Full Testimonials

Diana’s Executive Presence programme is quite profound. I really challenged my thinking about myself and what is really important in being a leader. One of my biggest realisations was that all leaders experience self-doubt – what is important is to recognise this, deal with it, and not get hung up on it as a weakness.

Diana is great at delivering the programme – she challenges, confronts at times, and really pushes you outside of your comfort zone. But all in a constructive and empathetic way – it really is a great way to learn

Diana’s insight, persuasion and tenacity have been instrumental in helping my leadership team reflect on the best they bring to the table, and also where we individually and collectively could have more impact, and more positive impact.

She is a thoughtful person who knows what she’s doing, and doesn’t let you get away with the easy answers, or dodging the issue. She brings passion and humour to the table, and has been really great to work with.

My goal was to improve my impact and influence with our leadership team and I have seen the results already. A recent presentation I gave to both SLT and our Board was really well received. Completely unsolicited, one of the members said afterwards ‘that is the most impactful I have ever seen you.

Diana isn’t an off the shelf advisor. Her approach is perceptive and sometimes uncomfortable; this is because we work with the real issues that create progress. She facilitates in a way that we as leaders are confronted by ourselves – it is up to us.

Diana’s unique and highly participative approach assisted us to easily address, then resolve long-time issues creating great progress.

I recommend Diana to people who are looking to cement themselves into a leadership role or where they are about to take the next step into a leadership role. Diana has the ability to span across all of the different values, attributes and key result areas that any leader needs and she drills down into each of them quickly and easily to find different gems that will help each person.

As a result of Executive Presence the focus I bring to meetings has improved. Meetings are now a lot shorter and sharper because I’m clearer on my purpose. My general interactions at meetings have changed a lot – I listen well but only ask key and concise questions. I am actively running the meeting rather than merely chairing. Executive Presence taught me how to bring myself to a meeting and to any situation. I now take on leadership from the moment I walk in the door to the moment I leave. Another tangible thing I’ve put into practice is the amount of planning I now do. I’m quite a planner anyway but now I’m planning my approach rather than planning the content. That’s been quite a marked change.

Diana very quickly disarms you and strips away any hesitation, shyness and unwillingness; with her relaxed and honest approach. She doesn’t beat around the bush and she’s got a structured way to get people to reveal more of themselves than they usually would.

Diana’s a lot of fun. She provides a lot of practical help. She makes learning humorous. She knows what she’s talking about and I found working with her enjoyable.I liked the way she structured our learning experience – she stripped away the old stuff and started rebuilding the new stuff and we didn’t even notice she was doing it. She ran dramatisations that we all acted out with worst case scenarios, the things we were most afraid of in our professional life – these were both hilarious and practically useful.

The kind of people Diana attracts to her courses is a feature of her work. Because of her good reputation she attracts a really good range of people and sharing experiences with such different people adds to your tool set. That’s a tribute to her reputation. I learned a lot from the people that where on my course as well as Diana. Three or four of us have stayed in touch. That’s remarkable really.

I recommend Diana to work with teams to unlock current mindsets to gain insight about their own behaviours and then act together for greater influence and impact and embrace change.

Diana excels when working with teams and enables them to notice their dynamics and patterns so they can make changes to become more connected and impactful. She is energetic, positive, very clear and focused on the results that managers and teams want to achieve.

One thing that stands our for me with Diana is her personal coaching skills and observations about my behaviour and blindspots, then helping me work through this with a great balance of challenge and support.

I endorse Diana as an executive coach to provide focused one-on-one coaching for senior managers and leadership development. One thing that stands out in my mind about the work that Diana did for me was the way she challenged my work style and how I present myself. Diana made me be brutally honest in seeing myself from different perspectives, and how I might be viewed by others, and then helped me bring about the change I needed.

Diana is an excellent judge of character, is very good at assessing people, particularly their strengths and weaknesses. Once the assessment is made and understood, Diana offers tips and advice on how to successfully interrelate with other people and gets to the heart of what needs to change, with support and encouragement. Diana’s methods of working are of great value; especially in role playing and taking an inward look at one’s self.

Diana is efficient and direct. She listens and takes time to assess. She is very focused and good at breaking down complex issues into simple human behaviours. I have enjoyed working with Diana and her advice has been very useful in my tackling challenging staff issues

I recommend Diana for senior and leadership development skills as well as coaching and mentoring of managers in their existing roles or preparing for more senior roles.

Diana assisted me to get really crisp with my CV around my past experience and match that up to the requirements for a potential new role.

Diana is insightful as to what’s needed to focus on in a particular situation, what’s required in an interview when applying for a particular role and is extremely good at challenging you to market one’s self well at an interview. I have made use of the tools, techniques and insights I learned from Diana as well as using these when coaching other managers.

Diana is good to work with. She is energised, focused, has a sense of humour and knows her stuff.

I recommend Diana, for training in any situation where you need to present oneself persuasively and in the most effective manner that you can. Diana has made me feel much more confident and able in presenting myself and my ideas, and be more effective in influencing the outcome for the benefit of both my clients and myself.

