Leishman Coaching

I started Leishman Coaching in 2019 because, while I had a successful corporate career for many years,   I also made a lot of mistakes. So while I got there in the end, I wish I had someone to guide and coach me. 

I worked with some great leaders along the way but I always knew that it was difficult for them to be truly independent when they were coaching me.  I needed someone who was. Someone who didn't have conflicting priorities. Someone who could support my career ambitions and accelerate my learning.

There were things I just didn't know. 

In the last few years of my corporate career, I was privileged to work with a couple of incredible coaches. I learned so much from them and still remember the things they taught me. 

And so, I decided to retrain and become a coach.

What makes my coaching approach different is what I call the triple threat.

🔵 I have an extensive corporate and business experience.

🔵 I am an accredited professional coach, AND

🔵 I am a writer, so with me, it can be a one-stop shop - and you can be confident that your personal brand is supported by great career documents.

I have coached more than 500  clients since 2020, across a variety of roles, industries and countries.  

While I have an extensive background in financial services, I have found that the challenges people experience at various points in their careers, are both universal and global.  

I am a lifelong learner, a voracious reader and I regularly pick up new strategies and approaches which I put into practice in my coaching business.

Principal

Financial Basics Foundation

FBF is a national NFP focused on building financial literacy in young people in Australia. As a long standing charity, it has delivered free resources to Australian schools for more than 20 years.

Chair

CUA - Credit Union Australia Limited

Chief Operating Officer

General Manager, Member Experience

Chief Operating Officer (Acting)

Head of Customer Experience and BPR

Responsible for program management, change strategy, and execution of the ANZ Distribution Transformation major projects portfolio.
Business dimensions and scope: Program budget $75M. 800 branches, two call centres and 6,000 employees.

ACHIEVEMENTS

1. Carriage of the GM Distribution Transformation position for an extended period of time - full accountability for strategy development and execution.

2.Branch redesign program to support evolving customer needs resulting in 37 new look branches in 2013.

2. Ongoing development and build of customer management and home loan systems.

3. Development of change strategies and tools for ANZ staff and customers, culminating in the ANZ 'Better Ways to Bank' program.

Portfolio Change Director, Distribution Transformation

Management of all support functions including major projects and program office, investment slate, risk functions, vendor management, business information and improvement teams (Lean Six Sigma community). Business dimensions $40M opex, $100M+ in project capex and opex.

ACHIEVEMENTS

1. Development of a new strategic operating model for all support functions which delivered both a 25% reduction in overall run rate and an increase in stakeholder satisfaction of 20% over an 18 month period. 

2.Leadership of the Australian Retail Offshoring Program. Moved 1000 roles to Bangalore and Manila over a 3 1/2 year timeframe.

3. Capacity planning focus and re-engineering work supported productivity improvements of an average of 27% across all teams and a 20% reduction in customer complaints.

4. Successful Delivery of a number of key infrastructure programs including a new fraud management platform. Benefits exceeded all business case targets.

5. Reduction in vendor management costs of $21M over 2 years.

Head of Business Enablement, Australia Operations

Quest Limited

Responsible for developing a Pacific Operations Hub in Fiji to mitigate financial and operational risk in the region. Business dimensions Opex $6M* Capex $12M. 
*NB Low cost of labor drove relatively low opex in Fiji.

ACHIEVEMENTS:

1. Developed the Pacific Hub strategy and centralised functions from 12 Pacific countries and 2 Asian countries into Fiji.

2. Developed a strong company culture and employment brand. Benchmarked using the Hewitt's survey. Achieved Best Employer status for three consecutive years and moved staff engagement from 68% to 92%. Became an employer of choice in Fiji.

3. Led the company safely through the 2006 military coup and subsequent upheaval, followed by Cyclone Gene in January 2008. 

4.Achieved ISO 9001 2008 accreditation in 2008. 

5. Won a number of external awards including: DHL (Fiji) Exporter of the Year Westpac Services award in 2007 and 2008. Fiji Business Excellence awards in  2006, 2007, and 2008. These awards were an integrated part of the business strategy to develop our quality standards and employment brand.

