Her Story
About Diana
I've been in consulting for about 10 years or more, focusing on leadership consulting and management consulting. My approach is all about making sure that leaders invest as much in their staff and in their training as they should, because if you invest more in your staff, they're more likely to stay and hone in on their expertise and make the company more profitable. I also serve as an adjunct instructor at SMHU, where I help working adults along with their academic journey. My students are mainly working adults, and I make sure they know that they're never too old to accomplish their goals. What inspired me to go into consulting was recognizing that human resources works for the organization, but there are times when the organization has to work more for the employees than they do for continuing business as usual. If employees don't feel psychologically safe or emotionally safe where they are, it's HR's opportunity to recommend to the organization where they're going wrong and where they're going to see the most turnaround. I've been in organizations where there was a lot of turnaround, and I saw a little bit of a void there - people working for the company and not really expanding themselves to work for the people that make the organization great. Working independently as a consultant gives me a bird's eye view, a neutral view, of what I can suggest to organizations in order to keep the best people there or attract the best people so that they can stay a long time.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Diana
01What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Don't take your eyes off of your goals, because you will have a lot of people that will tell you, well, you should just go back to work. In your first couple of years, you're going to have to work in order to finance your business, and that's fine, that's okay. But don't keep your eyes off your goal - continue to make plans for your goals. Continue to say, you know what, this is a great idea, and just have a mental file cabinet, or put ideas in your computer for later use. Because that's going to be the foundation of your business once you get it started and once you're in a position where you can say, I'm going to launch this at the beginning of next year. So continue to focus. Don't get sidetracked, because it's very easy, especially in adverse situations and adverse climates. Never lose focus. You always have to advocate for yourself, because my mother always said don't tell everyone your ideas. You limit what you say, because in front of you, people are praying for your success, and behind your back, they're lighting a candle for your failure. And especially for women, because it's very difficult in this climate right now, just stay focused, stay super focused. And if you have an opportunity to join something that will give you the ultimate networking experience, take it. If there's a webinar or a seminar that you can go to, get yourself a QR code, or get yourself some cards that you can hand out, and just network. Because a lot of times, those networks are what starts and makes a business successful. The most successful people have gone broke many times before they said, you know what, this time it's going to be different because I'm going to learn from all the mistakes I made previously. So while you don't want to go broke many times before you make it, you just want to pick up tidbits and pieces of information and tidbits of knowledge everywhere you go - not to do this, but do this. Instead of doing it this way, why don't you try this avenue?
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