99FM ROYAL HUSTLERS
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The excellence compass
esmond Nikanor claims to be extra… ordinary! His advice for others wanting to live a life of excellence and His peaceful childhood and stable home success is to focus on the inputs. fostered a steady calmness that has made him a In a volatile world, what successful is in your control? Not h u m a n promotion, validation resources or even opportunity. specialist in one of the “Stick to what is in your Senior Manager HR and Strategy, NDTC toughest industries: control,” he says. “Stick to diamonds. being on time. Whatever you do, do it excellently, The Namibia Diamond irrespective of the outside Trading Company (NDTC) environment. Let the collects raw diamonds, output deal with itself. I sorts and values them have found that it always before selling them on does.” for Namibia’s benefit. This highly specialised Even though working with industry requires careful diamonds requires skill management of its and experience, Desmond uniquely skilled human finds it humbling. “What capital. As the HR and makes it most precious,” strategy manager at he says of the diamonds NDTC, Desmond has a they work with, “is that responsibility to uphold a we had nothing to do level of excellence. with it apart from being Namibian.” The NDTC has “The human resources the mandate to manage that you find [at NDTC] the natural resource, are highly specialised and Desmond has the people... They use their mandate to manage the experience, their gifting human resources. “The and their talent to look at NDTC relies on the skills of a diamond and determine those people. That’s really its value,” he tells 99FM the privilege that I have – with pride. “It’s such a to serve in this area.” niche skill, it’s almost like an art.”
Desmond Nikanor
Desmond has had bad leaders and good leaders and managed to learn something from all of them. His motivation and drive are internal. “I have this internal GPS,” he says. “It’s not a map, it is a compass... Very early I started [to discover] my purpose.” More recently, that purpose has come to include a young family. Now, Desmond finds it even easier to pursue excellence. “I am motivated by what it is that I need to do and in doing it excellently, well and diligently.”
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