6. Obtained government approval for 10 year tax free status in 2006.

7. Oversaw design and implementation of a building fit out with all the associated challenges of doing so in a politically unstable and  developing country.

Managing Director

Responsible for mortgage processing Australia wide and all major Mortgages infrastructure projects.

ACHIEVMENTS:

1. Remediation and successful delivery of two infrastructure projects.
2. Restored service levels in 2002 to achieve lead bank status with mortgage brokers.

Head of Mortgage Processing

Responsible for running the end-to-end mortgage business in New Zealand. Business dimensions Budget $170M. FUM $10BN. 

ACHIEVEMENTS:

1. Exceeded profit targets in 2000 and 2001.

2. Achieved market leadership with a new broker value proposition.

3. Staff satisfaction levels of 90%.

General Manager, Mortgages

Responsible for national team of 1000 operations staff across five locations. Business dimensions: 1000 staff. Budget 30M.

ACHIEVEMENTS:

1. Rationalised processing sites from five to three.

2. Managed national restructure to align to new business model.

Chief Operations Manager

Led national  team of 500 staff across 8 locations managing all back office transactions.

ACHIEVEMENTS:

1. Major site rationalisation - from eight locations down to three.

2. Reduced run rate by in excess of 20% over 18 months.

Head of Retail Operations

Responsible for leading and developing all new retail and business distribution strategies.

ACHIEVEMENTS: 
1. Multiple new initiatives including centralised credit and cash processing, network configuration strategy, and ATM profitability model.

Head of Distribution Strategy

Various retail and corporate banking roles

You know you need to work on your career,  but life gets in the way.

We’ve all been there. 
 ➡️ The resume that’s sat half-finished for months. 
 ➡️ The vague idea of "planning the next step" that never makes it to your to-do list. 
 ➡️ The creeping feeling that you could be doing more, earning more, or feeling more satisfied at work,  if only you knew where to start.

Since 2021, I’ve worked with more than 700 professionals to break through that stuck feeling. Whether it’s career direction, preparing for a move, stepping into leadership, or navigating a tough patch, I will help you cut through the noise and take real action.

With over 30 years’ experience as an executive, leader, parent, and business owner, I know the career game from all angles. My coaching is honest, practical, and focused on progress, whatever that looks like for you.

Here are some of the topics I coach on: 

🔵 Gaining clarity on where you are heading with your career and putting a plan in place.

🔵 Pinpointing why you are not getting interviews, jobs, or promotions, and working with you to close the gap.

🔵 Navigating the boardroom as a new or aspiring executive.

🔵 Learning the art of executive presence and high-impact communication.

🔵 Helping you get market ready if you are preparing to leave, between jobs, or returning to work after a break.  

🔵 Writing your career documents because you have looked at them so many times you are losing the will to live. 

🔵 Building a plan to help you come back from the brink when you are sliding backward down the corporate ladder, or have made a career-limiting mistake.

I am a qualified coach with more than 30 years' experience as a leader and executive, both in Australia and internationally.  

I know what good looks like, and I will work with you to help you get there. 

"Brigid offers a rare combination of "expert/practitioner" and "coach/mentor" that distinguishes her from other executive coaches I've worked with throughout my career" 
CEO, Melbourne, Australia

I share practical career advice here every week — follow me for free tips.
Or message me if you’re ready to make real change, and we’ll book a free discovery call.


🕸 Or check out my website for packages and pricing.

leishmancoaching.com

Brigid Leishman

Suncorp Group

At Suncorp we are guided by our purpose – building futures and protecting what matters.

Suncorp has been shortlisted in the 2025 ACMP® inaugural Global Change Excellence Awards as ‘Change Management Organization of the Year Award’ celebrating an organization that has embedded change management practices to achieve lasting results.

Manager Organisational Change (Chapter Lead)

bdna

At bdna, we help our customers transform their organisations to meet the challenges of today and the future.  We exist to improve society.

