion, challenge and naval gazing, Laura helped me form a more meaningful brand…
Tony Atherton
Yeah, I know, not exactly revolutionary is it! But that’s the point, it’s always the same feedback from clients, individuals, small businesses and large corporates, I seem to make a difference. Not in what I know, anyone with a background like mine knows their stuff, but how I apply it. With care, bespoke connection, experiential and with honest, northern (Yorkshire and proud) straight-laced truth. And most of all, with an appropriate amount of wit and fun.
I have now been running my own consultancy for more than 4 years., running programmes from home in this wonderful virtual world we can work in. I am incredibly fortunate to travel too, having worked in USA, Norway and Switzerland in the last 12 months alone. So I think I’m doing something right.
So whether it is one to one coaching, leadership capability, building an organisational performance culture or just understanding how to be better tomorrow than you are today, give me a call, or at the very least check out my new website. It will evolve and grow, just like each one of us.