David Nyeste

Learn from the Best  Over the years I have been able to contribute to numerous projects in various roles. Some of them were large ones with international teams and dozens of consultants working around the globe. Some were small in scope, short in timeline, or regionally focused. Some I have overseen and delivered with client staff only. A few were gigantic, long running transformations of entire corporate structures and cultures. Regardless of the set up of any project there are a few crucial ingredients that need to be incorporated into the project set up and execution to enable success. Projects lacking these vital ingredients will lag behind deadlines, miss budget targets and in the worst of cases fail to achieve their desired results. I don't necessarily consider myself one of 'the best'. However I certainly had the opportunity to gather rich experience by witnessing leadership excellence at its best over many years in different environments and situations. Here's m...

The fairy tale of excess capacity In consulting it is fashionable, sometimes even mandatory to work hard and to work excessive hours. Of course when it comes to formal documentation of the hours worked everybody is 100% compliant with German labour laws...'of course'. However the 'informal reality' often gives a different impression. The notion that anyone is capable of working more than ten hours highly concentrated on a daily basis over several days or weeks time by pure willpower is something I always considered suspicious to say the least. I witnessed a decent count of occasions of late work and night shifts, where a team had to hit a deadline for a proposal or some documents for workshops or a steering committee and so on. On these occasions I noticed two different types of colleagues: the ones that were staring holes into their laptop screens while typing and clicking away on their computers frantically and the ones that were not. You guessed it: 4 out of 5 of the...

Focus on Impact You might know this 'law of the vital few' under one of its synonyms: the 80-20 rule, pareto efficiency, the rule of diminishing returns, to name a few. There's a wide range of matters where this rule can be applied successfully and some others, where it cannot. In this post I will build a strong case why you should apply this rule in your everyday work life and how to best leverage it on some of the most vital aspects of life. Theory Basics According to the 80-20 rule 80% of outcome is caused by 20% of input. For instance this could be applied in sales as to a company that makes 80% of profit with 20% of its customers, or a carpenter that uses 20% of his toolset for 80% of the work, or that most people spend 80% of their total time consumed by their smartphone on 20% of the apps and so on, 80% of global CO2 emissions are caused by 20% of the nations worldwide (probably even significantly less). One significant fact to note is that this rule is indifferent t...

"Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection.", Mark Twain The Mindset Feedback is all about your Kaizen and not anyone or anything else. It starts with you asking for it and it perpetuates with you extracting value out of it and eventually adapting your behaviour accordingly. However it doesn't end there. Imagine the impression of junior staff when asked for their feedback on senior staff! You have to be a fan of 360-feedback. Think in value added instead of hierarchy and rank.  Don't expect feedback from others as a given and don't try to force feedback on anyone without having been asked for it. Not all people like to give feedback, let alone receive it. Any form of feedback requires a strong urge towards improvement as well as an open mind. Without either of those any feedback will be rendered futile. In order to progress in life and to improve professionally the assessments and perspectives of others can not be overvalued. Proactively asking for ...

Negotiation Strategy Basics Before engaging in any negotiations you should set up some rules and guidelines for how you plan to approach the situation. Let me elaborate on some basic principles of negotiation and focus on some specific strategies that I was able to apply effectively on multiple occasions. I was able to negotiate multiple work contracts that were mutually satisfying and I was always happy to sign each one of them. Most importantly however: looking back at all the deals I am still happy with each one of my decisions. I accredit this fact to successful negotiations. Principle I The Invariant of Negotiations: Foster Relationships All negotiations should lead to better relationships between the parties. Your paramount objective ought to be to enjoy the debate and to learn something, regardless if a deal is cut or not. Remember you all have a mutual interest and both parties will do their best to find common ground. Hence your focus should not be on convincing your counterpa...

Meetings are the Mirror of the Soul of an Organization  The way meetings are held in a company tells a lot about the corporation's culture and its values. Most large or medium sized companies have some kind of formal values they are committed to and a mission statement, that clarifies the purpose of the organization. However it is in everyday work life only that one will truly experience how much an organization and its members live up to these values and how purposeful they act upon their vision and mission on a daily basis. When I set up and invite to meetings, I like to provide the participants with three basic elements in advance: 1. The purpose of the meeting (Why are we meeting? Why are you invited?) 2. The outcome and participants' expected input (What will be different after the meeting? What is expected/required that you bring to the table?) 3. Some basic agenda, if applicable. (Plan of time and topics) Though most do, not all my meetings have a formal agenda. That is...

The Image of Leadership Whenever I think of the vital aspects of leadership I think of a cartoon sheep with a red tie: the Leadersheep (google it!). Words like values, vision, mission, purpose and all those ingredients flare up in my mind. I think of principles, role models, charismatic people and of Barack Obama. In fact 'What would Obama do?' is a question I sometimes ask myself - first off he would start a sentence and then in the middle pause for a minute. Only when we have to put leadership into action do we realize the first hurdle: communication. For instance change management, admittedly one of the more challenging fields of leadership, is virtually all about the right communication strategy. Mindset of an Agile Leader To be an agile leader you have to be prepared to improve on a daily basis. Take every opportunity and everyone you encounter - every client, colleague, mentor, memo, every email, every pitch, every conversation, status meeting, project kick-off, and so on...

God, Grant  Me This is a meme -read the following headers- I see very often these days. I have to remind myself of its validity from time to time. Even though I am not a religious guy, I believe there's a higher force that is present in all matter and in all life. Thus I am going to refer to this higher force as 'God', even though I don't think there is some devine entity that steers the fate of all things and living creatures. Alright, let's not get too philosophical here. Let's start with a lesson I've learned in my early years and that I like to challenge every once in a while: The Strength  to Accept the Things I Cannot Change People usually learn this lesson the hard way in school. I gained the impression -actually still valid to this day- that the German school system is majorly flawed in its concept, that it is the mission of education to make young people memorize knowledge instead of understanding concepts. I still have those in/famous rhetorical qu...

