The Master of Creativity: Interview with Yiannis Sorotos
In the framework of the “Emotional Intelligence and History” workshop of Mrs. Dimitra Iordanoglou at Panteion University, we undertook a special task. As the Markart team, we decided to interview a leader, exploring their workplace and analyzing the characteristics that make a leader successful, with an emphasis on emotional intelligence. We chose Yiannis Sorotos, Senior Creative Director at The Newtons Laboratory advertising company.
The visit to The Newtons Laboratory:
Our visit began with a warm welcome on the 4th floor of The Newtons Laboratory, home to the advertising company’s main offices. Mr. Sorotos welcomed us in a relaxed mood, willing to help and participate in our project. Our initial conversation included business plans and perspectives, as well as questions about the company and his role.
The Journey of Yannis Sorotos:
Yiannis Sorotos started his career with a vision and passion for advertising, as he told us: “Since I was a child, I was looking at advertisements and I said, this is cool, at some point I want to do it”. Before joining The Newtons Laboratory, he went through various companies such as Darsi Athens, Dope, Adel, Dot and Dash and Leo Burnett, gaining valuable experience.
Leo Burnett closed in 2011 and opened The Newtons Laboratory, an independent advertising agency created by 30 people with the motto “Let’s do creative and only creative”.
The Traits of a Successful Leader:
Through our discussion with Mr. Sorotos, the characteristics that a leader in the field of creative direction should have emerged:
Hard work and dedication
Creativity and new ideas
Teamwork and cooperation
Empathy and understanding of colleagues
Listening and immediate response
Boldness and innovation
At the same time, he analyzed the pros and cons of his position, such as responsibilities, communication with interesting people and continuous work, as well as the fact that in a project, the work is his from start to finish.
A Day at Work:
Mr. Sorotou’s program includes a variety of activities, such as group work, brainstorming, dealing with radio, productions, presentations and working with the account and social media department for briefs. At the same time, the work environment is pleasant, with music, lunch breaks and the presence of dogs.
Challenges and Emotional Intelligence:
The advertising industry is constantly changing, and the leader must adapt and communicate this adaptation to his partners. Mr. Sorotos emphasizes the importance of emotional intelligence, with key skills being empathy, understanding and communication. Also, it is necessary to maintain the emotional stability of the team and make everyone feel good about the end result.
Failure Management and Social Responsibility
Managing failure is one of the biggest challenges, as Mr. Sorotos mentions. He trusts his colleagues and encourages them to face failure in their own way. It also emphasizes the social responsibility that comes with advertising, choosing campaigns that align with its ethics and have a positive social impact.
The Future of Leadership and Artificial Intelligence:
Regarding artificial intelligence, Mr. Sorotos does not express concern about the future of leadership. He believes that the human factor, with empathy and understanding of human emotions, will always be one step ahead of artificial intelligence.
Conclusions:
The interview with Yannis Sorotos and our visit to The Newtons Laboratory provided us with valuable insights into the characteristics of a successful leader. Mr. Sorotos is a leader who is not interested in titles, but in teamwork, trust and good communication with his colleagues. He has created a friendly and relaxed workplace where colleagues feel comfortable sharing ideas and asking for advice. This is also the reason why his colleagues respect and admire him.
Our experience of this interview was extremely enlightening, giving us a complete picture of what it means to be a leader in a creative and ever-changing field like advertising.
The MarkArt team