Her strength for me is in making me feel comfortable in the training situation, particularly when she is challenging me on the spot. She has helped me grow and develop much faster than I would have otherwise, by putting the spotlight on the way I communicate and look to others in meetings. She also has the skill of working out quickly what I find challenging. She has helped me learn what I find challenging about specific events and how to deal with these.

Diana is very easy to work wtih. She has challenged me to grow and develop in the space I work, and also at those times when I need to be more effective in my interactions.

I would recommend Diana for interview preparation, the Executive Presence course, as well as coaching for self awareness, relationships, one on one coaching and with senior teams.

Diana’s coaching for interview preparation was better than I had ever experienced. She has a very interactive approach, instilling confidence and self awareness quietening the negative voice within and turning it into a positive one.I found it especially enlightening as to how others would perceive me in an interview situation. Diana captured my learning journey using tape and video recording, which helped me to consolidate my learning and transition from Group Manager to Deputy Chief Executive.

Diana is a very astute reader of people and helps them to understand themselves by building self awareness. She is very approachable and non- threatening but challenged me to stretch myself to achieve my best. I am now more deliberate, more thoughtful and more self aware. I consider the situation and behave in an appropriate way.I think about how people see and experience me.

I recommend Diana for mentoring and coaching in preparation for senior executive roles. Diana’s genuine interest and support, along with her wisdom, after the ‘commercial deal’ was completed stands out in my mind.

Diana had an excellent appreciation of the environment I was moving into and was able to apply it with an approach that was professional, pragmatic, practical and knowledgeable. Diana is easy to work with, quick to build a rapport, resulting in valuable outcomes.

I worked with Diana as an executive coach and recommend her to others in this role. Together we developed an understanding of the heart of my next leadership challenge and then worked together on ways to get there. Diana has an insightful approach and is able to quickly identify the leadership challenge for the individual. She then has the back bone to follow through and get me work on things that will grow my leadership capability.

Diana is a combination of challenging and fun; working on the hard stuff and having fun. I now enjoy the process of growing and developing. She brings a huge depth of practical experience in developing leaders. She doesn’t roll out a management speak formula. Diana’s executive coaching is built of a robust depth of knowledge and practical real life examples..

Diana has shifted my thinking in the way I relate to staff and peers. I now have a much broader influencing tool box that has made me a more authentic and influential leader. She has taught me how to relax and stay in the moment, to listen and enquire more so that people working with me take greater ownership of the results we are all seeking.

I have recommended Diana’s Executive Presence programme to many senior executives and will continue to do so. Diana is an excellent leader and facilitator of this course. Diana has the ability to address and discuss the root causes of behaviours as opposed to the symptoms. Diana doesn’t back away from the hard teaching point she seeks to pass on. She cuts to the chase in the first powerful session – this is a gutsy thing to do and meant we achieved the goals we had set.

I’m more confident with my leadership and more conscious of my impact on others when stressed. I have applied many of the techniques and tools and used these to help coach others as well.

Diana connects well with people, is easy to work with and is organised, friendly and efficient. She is not afraid to say it as it is while giving the encouragement and support necessary to achieve the outcome needed.

The Executive Presence programme has had the most positive impact of any training I have done and strongly recommend it to others.

When coaching senior managers of new teams, Diana has the ability to fully understand the leadership and team building issues that need to be addressed to lift performance. She makes a point of understanding the context the team is operating in and discusses different approaches for managers to utilise in their team interactions and one-on-one sessions with their team members.

Diana has the expertise to understand what managers need to support team building and she uses a variety of techniques to remove barriers and coach teams on how to become more effective in their interactions. Diana facilitates programmes such as Executive Presence, where senior leaders are shown how to attain a better understanding of their impact on others. By participating in the interactive sessions, there is an immediate response on how effective making changes can be.

To support leaders when improving their performance during one-on-one coaching, Diana is prepared to have the courageous conversations that others may shy away from. In these sessions she uses a variety of behaviours descriptors to help move from one approach to more effective interactions. I frequently reflect on the tools and techniques discussed and practised with Diana and how utilising them has improved my impact on the people I work with.

Diana wants you to succeed and demonstrates this by being friendly, open in her discussions with you, organised and accessible when you interact with her.

I recommend people hire Diana for facilitation of strategic planning workshops, team building for difficult or problem teams, senior and executive coaching, workshops and coaching around relationships, networks, and building effective partnerships. The thing that stands out in my mind about the work Diana has done for me is that she is incredibly insightful and perceptive of the dynamics within a group and the drivers of individuals. She excels with her ability to pick out what’s important for a group. The ability to pick out and confront issues without negative impact. She is very fluid working with a group and has a unique ability to adjust and modify where that group is at without being driven by an agenda or being overly structured. I have worked with Diana over a number of years. She is very easy to work with, collaborative in jointly creating a process and modifying outcomes. She is perceptive to feedback and suggestions and contributes with a ‘value add’ in the planning stages.