Being Eros in a Logos world

Grant Leboff: So Thomas, one of the things that really grabbed me from the book is you talked about being Eros. Marketing people mainly being Eros in a Logos world where the C-Suite are mainly motivated from a Logos point of view. Perhaps you can explain that a bit more for the audience?

Thomas Barta: Yes. I mean, we have done a pretty large research for 12 Powers of a Marketing Leader with 68,000 executive assessments in total … and when we looked at the data, the personality data of marketers together with some of the … leadership experts, we found that a lot of the personality traits of marketers reminded us of Eros the god, right because I mean if you think about the description of Eros, Eros was that guy who basically flew around and could hit someone with the arrow right and then they would fall in love with someone else. It is an incredible skill. But Eros as a god was never really seen as part of the bug guys … because he was doing this crazy stuff.

And marketers are sometimes displaying very similar properties or leadership behaviours or personality traits. They are very open. They understand connections. They understand the big picture. They understand what matters. They can feel a brand, many marketers can say “I can feel the market” and then I’m meeting people in finance who say “But how many? Percent? How much? When?” And that’s just a very different world.

It is very important for marketers to realize where you stand on this Eros, which is the more emotional and connected and the Logos, the rational side of things. Which does mean, as a marketer, you would be very, very good at understanding, at feeling brands. That’s a huge power and a skill you have to bring out. But you have to realize that there will be people who just don’t understand this; and you have to find a language to translate, so the people who look for rational arguments get your points. So that’s a translation job as an Eros leader that you have to do to be successful.

Grant Leboff: And what are the keys to bridging that gap, because clearly marketing, if they can have a real influence in the company, need to find a way of doing that. So how does marketing bridge that gap?

Thomas Barta: You have to be proud of what you are and who you are. You have to be proud of the skills that you bring. You have to be proud of your market knowledge, your openness, your ideas. Don’t put them somewhere under the table, because they are not seen as cool. You have to be proud of them and bring them out. But you have to connect very closely with people who are different than you. Don’t avoid them but actually talk to them and see “Do you understand me? Is this clear to me? How can I make this different?” And get advice on how you communicate with people who are fundamentally different.

So rather than avoiding people that are different, you have to reach out to them and see how you can connect and translate.

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