Leadership throught the eyes of an Executive Creative Director
Lesson: Leadership and Emotional Intelligence, by Mrs Dimitra Iordanoglou — Αssistant Professor.
In order to meet the requirements of the course “Leadership and Emotional Intelligence”, one of the last courses of the AD & PR Lab, we were assigned to find experienced individuals or groups in leadership roles in companies, organizations or NGOs, observe them for 1–2 days in their daily activities and monitor their behavior.
We came in touch with and met in person Mr. Gerasimos Katevatis, Executive Creative Director of Forest View Company. ForestView is an award-winning digital marketing and commerce agency focused on creating valuable experiences across the consumer journey. Its diverse, multidisciplinary teams utilize the power of data, technology and creativity to bring meaningful and memorable connections between brands and consumers. The company is one of the six that function under the group of Think Digital. Today Think Digital Group employees more than 250 digital professionals with Forest View employing approximately 35 in Greece.
So, as mentioned above, we visited Mr. Katevatis in the Forest View’s offices which are based in the suburb of Kifissia, 20 kilometers north of the center of Athens.
We developed a very constructive dialogue that focused on leadership and what it takes to be a good leader and also looked deeper into the responsibilities of an Executive Creative Director.
When asked what does leadership mean to him, he replied that leadership is all about inspiring. A leader’s duty is to find people with whom he shares similar values and inspire them so that they are motivated, not only to deliver great results for the company, but also be enthusiastic about what they have chosen to engage in. Through inspiration, both personal and corporal development can be easily achieved. As mentioned above, it’s highly crucial for him to compose a team that consists of people that are ruled by specific morals. Empathy is one of the core elements that he values in addition to persistence and willingness. Also, besides inspiring, a leader’s goal is to offer experiences and create the appropriate working conditions so that the team functions in the most creative way possible.
“A leader must share his vision and goal with his team. In order to share it, it is necessary for the leader to find or form like-minded people, because this is a prerequisite for good cooperation.”
Below we cite Mr. Katevatis’s answers to our questions in relation to his duties as an Executive Creative Director and his role as a team leader.
Could you describe to us a typical day at work?
“I’ve been in advertising for a total of a little over 30 years and I have to admit that no day a single day can be called typical, because every day there is a surprise waiting for you. However, for sure, the daily routine of every employee is totally dependent on the position they hold. I for example, as a person employed in the creative part, have very specific responsibilities, which basically involve finding ideas and different concepts for customers and their products.
Usually, the first thing I do when I come to the office is to talk to my team (which consists of designers and copywriters) and arrange which projects need to be implemented and how. If we have received a brief from a client with instructions for a new campaign, we hold meetings to brainstorm ideas. Once we come up with 2–3 ideas for the specific product, we start the process of implementing them. However, it doesn’t mean that a creative person’s day always starts with a great idea going out to the media. There are smaller tasks that don’t need brainstorming.
I, as the leader of the creative department, mainly monitor the progress of the work and its quality, ensuring that it is on time and meets the client’s requirements and standards.”
What is the difference between manager and leader?
“A leader, for me, has a vision, a long-term goal for the team, which he has to inspire its members to believe in it and manage to fulfill it. The manager simply focuses on implementing certain tasks. The positions are related, except that the leader leads a team and tries to guide it towards a certain goal.
What do you think are the main characteristics that a leader must have?
“A leader has to create the right conditions for his employees so that the team can work inventively and thrive. Particularly in the creative part, where work does not emerge algorithmically through the application of a formula, the role of the leader is even more important. He does not acquire a specific formula that will ensure success, but takes it upon himself to find the way that will bring results. Also, I consider consistency incredibly important. A leader has to be true to his words and his actions have to coincide with the promises he has made to his team. There are many things that combined together make a good leader. It’s not just the ability to put things in place. Needs are always different and require special and careful management.”
Do you think that over time a leader can evolve and improve or that his abilities basically remain the same? So, are we talking more about innate or acquired characteristics?
“There are definitely characteristics that I think is required to have from birth and that’s because I have a Darwinian view of how people are. This may sound racist in the age of equality, but I do not believe that we are all born the same. Traits such as empathy, ambition, are not learned or acquired. It is almost universal that many traits
are not acquired. Someone has them and someone else does not… But that does not mean that it is not possible to improve acquired skills or develop new ones.”