Delivery Director Consulting

ASG Group

Practice Manager, Advisory Consulting Practice in Queensland - leading the team of business consultants specialising in Project & Program Management, Organisational Change Management and Business Analysis.

Practice Manager Advisory Consulting Qld

ASG and SMS have come together to form the genuine alternative in the IT services landscape. We are committed to helping you keep pace with change and thrive.

In today’s technology-led era, we are now more capable than ever to provide businesses with a complete digital transformation service that is responsive, tailored and relevant.

Senior Practice Leader

Experienced organisational change manager with a reputation for acting with integrity and empathy in dealing with people going through change, while ensuring sustainable changes are made and benefits are realised. Experienced in large-scale, complex environments and being able to make sense of what is needed.

Passionate and driven to support others to develop their resilience and ability to adapt to change, and successful in coaching leaders through different layers of the organisation to develop their own skills to become better Change Leaders in their own teams. 

Broad business acumen from senior leadership and management roles with a demonstrated proficiency at developing strong communications networks and stakeholder and employee engagement strategies.

 Key areas of expertise:
•Organisational Change Management and Change Leadership
•Stakeholder Management and Engagement
•Visual Facilitation
•Change Leadership and Team Leadership
•Human Resource Management
•Organisational Restructure
•Business Management
•Operational Risk Management

Change Management Consultant

Queensland Health

External consultant: Providing change management support for Queensland Health eHealth COVID care for Queenslanders.

External consultant: Providing change management support for Suncorp Banking & Wealth as part of the New Payments Platform (NPP) Program and Introducing fast payments to Suncorp customers.

External consultant: Providing change management support for Suncorp’s People Experience (PX) Learning Team as part of the Learning Optimisation Program.

External consultant: Providing leadership and change management, agile way of working and portfolio planning support in Digital Technology.

SMS Management & Technology

Change Management Consultant - Advisory Practice 

SMS Management & Technology is a leading Asia-Pacific consulting, technology and managed services company. The BPI specialises in Business Analysis, Change Management and Learning & Development capabilities.

Practice Lead

Origin Energy

External consultant: Providing change management, agile and people change readiness support.

External consultant: Providing technology change management and people readiness support for Suncorp’s new Sydney headquarters as part of the Simply Sydney Program Team.

SPARQ Solutions

External consultant: Providing change management and agile support to SPARQ Project Delivery.

External consultant: Providing change management support to Suncorp Technology Partnering in  Claims Technology, Wealth, Digital, Business Intelligence and Chief Data Office & Innovation Labs.

I am an experienced change and operations leader with more than twenty-five years’ experience leading major transformation, change and delivery. 

It’s important that people understand and engage in the process of change and what they do, and I believe that people must come first if change and transformation programs are to succeed. 

I’ve worked in multiple industries across both public and private sectors.  To me where I work is less important than the work that I am doing.  What is most important to me is knowing that I am contributing to making a difference.

I’m comfortable working with stakeholders at all levels and building strategic and collaborative partnerships.  

I am well respected for consistently delivering high-quality solutions without compromising business values. I think this is because I am a pragmatist at heart and always seek mutually beneficial outcomes.  

Here are a few highlights from recent years: 
- Led a technology change program which involved the successful relocation of 2,500 team members to new flagship premises in Sydney. This included Agile delivery of communications planning and activities, stakeholder analysis and engagement, and development of all training materials.  
- Drove the change for deployment of a new social learning platform. Accountable for understanding change impacts, developing the change strategy, and the ‘test and learn’ approach prior to the company-wide launch and rollout to ~13,000 employees. 
- As a business leader, led the deployment of a new organisational design model across Queensland and Western Australia. This was particularly challenging as it had a long timeline over three years, ultimately resulting in the closure of the business.  This program involved eight waves of restructuring, delivery of all communications, redeployment, and retrenchment activities impacting 115 team members. I successfully achieved this, while also maintaining BAU momentum.

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The Battle

Brigid Leishman

Michelle Barr

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