CEOs during COVID-19: Fiona Johnston on doing one thing at a time and hanging onto the good stuff
In this series, Mumbrella’s Brittney Rigby asks media agency CEOs how they’re leading their teams through a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic. Here, UM CEO Fiona Johnston addresses why she’s missing ‘talking crap’ with her team, granting them the autonomy to say no to clients, and ensuring we take the ‘good stuff’ back to the office while leaving the ‘rushing to get to the office by 7am’ in the past.
Fiona Johnston is in between houses, and looking forward to getting back to the office. Working from home has been manageable, but “it’s not something I would personally want to continue”.
“I enjoy being in a commune of people. I enjoy people being around me and around the business. I thrive off people’s points of view, their perspective, their energy,” the UM CEO says. “It’s the looks, it’s the thoughts, it’s the presence you get from different people in different scenarios.”
UM CEO Fiona Johnston
This: “it’s given us a new appreciation, or fresh appreciation, of the thing that we can’t see, which is the human touch of who we are.” So true and very well said.