Managing Your Volcano Warning Signals (with Nima Fotovat)

Messy Leadership Host Christi Scarrow and guest Nima Fotovat (President and Co-Founder of Riverside Natural Foods) discuss effective leadership styles and approaches, emphasizing the need to balance holding people accountable, while also providing support and engagement. Christi and Nima highlight the distinction between reacting and responding in a leadership role, and share their journey of learning to balance these aspects.

Action Items

• Continue working on self-awareness to recognize instinctual reactions versus considered responses.
• Practice techniques like noticing "early volcano signals" of impending reactions and pausing to breathe before responding.
• Lead by example in personal growth and change to potentially inspire similar curiosity in others.
• When providing feedback, use the SBI (Situation, Behavior, Impact) model to deliver messages in a well-received way.
• Focus on the “Why?” to get to the “How?”

Outline

Leadership lessons and managing people with a focus on accountability and finding the right balance.

• Nima shares an important lesson learned early in his career: managing people requires a softer, gentler approach, but also accountability.
• Nima acknowledges that an approach of being forceful and demanding did not lead to improved performance, but rather created frustration and a lack of accountability.
• Nima describes his leadership journey as a pendulum of firmness and softness, striving for balance between accountability and support.
• Nima emphasizes the importance of self-awareness in recognizing and managing the pendulum swing in leadership.

Leadership challenges and self-awareness.

• Nima shares personal struggle with finding balance between being too critical and not providing enough feedback.
• He reflects on his first nature and how it impacts his leadership, recognizing it as a deeply ingrained defense mechanism.
• Nima emphasizes the importance of leading by example in inspiring desire for growth and curiosity.
• Nima believes that seeing the positive and negative consequences of change can motivate individuals to put effort into personal growth.

Leadership, motivation, and emotional intelligence.

• Nima emphasizes personal motivation and shared experiences as keys to inspiring others.
• He acknowledges the struggle to avoid reacting impulsively, seeking to respond thoughtfully instead.
• Nima seeks to cultivate mindfulness and self-awareness to improve decision-making.

Leadership, managing vs influencing, and the importance of understanding why.

• Christi discusses the importance of recognizing and managing one's physical reactions, as they can impact leadership and relationships.
• Nima emphasizes the responsibility of managing people, as their choices can have a trickle-down effect on careers and lives.
• He advises against taking on management responsibilities without proper mentorship and resources.
• Nima emphasizes the importance of aligning on the "Why?" before focusing on the "How?" and "What?"

Useful Links

Host: Christi's Web Page

Guest: Riverside Natural Foods

Contributors

Music: All The Fixings by Zachariah Hickman

Editing: tribe74

Keywords

people, work, nature, managing, leadership, self awareness, desire, question, react, influence, messy, feedback, starting, respond, pendulum, feel, early, leader, accountability, mindfulness