Ginny Jackson, General Manager, Those That Do. Just over a year ago, I took the general manager role at Those That Do in Dubai. Daunting and exciting in equal measure. The opportunity to build something, alongside our founder Ben – the way we believed it should be built, and the flexibility to actually see my kids grow up.
Imposter syndrome, self-doubt and ambition seem to be in constant tug of war, but 18 months on, we’re proud of what we’re building.
What’s struck me most recently isn’t the work itself – it’s the feedback. Our small Dubai team, and even people outside the business, have noted how we’ve handled the pressures of the last few months alongside our team’s welfare. It honestly hadn’t occurred to me that this was unusual until ex-colleagues and friends in other industries told me their teams had barely been checked in on and were still expected to be operating as ‘business as usual’ – present in the office, hitting targets, regardless of whether schools were shut or marketing spend was on hold. And unless you’ve lived through some of what this region has lived through recently, that gap is hard to see from the outside.
That’s when it clicked for me. Leadership isn’t tested when things are easy. It’s tested now.
I’ve always been lucky enough to work for flexible bosses. And I’ve always still felt guilty. That’s the bit nobody tells you – you can have help, you can have understanding, you can have all of it – and still feel like you’re falling short on both sides of the line.
This taught me something I’ve carried into how I lead now: help doesn’t erase the guilt. Only trust does. Flexibility is the policy. Trust is the thing that actually makes people feel safe to use it.
I am a strong advocate of flexible working for all, but especially working parents – not as a perk, but as a philosophy. Every business says they’re ‘people first’. It’s on the website, the careers page, the all-hands deck. But it’s moments like this with flat markets, uncertain news cycles, the ground shifting underneath us, when you actually see the true colours of the company you work for and the people you work with.
People first isn’t a value. It’s a behaviour, and it only shows up under pressure.
It has to go both ways. Flexibility without trust is chaos. Trust without dedication breaks down quickly. The deal, as I see it: I’ll meet you where you are in your life, and you’ll bring real craft and care to the work. Flexibility is one of the biggest things talented people are looking for in an agency right now, but it can’t come at the expense of connection, dedication or empathy. Those things hold the whole model together. Year one into year two, with some of our newest clients, has shown me this model holds, and notably, the clients it works best with are the ones who share the same values. People who want to work with humans (with some robots mixed in). People who’ll have a real conversation about a deadline rather than just resetting it.
The kids are finally back in school, which is its own quiet relief. But the juggle hasn’t gone anywhere. It still feels hard to human right now. The mental load, the news cycle, the ‘life is life-ing’ of it all – that doesn’t switch off because the uniforms are back on. And most of us, even non-parents, aren’t navigating these emotions so much as surviving them.
Which is exactly why leaders need a strategy for it. Not a wellness deck, an actual approach to how we hold our teams through uncertainty. Empathy isn’t a soft skill anymore. It’s operational.
If you’re reading this between school runs, between meetings, or from your own version of a soft play (which is where I started writing this!) – I see you!
And if you’re leading people through this: lead with empathy, and trust the people you’ve hired. They’ll remember. We’re human, after all.
By Ginny Jackson, General Manager, Those That Do.
