Global Perspectives, Innovative Thinking, Inspiring Keynotes
Daniella Levitt’s passion is empowering transformational change. She can’t help but wonder if it had something to do with growing up in South Africa and experiencing the terrible institution of apartheid, as well as the amazing journey of dismantling apartheid. Talk about living through real transformational change. It doesn’t get bigger or more complicated than that.
Her own personal journey has also been one of continued transformation and growth. She moved to the United States on her own when she was 26 years old to establish a new life for herself, where she built a very successful career in corporate America. In 2008 she forged an entrepreneurial path for herself, as a result of which she now has a Consulting company that has been up and running successfully since 2008. In addition she launched a second business in 2013 that is focused on development and advancement of women in the workplace.
Daniella blends her global perspective, large corporate experience, entrepreneurial experience, and unique and innovative subject matter with her energetic and motivational style to create and deliver keynote speeches that are tailored to the needs of your organization. She also runs workshops and facilitates panel discussions.
Daniella will inspire your audience with a program that gets them highly engaged and sets them on a path of taking ownership of how women are moving forward and upward in their organization, holding themselves accountable for their own and other’s career success, and increasing the pace of change regarding women being represented in management and executive ranks.
Daniella’s passion, energy and insightful perspectives also hold strong appeal to multi-gender audiences, making her a great speaker for any organization and audience that is focused on maximizing their potential, achieving their highest goals and aspirations, and exploring new ways in how they collaborate, innovate and achieve outstanding professional and personal outcomes.
Speaking Style
In Daniella’s words…
‘I am very passionate about the subjects I speak about. I get highly energized and I do some very different things. I think I may be the only speaker to make a South African specialty food for over 400 people for one of my sessions, or to wield a long wooden sword during opening addresses and keynote speeches as well as at panel discussions. Everything I speak about and do comes from my heart, with the intent of taking the audience to a place they haven’t been before, so that they can envision themselves doing things they haven’t done before and be able to take action to move towards that vision.
I love to engage my audience in the topic I am speaking about. The opportunity to speak to a group isn’t about me, it’s about them! I strive to share valuable perspectives, insights and knowledge, in a way that they can take ownership of the subject matter and hold themselves accountable for making it their reality. So I always find interesting and creative ways to really engage and involve the audience. I do want to leave them inspired by me, but even more importantly I want to leave them inspired by themselves!’
Speaking Topics
Click on the boxes below to find out more about specific speaking topics.
Cross‑Generational Collaboration
A strategy for increasing the number and momentum of women in management and executive ranks.
While Gen Y women may be more optimistic than the Gen X’ers and Baby Boomer women that laid the path ahead of them, they are still perceiving and experiencing many of the same types of gender-related workplace issues that have been studied and written about for decades. Women are ambitious and talented. We have big aspirations and want to make the most of our credentials. We are great leaders. We build great teams. We are great collaborators. We matter and we make a difference. As women across all generations seek to lay claim to their destinies, it is imperative that women of all ages collaborate across the generations to help more women move forward and upward in their lives and in their careers. During the course of this presentation Daniella examines how cross-generational collaboration strategies and initiatives are key to accelerating towards better outcomes for women in management and executive ranks in organizations. Along the way, she shares insights and perspectives from her unique gen-xyb™ program which brings together pairs of women from different generational groups in organizations.
- Organizations that are seeking to continue to improve the percentage of women that have successful careers in their organization and the percentage of women moving up through the ranks into leadership roles, management and executive teams.
- Organizations that value holding conversation and spurring thinking related to advancement of women in the workplace.
- Organizations that are dealing with inter-generational challenges and opportunities in their workforce.
- The topic holds appeals across female and male audiences, and also spans audience groups from the Millennials to Generation X to the Baby Boomers.
Corporate (all industries), Colleges, Relevant conferences
Building Bridges
Building bridges between Boomers, Gen X & Millennials.
Is your organization’s generational alphabet soup more challenging by the day? Do bridges need to be constructed to bring older and younger colleagues into successful working relationships? What cross-generational collaboration challenges you are facing? How are they compounded by gender? How can successful cross-generational collaboration strategies in your workforce enable growth and create value by evolving skill-sets, driving innovation, and creating a win-win for all? Boomers are working longer. Gen X’s are entering into the prime of their careers. Millennials will comprise nearly 75% of the world’s workforce by 2025. Boomers and Gen X’s bring professional expertise, institutional knowledge, ability to see the bigger picture, and understand how to use influence to drive systemic change. Millennials bring fresh perspective, comfort and ability with vocalizing their wants and needs, ability to seek out and embrace change, and an innate sense of meritocracy. As a leader in a multi-generational workforce, explore strategies you can use to attract, engage and retain the best talent of all ages by creating a workplace environment that fundamentally changes how the different generations work together.
- Organizations that are seeking to improve the effectiveness of their multi-generation workforce, and drive growth, innovation and continuous improvement.
- Organizations that are dealing with inter-generational challenges and opportunities in their workforce.
