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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

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Founder and Managing Director - Xplore for Success

To pre-order your copy please email [email protected] 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.

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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.

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Empowering Professionals to Achieve Personal Success

Contact Information

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Empowering Professionals to Achieve Personal Success