Media Kit - Xplore for Success

Media Kit
Empowering Professionals to
Achieve Personal Success
www.xplore.net.au/unexpected-women.htm
Unexpected Women
by Diana Ryall AM
Why ‘Unexpected’ Women
‘Unexpected Women’ is about women who have followed paths into areas
in which females are not in great numbers. These women demonstrate
that different paths provide challenging and interesting careers and with
resilience and drive we can achieve our own goals.
It is important to realise that our goals lead each of us on an individual path
for personal growth. We have different natural strengths and these strengths
need to be honed and supported to lead us to achieve our potential. Using
your strengths in what you do will provide personal satisfaction and lead to
strong feelings of happiness.
We are pleased to be able to share with you these stories of women that
have forged successful careers in areas that are not typically female oriented.
These women have shown great determination and perseverance to follow
their career path and have a really inspiring story to tell.
We hope you will enjoy reading these stories and that they will provide
some motivation to you when you find it difficult to see how you are going to
navigate through the obstacles you face.
Diana Ryall AM
About Diana Ryall AM
Pre-Order your copy
Founder and Managing Director
- Xplore for Success
To pre-order your copy
please email
unexpectedwomen@xplore.net.au
or visit
www.xplore.net.au/unexpected-women/order.htm
A well known mentor
for women and a
vocal supporter
of increasing the
number of women in
senior management.
www.xplore.net.au
Empowering Professionals to Achieve Personal Success
Extracts from 'Unexpected Women' ....
Nicole Longley
Janine Shepherd
Lieutenant Colonel
Pilot and Aerobatics Instructor
Nicole has been all
over the country with
her job and had some
amazing experiences.
She is proud that she
achieved the rank of
Lieutenant
Colonel
which means that
she has equaled her
father’s rank. Nicole
believes that over the years that she has been
in the army things have got better for women,
and the fact that she has achieved so much is a
testament to that. The problem that she has found
is that some people make assumptions about
you that are not true, especially as a woman – for
example, some people think that because Nicole
has children that she doesn’t want to be in a role
where she would be deployed, this is an untrue
assumption to make. So Nicole always makes sure
that the right people know what she wants in her
career and therefore no wrong assumptions can
be made that could be a barrier to her success.
One
day
whilst
watching a plane fly
overhead, Janine had a
thought “if I can’t walk,
then I’ll fly!” She had a
dream, a goal to work
towards and straight
away booked herself
in for flying lessons. On
her first lesson, still in a
full body cast and unable to use the foot pedals,
Janine felt an incredible sense of freedom as the
plane took off from the tarmac.
Fiona de Jong
Yassmin Abdel-Magied
Director of Sport at the Australian
Olympic Committee (AOC)
Youth Without Borders
Fiona considers her
career highlight to
be when she walked
into a stadium at the
opening ceremony of
the Games with the
Australian
Olympic
Team. “It’s a really
rewarding
moment
where you feel a
sense of achievement of getting the team to the
Games, and whatever happens from this point is
largely up to them”. Many would say that Fiona
now has a dream job and she would largely
agree but she never underestimates what it took
to get her there. Fiona had felt trapped by her
own judgments that she couldn’t change her
path after investing time and money in her legal
career. However, she realised that her skillset
could be applied to a different industry and not
just those that seem ‘conventional’.
With her goal firmly in sight Janine once again
tackled the hills, practicing walking around
the house. “Something inside that burned
far outweighed my injuries”. She made great
progression and was soon in possession of her
pilot’s license. Nothing could stop Janine now.
In just under 18 months after leaving the spinal
ward, she was teaching others how to fly!
Although every day is
still a learning process
for Yassmin, she says
that being confident in
her ability to overcome
challenges and having a
good support network
has been the key to her
success. Valuing your
supporters be they
family, friends or colleagues and involving them
in your story is something to be cherished.
Also believing that you are not the first to do
something helps you to seek out the support and
experience that you need to succeed. Yassmin is
proud that the organisation is going from strength
to strength even without her involvement 24/7.
To be empowering other young people after all,
was her goal from the beginning.
Why ‘Unexpected Women’
This book is dedicated to young women everywhere.
It brings to life sixteen of the broad range of careers
available to women in Australia today. Too often we limit
our own career dreams to areas where women have been
seen to flourish in the past and sometimes we may limit
the dreams of others, when we should encourage those
around us to aspire and achieve their full potential.
Over the last fifty years, many women have charted new
paths in terms of their careers and have taken on roles
that previously would have been beyond the wildest
possibilities of those born half a century before. For
Australia to be a successful country in the future we need
to continue to encourage our young women to fly!
Today, many women find themselves being the only
woman in a new area, but they must be encouraged to
tread the path that will allow young women of the future
to venture forth with more confidence into those areas
where few women have as yet succeeded. Indeed, they
must be encouraged to pursue careers in areas that are
still without women.
Australia has a proud history of educating young women and giving them the legal rights to work and be paid
equally. However, so much of our female talent remains unused and under-rewarded and many women do
not gain the satisfaction of using their talents and education to achieve great things. In this respect, their
employers also lose out. And so does the nation.
The women in this book have shown courage, determination and have taken the risks to achieve their dreams.
They share their stories openly with you in the hope that you will gain confidence from their successes. You
cannot achieve your full career potential if you don’t challenge yourself to go for it.
My intention is that you will take courage from their stories to achieve your dreams.
Diana Ryall – Founder and Managing Director of Xplore for Success and Former MD of Apple Australia. Please
refer to ‘About the Author’ for further credentials and details.
www.xplore.net.au
Empowering Professionals to Achieve Personal Success
Author Bio
Diana Ryall AM
Diana Ryall AM was Managing Director at Apple Australia from
1997 to 2001. While holding this position, the company was
recognised by Hewitt Associates as “Employer of the Year”. In
2002, Diana founded the company “Xplore for Success” which
offers services to organisations to support professionals to
achieve personal success. The Xplore programs have challenged
over 6000 women and men in organisations such as American
Express, CBA, Deloitte, Dept. of Commerce, Centrelink, GHD,
Luxottica, KPMG, NAB and Suncorp.
From 2005 to 2008, Diana led the Chief Executive Women’s
(CEW) Talent Development Program providing senior women
with further skills in their career development. From 2006 to
2009, Diana was the Vice President of CEW and was one of
the authors of the CEO Kit, which provides pragmatic ways to
measure gender diversity initiatives.
Diana was part of the judging panel of the Australian Best
Employers program run by Hewitt Associates, sat on the panel
for Deloitte’s Businesswomen of the year awards and was on the Diversity Council for Commonwealth Bank
of Australia.
Diana is the Deputy Chair of the Board of Dress for Success Sydney and an Ambassador for Good Return. Dress
for Success is part of a global charity, with headquarters in New York, of over 110 affiliates, which supports
disadvantaged women in their quest for self-sufficiency. Good Return is an Australian charity investing in
Asian communities through training, loans and support of entrepreneurial women. She is also involved with
young entrepreneurs in Australia.
On January 26, 2010 she became a Member of the Order of Australia, AM. This award was given on the basis
of her work with Apple in the Education community, her support of women through Xplore for Success and
her charity work with the National Breast Cancer Foundation and Dress for Success Sydney.
www.xplore.net.au
Empowering Professionals to Achieve Personal Success
Contact Information
Contact:
Ozlem Beldan
unexpectedwomen@xplore.net.au
Order Page:
www.xplore.net.au/unexpected-women.htm
Website:
www.xplore.net.au
www.xplore.net.au
Empowering Professionals to Achieve Personal Success