- Professional Development organizations, learning institutions and Associations that value holding conversation and spurring thinking related to workplace strategies.
- The topic holds appeals across female and male audiences, and also spans audience groups from the Millennials to Generation X to the Baby Boomers.
Corporate (all industries), Colleges, Associations, Relevant conferences
Turning Risk Into Opportunity™
Women and leadership teams taking more calculated risks as a career advancement strategy for women in your organization.
This presentation is about managing the risk of failing to optimize the careers of women in your organization, and reaping the benefits of successfully optimizing the careers of women in your organization. Having greater representation of women in your management and leadership teams is good business. How people become leaders and how people take up leadership roles over the course of their career is fundamentally about developing a leader identity. In order to progress your career and to develop your own leader identity, throughout your career you are required to make important decisions. The reality is that all decisions take place under conditions of uncertainty and risk. Daniella has developed a framework called TRIO – Turning Risk Into Opportunity ™, which forms the basis of this presentation. Women approach many of the decisions and risks that impact their careers differently than men do. This presentation examines how to thoughtfully deconstruct the conversation around risk and turn it into opportunity, so that individuals and leadership teams will take more calculated risks as part of a career management strategy to move more women forward an upward in the ranks of your organization, ultimately benefiting the individuals and the business as a whole.
- Organizations that are seeking to continue to improve the percentage of women that have successful careers in their organization and the percentage of women moving up through the ranks into leadership roles, management and executive teams.
- Organizations that value holding conversation and spurring thinking related to advancement of women in the workplace.
- Organizations that are seeking additional ways to optimize the careers of their female employees.
- Individuals seeking additional ways to optimize their own careers. The topic holds appeals across female and male audiences, and also spans audience groups from the Millennials to Generation X to the Baby Boomers.
Corporate (all industries), Colleges, Relevant conferences
Positive Strategies To Develop A Culture Of Calculated Risk‑taking In Your Organization
Transform your approach to talent development
Is your organization’s culture risk averse? Have you lost talented employees because you were unable to provide them with excitement and challenges that advance them as leaders, and keep them directly engaged in the future of the organization? This session explores how developing a culture of calculated risk-taking in your organization around talent management and development can transform how you develop talent at all levels. We’ll look at some key components that make up developing a culture of calculated risk-taking, including: embracing success and failure and developing a culture where it’s OK to fail; establishing support structures that go beyond mentoring into the realm of sponsors; and creating cross-generational collaboration opportunities that enable your employees to take risks together, achieve greater success together, and enrich and sustain individual and organization success.
Pursuing a culture of calculated risk-taking will facilitate bi-directional transfer of assets (knowledge, insight, expertise and experience) amongst your employees; drive innovation through exposure to different ideas; develop and advance careers at multiple levels as employees aid each other in career growth and advancement strategies; and increase retention by providing stretch-opportunities that keep your employees learning, growing and engaged. You have to be willing to risk in order to achieve transformational change. With a fresh and inspiring perspective that comes from growing up in South Africa and taking risks throughout her own professional career, Daniella Levitt will share valuable insights that she has gained along the way, and strategies that she is using to help individuals and organizations maximize the potential of their talent.
- Organizations that are seeking to improve the effectiveness of their multi-generation workforce, and drive growth, innovation and continuous improvement.
- Professional Development organizations, learning institutions and Associations that value holding conversation and spurring thinking related to workplace strategies.
- The topic holds appeals across female and male audiences, and also spans audience groups from the Millennials to Generation X to the Baby Boomers.
Corporate (all industries), Colleges, Associations, Relevant conferences
Turning Risk Into Opportunity™
A positive career strategy.
Are you risk averse? Has there ever been a professional opportunity you chose not to pursue because you were concerned about the risk associated with it? If so, you’re not alone! Risk is one of the toughest hurdles to deal with when continuing to move forward and upward in your professional career. The perception of risk differs from person to person and depends on situational factors and timeframe. Understanding what risk means to you and determining how you are going to actively manage that risk is a key differentiator in how you take advantage of opportunities that present themselves in your career, and in how you develop your own unique identity as a leader. In this session, we’ll use the Turning Risk Into Opportunity™ framework to have the conversation around taking risks and developing strategies to navigate risk in your career. We’ll run through a quick overview of the overall framework to set context, and then we’ll take a deeper look at some topics that fall within the framework.
- Groups of individuals that are interested in building their comfort level with taking more calculated risks as they build their career.
- These groups may have self-identified themselves through attendance at personal development/self-improvement events, or they may have been gathered together by organizational leadership to aid them in their career progression and development.
- The topic holds appeals across female and male audiences.
Corporate (all industries), Colleges, Associations, Relevant conferences
Be Intentional
Own Your Own Story.
