Lawyer, Telstra Business Woman of the Year and the first female president of a men's metropolitan football league — two decades of community and corporate leadership
Diana Taylor AM is a lawyer, business owner, company director and author whose career has crossed legal, business, community and sporting worlds for more than two decades. She was the first female president of a men's metropolitan football league, the first woman on the Victorian Football League Tribunal, and the first female Vice President of the Geelong Football Club. She is a Telstra Business Woman of the Year Award winner, and was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in recognition of 25 years of service to Australian rules football and community work. She also established a world-class community-based palliative care centre at Deakin University, Geelong.
Diana's approach to the stage mirrors her approach to leadership: she does not believe in maintaining the status quo. Her sessions — on female leadership, strategic planning, community leadership and sport as a business lens — are built around understanding an audience's real drivers and giving them practical frameworks to act on them. She does not offer comfortable validation; she offers clear guidance and a challenge to aim higher.
Book Diana for events where your audience includes current or aspiring leaders, women in business, or teams working through significant strategic challenges. Testimonials from Fire Rescue Victoria, The Geelong College and the Financial Advice Association of Australia describe her sessions as confident, assertive, inclusive and consistently thought-provoking.
Diana Taylor AM is a keynote speaker based in Victoria who speaks on business strategy, inspiration and leadership. Book through Executive Speakers Australia.
With governments struggling under mounting weight of expectation and the cost-of-living pressures significantly affecting the way we live, there has never been a more important time in our history for strong community leadership. To be successful, community leaders need to be identified and step forward, be given the tools to succeed, to last and then pass their knowledge and skills onto the next generation of leaders. Community leaders have the ability to respond to and direct the power of their communities for good, and to deliver on expectations of community in the areas that make the most difference. As a community leader, Diana acutely understands and guides the audience through what it takes to be a successful community leader, how to prioritise action when there is so much need and how to take key stakeholders, including government, on the journey with the community.
Audiences will learn:
- Why community has become the place where the care for our people is paramount and actions to support this endeavour can succeed
- The difference between the community leader and other types of business and organisational leadership, and the superpower that exists in all community leaders
- What community leaders need to understand about governance, running an organisation and the overlay of integrity and trust in all matters
- The opportunities for community leaders to embrace their purpose, to find their courage and make great decisions and to grow the power of their communities
- Why financial sustainability in community organisations is paramount and how the community leader can achieve this objective.
People and organisations have the ability to achieve extraordinary outcomes. But greatness doesn’t happen by chance, and it is never given as an instant reward. Careful planning, a clearly defined purpose, accountability for actions and a controlled response for events inevitably not going to plan are essential. Diana has supported individuals and organisations for over two decades in high performance sport, business, legal and community environments to lead and plan for the best and hold to the course over the long term. This presentation will support the audience to lead in finding competitive advantage in the planning and execution process to achieve the ultimate success.
Audiences will learn:
- How to master strategic planning to achieve elevated and sustained success
- Why the small things and consistency matter in the execution
- Why people and organisations fail at planning and execution and how to avoid the pitfalls
- How to lead people to embrace their greatness and the planning process
- To develop a greater understanding of why the short-, medium- and long-term planning horizons are all critical to achieving greatness.
The competitive brutality of elite level sport, both on and off the field, carries with it daily lessons for leadership and life. Sport is continuously handing out learnings in multiple areas of leadership including the building of resilience, financial priorities, reputation management, working within and for a team and finding the courage to go the distance. With national, state and community sport administration experience spanning over two decades and within some of Australia’s most loved sports, Diana has been up close and personal with what matters and has led in these environments. Diana shares with the audience the factors that make the difference between success and failure, and how leaders can use the lessons of sport to take themselves and their teams to greater heights.
Audiences will learn:
- Why sport is one of Australia’s greatest change agents and why sport captures hearts and minds
- How to use the sporting experience to find the core leadership elements that matter most, and successfully deliver on those elements
- How to use sport and its triumphs to shape the direction of the people in an organisation and what matters to them most
- The real opportunity to use sport to find the good in everything we do and to capitalise on facets of sport that allow us to achieve greatness
- Why sport and its health benefits should be embraced by all leaders to excel in their own arenas.
Gender matters, and women in leadership roles or aspiring to leadership should be given every opportunity to succeed. There is a playbook that every current and aspiring female leader needs to understand to build their skills, read the room, develop their talent and character, develop their networks and refine their grit. Diana guides the audience through each of these critical elements by placing no ceiling on what is possible, and on refining the art of never giving up even in the most challenging of circumstances. Leadership does not hold the hand of the status quo. Leadership demands far more, and this presentation goes to the heart of what every female leader, and those who support them, need to know for sustained success.
Audiences will learn:
- Why female leaders and aspiring leaders should be supported and the ways this can be achieved
- How to build talent, character and leadership capability and stand out in crowded marketplaces
- Techniques for leadership presentation, communication and managing the art of perception
- How to build networks and open up multiple portfolio opportunities for advancement
- The key elements of building and sustaining resilience and grit under pressure
Diana has a confident, assertive and inclusive speaking style when presenting to senior operational and corporate leaders and has the ability to read the room and make adjustments in the moment to engage with participants and to enable input and full participation.Fire Rescue Victoria
Diana speaks from the heart and is an inspiring and engaging speaker. Her core beliefs, experience, and values cross over into business, not-for-profits, and the sporting community. She leaves you with a sense of empowerment.The Geelong College
Diana is inspiring and authentic in her storytelling. She shared the highs and the lows of her professional journey, and highlighted that although each individual's story may differ, we all have the opportunity find success with the right supports, people and foundations in place.The Female Athlete Network
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