Sally Henderson with Claire Hollands on merging three agency cultures into one and why the hardest part was never the finances

Claire Hollands started out heading for medical school before finding her way into advertising, spent 14 years at AMV rising to chief client officer, became CEO of Mullen Lowe and is now CEO of Saatchi and Saatchi.In this episode of The How of High Performance she talks about the merger she led at Mullen Lowe where the real job wasn't the finances or the client proposition but bringing three fierce cultural tribes together under one roof in a way that made everyone want to be part of what came next.Claire also shares the personal high stakes of leaving a 14 year career during COVID while pregnant with her second child and walking into a new agency after nearly two years away from an office, carrying what she describes as an unhealthy paranoia that nobody around her ever saw.Her advice to senior leaders is rooted in trust and in something she says sounds basic but that most leaders still don't do.About the ShowThe How of High Performance is a podcast hosted by Sally Henderson, High Stakes Leadership Mentor, Author, TEDx and Keynote Speaker with 26 years of experience mentoring senior leaders.Why you lead gets all the attention, but it's HOW you lead that makes the real difference, especially when the stakes are high and the pressure is permanent.Every episode, Sally talks with a leader who has been tested in leadership and in life, with guests spanning C-suite business, Olympic sport, academia and the military, and asks them to share what they learned about their HOW under pressure.Please follow or subscribe and leave a review on Apple Podcasts - it helps other senior leaders find the show.Sally's book The How of High Performance is available at amazon.co.uk and from all good bookshops.Visit sallyhenderson.co.uk or connect with Sally on LinkedIn.