Winning is great, not losing is greater Professional traders on the stock exchange close multiple deals each day. When they close a deal they have certain expectations of how much risk and how much profit is implicated in the deal. One common way to limit the risk is to set a 'stop loss'. Let's assume a trader buys oil for 50$ a barrel and hopes to sell it later for 55$. He will sell  as soon as the price has reached 55$  and take the profit. At the same time he will hedge against failure and set a 'stop loss' limit, in case the price should dip below 48$. At this point he will sell for 48$ with a loss of 2$. This way he is able to exit the deal at a predefined point and avoid any further loss. Master Class MFR The minimum feasible requirement (MFR) works the same way. The point is to define absolute limits prior to negotiations which you will not break under any circumstances. I usually go with a set of three items: fixed annual salary, days of vacation, ability to...

Prepare For Impact Prior to the actual negotiation, you ought to be clear on three things: 1. Your Maximum Plausible Demands (MPD) 2. Your Minimal Feasible Requirements (MFR) 3. Your concessions strategy All three aspects will determine the success of the negotiations. They can make all the difference between you coming out of the negotiations beaming while hovering above the ground or like a beaten dog carrying your head under your shoulder. It is key to be specific and as precise as possible on all three of them. The more you are aware of what you want and what you don't, as well as what you are willing to sacrifice, the more you'll be able to make an impact at the negotiation table and to achieve your goals. For now I will focus on the first: Maximum Plausible Demand - MPD In a job interview, whether with a headhunter or with some staff member of your potential employer it is likely they will ask you for your desired salary or to share information on your current salary. Be ...

Understand Your Customer's Desire A generally underrated part of successful negotiations is knowing your potential customer's desire. You've clarified your own desires in the previous step. Now it is equally important to find out what your customer longs for. There is a big difference between what your customer 'needs' and what your customer 'desires'. Desire is more powerful. Appealing to a need will satisfy your customer. Appealing to a desire will excite and delight your customer. Always keep in mind: Desire is the fabric of which dreams are made of. When Apple marketed its first iPods, how did they do it?  Did they use the standard 'Super-awesome MP3-player'-pitch of their competitors? Of course not.  They came up with something simple and brilliant: They invented the slogan '1000 songs in your pocket'. BAM! The rest is history. Understanding your customer's desire makes all the difference. Answering the question, what desire you inte...

Know Thyself (Sokrates) Breaking news: You're in a marathon, not a sprint. Therefore the first step towards successful salary negotiations is a clarification process: you need to be very clear on your desires. Which values are important to you? How do these translate into your expectations on your potential occupation? Where do you see yourself in 5, 10, 20 years from now? Ask yourself this first: What do you really really want from life and who do you want to be? And by 'want', I mean the thing you are burning for so much, that you are willing to make sacrifices for it. Do you want to learn and become an expert in a specific field? Do you prefer to work in a dynamic and rapidly changing or in a well predictable environment? Do you rather want to work with a certain type of people e.g.  with creative, analytical or highly energetic colleagues? Do you prefer to work  in a certain environment, e.g. in an international, globally distributed team? Bonus task:  Also be very cl...

The Default State of Society The other day I read a post on my company's intranet that stuck with me and made me think. I'll try to give it in my own words: A teacher entered the class room and started to write equations on the board. 1x9 = 9 2x9=18 3x9=27 The class watched and there was only the usual murmur while the teacher proceeded. 4x9=36 5x9=45 6x9=54 7x9=63 8x9=72 9x9=81 10x9=91 On finishing the teacher turned to the class and noticed some murmurs and giggles. He paused for a moment and the giggles increased. Some pupils started to laugh and after a while others joined in until a majority of pupils found amusement in the teacher's mistake and joined the laughter. After a while, when the laughter dampened down, the teacher said: "I made this mistake on purpose in order to demonstrate a point. I wrote ten equations on the board, of which nine were absolutely correct. Most of you however decided to focus on the one equation that was false. None of you gave me any ...

DISCLAIMER I am not making this public to brag or to make anyone feel bad or jealous. Negotiating my salary is just one of many habits I applied over the past decade regularly, so I acquired some experience in what worked and what didn't. Depending on the context, this experience may or may not benefit others. I regard the consequential increase of my salary rather a side effect of my actual overarching self improvement strategy, than the result of merely smart ninja-negotiation tactics. My foremost desire was -and still is- to become the best possible version of myself. But that itself is a topic for another post.  In this series of posts I will share some details of my salary, its development over time and some further specifics that I hold necessary to demonstrate my point. So in case you should feel offended, jealous or bad in any way about gaining insight on that kind of information, this is your opportunity to exit this post here and now and to skip to the next one right away...

The Vehicle This simple model may help you to lay out your strategy for the development of your skills, your personality and ultimately a large part of your identity, that will be influenced and defined by your work. Over many years I have developed a model for work that generally resembles a generic type of vehicle that will take you from A to B. Anybody is free to pick their own type of vehicle according to their personal preferences and thus embark on their individual journey. Basic Idea The basic idea behind the model: Different types of vehicles with different kinds of implications make up the unique work experience of the individual. Whether you would rather focus on the journey itself or rather on achieving certain goals, you can make your choice accordingly. For instance there is the hot air balloon,  which could represent the work within a large corporation. With minimal attendance it moves slowly and comfortably -pretty much on autopilot all the time- and is only mildly s...