Ted Lasso on Leadership, Negotiation, and Dealing with Conflict Lesson 2: Winning AFC Richmond over – the Power of Pathos

By Joshua N. Weiss, Ph.D.

From the very beginning of the show Ted faced a daunting challenge – how to win over his boss, the staff of AFC Richmond, but most importantly the team.?To understand how Ted did this I am going to share a framework that was written in 350 B.C.E. by Aristotle in his book Rhetoric.?He discusses three means of persuasion, Ethos, Pathos and Logos.?Ted had to overcome the first one and primarily used the second one to connect with everyone and win them over. Only later did the third one come into play. Here is how.

Ethos is the trustworthiness and credibility we have (or don’t have).?Why should people listen to us as an authority on a subject?? In many cases, when we have Ethos, we are the best messenger, but when we don’t that can create problems.?Ted faced this from the beginning. The players, more than anyone else, were very skeptical of Ted given his background and lack of knowledge about soccer (AKA Futbol). And rightly so. Ted barely understood the game and could not speak the jargon associated with it. So he had that working against him with the team and with Rebecca Welton, his boss. In fact, Rebecca hired him because he lacked Ethos -- he had no experience and she had the hope and expectation that he would fail miserably. So why didn’t he??

Enter Pathos. Pathos is the emotional connection someone creates with others. This, frankly, was Ted’s superpower. He was masterful in building relationships through stories that landed emotionally, being humble, and using his lack of knowledge of soccer as a strength – getting the team around him to fill that gap. What Ted did know how to do was to lead a team, as he did in the US with the college football team he coached. The aspects of coalescing a group, getting them to work together, and getting them to believe in themselves was what he knew how to do. And he did it so very well.?

There was also the added obstacle of the many different cultures represented on the team. While this was often the butt of many jokes in the show, it was also a challenge for Ted. Working cross culturally can be a significant problem if done poorly. However, and fortunately for Ted, stories (a tool rooted in Pathos) are universal and cut across cultures in a helpful manner. While some of the players did not always perfectly understand the meaning of the stories, they grasped enough to comprehend what Ted was trying to tell them (recall the Dutch player Jan Mass and his tendency to take everything literally – something the other players picked up on and eventually explained the point of Ted’s story).

Finally, Ted brought in Logos at a later phase in the process. Logos in this instance was the nuts and bolts of strategy and winning. He left Logos based arguments to Coach Beard, then later to Nate, and finally when he brought Roy on board. Make no mistake, if AFC Richmond did not eventually have success on the pitch (AKA field) none of this would have mattered. But Ted could not lead with Logos in order to persuade people to follow him. He had to begin with Pathos to overcome his Ethos challenges, which in turn enabled him to focus on Logos.

So, as a leader or negotiator, the valuable lesson is to examine these three means of persuasion and determine if they are a help or a hindrance.?If a hindrance, think about how to manage that by putting together a team with different skills and ability.?If a help, that should point to where you want to focus and emphasize your persuasion efforts. ???????

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