Everyone has a great story, including you! Now is the time to own it and put it to work. Whether you are transitioning between career roles, building your book of business or setting your next career objectives, the ability to take ownership of your story makes a marked difference in how effectively you achieve your desired outcomes. You will leave this session understanding why owning your own story and taking a strategic approach to managing your career is the foundation for your success. Join Daniella as she shares her story: from her preface of growing up and working in South Africa, to her early chapters of carving out her new life and corporate career in the States, to her next chapters as she most recently builds on five years of being a successful business owner. As she shares her story, she shares ten meaningful perspectives on how you can be intentional and own your own story as you build your career. The base version of this presentation focuses on factors that are particularly important for women in owning their own career story, but can also be very successfully adapted to a multi-gender audience.
- Organizations that are seeking to continue to improve the percentage of women that have successful careers in their organization and the percentage of women moving up through the ranks into leadership roles, management and executive teams.
- Organizations that value holding conversation and spurring thinking related to advancement of women in the workplace.
- Organizations that are seeking additional ways to optimize the careers of their female employees.
- Individuals seeking additional ways to optimize their own careers.
- The topic holds appeals across female and male audiences, and also spans audience groups from the Millennials to Generation X to the Baby Boomers.
Corporate (all industries), Colleges, Relevant conferences.
Of Swords and Shoe
Building your personal brand and elevating your executive presence
If you don’t manage your personal brand, someone else will. You are evaluated and considered for promotion, growth opportunities and leadership positions based not only on proven performance, but also on how people perceive your ability to take on those leadership roles. Your personal brand is as much about projecting what you have the talent and potential to do as it is about what you have done. Furthermore, your personal brand directly portrays your identity as a leader, and the characteristics and skills and attributes you display all contribute to your leader identity. Topics covered in this presentation include, amongst others: What is a personal brand? Why is it important to manage your personal brand? What are the common pitfalls in branding yourself – and how can you sidestep them? How would you define “executive presence”? What are some steps you can take to elevate your executive presence?
- Groups of individuals that are interested in building their personal brand and executive presence.
- These groups may have self-identified themselves through attendance at personal development/self-improvement events, or they may have been gathered together by organizational leadership to aid them in their career progression and development.
- The topic holds appeals across female and male audiences.
Corporate (all industries), Colleges, Relevant conferences
Powering Up The Pipeline: Leading The Way In Developing The Next Generation Of Women In Leadership
A key to winning the war for talent
Millions of highly motivated and highly educated women enter the organizational labyrinth every day. While the numbers look good on the first few ‘floors’ of most organizations, as the ‘elevator goes up’, the number of women represented in management and executive ranks continues to thin out in unacceptable proportions. Although progress has been made, there is still plenty of work left to do to attract, retain, advance and leverage this impressive source of talent. This presentation examines strategies to lead the way in developing the next generation of women leaders. What innovative programs, lessons learned and achievements have other corporations experienced? What gave them their impetus to begin women’s leadership programs? How does a company take the right steps to get an initiative started? How do they define success and have they achieved it? What have been their most successful strategies, and what would they do differently to have a greater impact on chances for their women to advance?
- Organizations that are seeking to continue to improve the percentage of women that have successful careers in their organization and the percentage of women moving up through the ranks into leadership roles, management and executive teams.
- Organizations that value holding conversation and spurring thinking related to advancement of women in the workplace.
- Organizations that are seeking additional ways to optimize the careers of their female employees.
Corporate (all industries), Colleges, Associations, Relevant conferences
What Got You Here Won't Get You There
The critical importance of envisioning skills when building your leader identity.
Research has shown that envisioning is a must have capability for enterprise leadership, regardless of gender. One of the biggest developmental hurdles for aspiring leaders is learning to sell your ideas, your vision of the future, personal or team or organization, to numerous stakeholders. Your ability to craft, communicate and engage others in that vision contributes to your leader identity. And the better you are at this skill, no matter the application, the stronger the support base you will be able to build around you as you make decisions, take calculated career risks and turn them into opportunity for you, your teams, and your organization. Whilst a whole generation of women owe their success to mastering the technical elements of their jobs and maintaining a dedicated focus on accomplishing the quantifiable objectives associated with their current roles, their ability to take on different and bigger leadership roles is predicated on different set of skills, with visioning being one of the most critical. Unfortunately, research has shown that women are judged to be less visionary than men in 360 degree feedback.
This presentation looks at some of the research findings regarding what drives this perception, bringing the research concepts alive with real-life examples, and illustrating the type of dialog that can occur around this topic by conducting an exercise called ‘Marbles In a Jar’. The chapter also lays down ideas for individuals and organizations to combat this perception and aid women in flexing their visioning muscles.
- Organizations that are seeking to continue to improve the percentage of women that have successful careers in their organization and the percentage of women moving up through the ranks into leadership roles, management and executive teams.
- Organizations that value holding conversation and spurring thinking related to advancement of women in the workplace.
- Organizations that are seeking additional ways to optimize the careers of their female employees.
- Individuals seeking additional ways to optimize their own careers.
Corporate (all industries), Colleges, Relevant conferences
Customized Keynotes
In addition to the specific topics covered below, Daniella also works with clients to develop customized keynote addresses, workshops and breakout sessions that leverage her specific expertise and address areas of focus that are the client’s priorities for their event.