What is a key element that defines the course of a leader for you?
“I believe that a leader must share the goal and his vision with his team. In order to share it, it is necessary to find like-minded people, since this is a prerequisite for productive cooperation. If there is no clear and common goal, future conflicts will not be easily avoided. Of course, this does not mean that the leader should impose his ideas on the group, as this will almost certainly have very negative results. Personally, I am willing to sacrifice talent for ethics. Every leader has his own ingredients that he judges to be the most critical and for me, although talent is one of them, it is not the most important. Finding people of the same wavelength, that is indeed great. Because the team doesn’t win because of one person, but from the composition of many different people who share a common goal. Without wanting to sound in any way fascist in what I’m about to say, if the other person doesn’t believe in my vision, unfortunately they can’t contribute to it in the long run.”
Times are changing and new facts are constantly emerging. Based on current developments, what do you think are the critical leadership skills of the future?
“Because the amount of information that we are called upon to manage on a daily basis is now inconceivable, the ability to sort out from this cloud the information that will be useful to you is for me definitely a necessary skill of the present and the future. Within this industry, it is tremendously important to be able to focus and recognize what is worthwhile.”
How has the spread of the virus and the quarantine affected the company in recent years?
“Covid and working from home has forced us to work more closely with each other and check in on work more frequently than we used to. We established, for example, a daily morning meeting in order to be better organized and to monitor the progress of the project more closely. We have kept this habit even after the end of the coronavirus, which is proving to be rather positive, as we now have much better control over the work and can more easily identify mistakes or make the necessary corrections.”
Since the coronavirus, we have, also, adopted a hybrid model, in which we work one week from the office and one week working remotely from home. All Fridays, however, we work from home and also in the summer for about a month and a half to two months, we put in place “work from everywhere”, giving our people the ability to work from anywhere they want.”
Is emotional intelligence something you look for in your collaboration with others and in your employees? Have you personally developed it; do you consider it a skill?
“The emotional intelligence part is undoubtedly essential. Anyone who does not have empathy is bound to have a problem. Either he himself is not fulfilled as a person and has not found happiness through his work, or others around him are unhappy…Maybe this is also due to the fact that this is how I function as a person… I am constantly trying to detect the emotions of others and understand how they feel.”
When you feel that you are experiencing very negative emotions (such as anger, frustration, sadness, jealousy), what do you do so that they do not affect your work?
“Because I am not a person of extremes, I generally try to balance my emotions as much as possible. Neither do I hide what I feel, nor do I become overly demonstrative. When it comes to excessive joy, however, that’s where I find it hard to contain myself. I wish for it to take on the magnitude it deserves because I believe that people should be rewarded for what they have achieved.”
Is reward something you implement in your company? In what way?
“Reward does not always take the formal form of a monetary reward, a salary increases. Reward in our business is also the achievement of a goal. When our work and effort is recognized, that’s when we feel rewarded. And the reward becomes even greater when we can share it with our team and our partners. Moreover, reward can sometimes be reflected in human behavior. That is, in how one treats another. An honest and human behavior, for those who have not experienced it in other work environments, may be the best reward.”
What skills has this position given you and what useful information do you think you have gained?
“The most important knowledge I have gained through my work over the years is about my relationship with people. How one manages and directs others. Something also important that the industry has taught me is to be honest with everyone I work with, without being unpleasant. It’s not easy to point out someone’s faults and weaknesses and when you do, you have to find the right way to not be offensive. However, a seriousness and rigor are also necessary to make the correction understood and not to repeat the mistake.”
What are your goals for the immediate future?
“I personally have a single goal, which I make sure to carry with me in all my work; the recognition of the work of the team. Recognition proves your work is accepted and loved by the people. It’s a social recognition that is not about winning an award. That alone is a very important and permanent — for me — goal.”
What is a piece of advice you would give to those who want to generate ideas?
“You need to get as much information as you can from the outside. From museums and exhibitions, to bar crawls and going out with friends… All of the above, are useful tools and if exploited, could be used and reflected in an extremely creative way.”
My team:
ADROITS
Alexandropoulou Sofia
Kollia Eleftheria
Kondyli Panagiota
Papantoni Thaleia
Stoubou Sideri Marialena
