Adrian Jackson's Strategies for Effective Leadership

Adrian Jackson, the chief executive and artistic director at Wolverhampton Grand Theatre in England

Photo Credit: Graeme Braidwood

by Stephen Skrypec, VP, UK & Europe | TRG Arts

As leaders, veteran or aspiring, you can find tools, books and strategies that promise to give you the expertise and wherewithal to succeed in your sector. Where we don’t often look is backwards. Adrian Jackson, the chief executive and artistic director at Wolverhampton Grand Theatre in England, recently helped to mark the 125th anniversary of the theatre.

Jackson continues to oversee an emerging renaissance of this landmark theatre including a new performance space expansion, a plan to cover their loss in public funding, and a return to the theatre’s heritage of being a venue and producer. I asked him for his tried and true strategies for effective leadership:

True and Visible Passion

Adrian is particularly connected to Wolverhampton, as he’d performed on its stage as a young boy, so finding the fire for him was easy. But he can’t emphasize enough how integral his passion in the place, mission and programming was to his success—and it isn’t just important for staff or bookers, “If actors and performers don’t smell and feel the right vibe, you’re losing before you’ve even started. People come to the theatre to connect with what’s on stage, so if we haven’t set our artists up right to connect with our audiences, we lose crucial collateral in loyalty-building.”

Capacity to Change

At Wolverhampton, Adrian was faced with an enormous challenge: a two-year withdrawal of local authority funding. To keep the theatre alive, and give it a chance to thrive, he had to take a risk. “It was important that the profile of the Grand Theatre was increased nationally, and this involved making substantial changes very quickly.” He and his staff led the organization through change in nearly every capacity: from programming to revenue streams to audiences. The Grand is now a robust venue garnering national attention. In hindsight, the need for change is obvious – but it was Adrian’s forethought and vision that propelled it, and him, to the success they are today.

Acute Understanding of People

“If you’re driven to be a leader you MUST understand people,” he says. One of the ways he’s done this is by creating opportunities for his leadership team to create their own paths. In support of that he restructured the organization around their strengths, instead of their roles.

Plan for Success Beyond Your Tenure

Adrian places a high priority on succession planning in order to ensure changes in leadership can be made seamlessly by actively participating in planning for his departure – even though he has no immediate intentions to do so. By creating a succession plan, he is asking key stakeholders to invest strategically and practically in Wolverhampton Grand’s future. His passion for the organization drives him to think about and plan for a future that may not include him, so that his staff and board are able to nimbly propel forward through, yet again, a major change. “(Great) leaders know when to step aside, and I intend to do it well,” he says.

His legacy at The Grand, if and when he does step aside, will include: having built an organizational culture rooted in resiliency and passion; increasing both the organization’s revenue and community relevance; and having supported the next generational of arts leaders in the UK.