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

BOQ Group

Analytical and governance support for recovery and exit planning, stress testing, and model risk controls for a listed bank with $6b capital and $100b balance sheet.

Manager Financial Resilience

Improve controls for credit risk team that support timely and robust management of credit risk. 
Uplifting the change capability for the credit risk function.

Manager Credit Risk Governance

ME Bank

Developed and managed credit risk provision modelling, including projections and recommendations, model development, stress testing, and collections process improvement for AUD25b lending portfolio. 

Following acquisition of ME by BOQ, migrated the model that calculated the AUD95m collective provision for ME Bank loans to Bank of Queensland model and environment.

Manager Risk Analytics

Australia Post

Established a customer-focused, portfolio life-cycle management approach to the product portfolio to help drive sustainable growth and improve customer experience.

Created a consolidated, customer-view product hierarchy that incorporated ~100 products (and hundreds of SKU), replacing a siloed business unit approach.

Designed product scorecards for that covered 95% of $7b revenue, to support planning and investment decisions.

Completed initial cash-flow modelling of COVID-19 pandemic, supporting Post’s early response to the first wave of pandemic restrictions.

Product Portfolio Manager

AGL Energy

Created tools and metrics to monitor project benefits for an AUD300m digital transformation program.  Worked across functions to build and validate initiative-level business cases and built a portfolio view of initiatives and their key drivers.

Benefits Realisation Manager

Measured return on investment of drivers that affect customer satisfaction and Net Promoter Score. Used customer survey and transaction data to identify relevant drivers and estimate their impact on returns. This analysis was used to support planning for a AUD300m retail transformation program.

Customer Experience Specialist

Australia and New Zealand Banking Group

Accountable for establishing benefits reporting for a AUD1.5b transformation program. Conducted analysis to bring forward and increase value from transformation initiatives across Australia. 

Established a balanced scorecard for key transformation initiatives allowing the business to track the impact of changes from a dozen major projects against strategic objectives using approx. 40 metrics.

Created a customer survey for the bank’s retail and small business customers as part of scorecard that measured customers’ perceived effort and expectations to do business with ANZ. 

Identified >AUD500m of double counted revenue across program, reducing modelling risk and forecast error.

Senior Manager Value & Performance Management

Managed liquidity transfer pricing for AUD200b Australia retail and corporate balance sheet; coordinated modelling of Basel III regulatory changes for liquidity; and undertook analysis and forecasting of the Group investment term of capital

Senior Manager Balance Sheet Modelling

Responsible for portfolio level balance sheet and capital management activity across the Australia division, including modelling, governance, education and change management.

Senior Manager Balance Sheet Management

Responsible for developing strategy for AUD100b retail deposits in Australia and assessing the performance of the business against and ongoing relevance of its strategy.
This period ended with a secondment as acting head of deposits finance, leading a team of 15.

Head of Strategy and Funding Retail Deposits

Responsible for both portfolio and day-to-day pricing activity of AUD100b Australian mortgage book and customer based modelling and forecasts in support of finance, marketing and risk.

Manager Customer Behaviour and Value Analysis, Mortgages

Responsible for: creating and analysing staff and customer sample surveys; and statistical analysis supporting Australia retail and commercial marketing teams

Manager Customer Analysis

Corporate performance analyst with a background of more than 20 years’ working in the private and public sectors in Australia. With experience in the financial services, energy, and government sectors, I have worked for leading Australian companies including ANZ and Australia Post, building expertise across a number of disciplines.  Uses a consultative approach to develop strategic objectives and create practical solutions.

Connecting strategic goals to business outcomes is a team sport. My professional practice centres around understanding drivers and helping align activity through creating a shared understanding of business activity and market context. 

People will tell you that I am comfortable working with ambiguity, complexity, and incomplete information and that I collaborate broadly in pursuit of achieving agreed strategic outcomes.

David Munro

With the successful merger vote by Summerland and Regional Australia Bank members, I need to update my mutual sector merger summary.

The other change is that the 19,000 Australia Unity members will have now moved onto the Bank Australia systems. Migrations are not an easy task- congratulations to the folk involved.

Data Analysis | Financial Modelling | Benefits Realisation and Measurement

One of my side hustles is running poetry workshops at libraries and schools. 

Schools like this 25 pupil bundle of energy. Small rural schools work hard to bring a full and deep curriculum to their students. 

What a privilege and joy to bring some poetry into their classroom.

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Part of Westpac's recent announcement that they will not close (more) country branches until 2030 includes community support of $1.5m for local events and sponsorships. Is that a lot? 

The $10m that Westpac already donate to community groups is more than any other bank except Bendigo (who via its community bank franchise distributed $50m). The increment will be welcomed by the recipients.

There is no particular link between the size of a bank and its community grant programs. This is not surprising, given the wide range of approaches to community engagement.

The mutual banks often position themselves as champions of people and local communities and the evidence can be seen in the grants made last year. People First ($9m) is not far short of Westpac, and Regional Australia Bank ($3m) has a larger community grant program than ANZ ($2m)! 

Of course, there are many ways banks support community groups. The disclosed information on community grants is just part of the story.

Data is big 4 banks and largest dozen mutuals where data is available for 2024/5 financial year. Sourced from bank annual reports, impact reports, and company web pages.

RACQ announcing the sale of their $2.7b banking book to Bendigo Bank is a wee coda to the story of bankassurance here in Australia.

The main story ran years ago- all those hopes and dreams of fully integrated bank and insurance firms (and wealth!) smashed through years of market and regulatory change and, let's face it, customer indifference. And, like one of those scenes that run after the credits of a big-budget movie, RACQ is exiting banking too.

The transaction is novel, as it is a sale of the member based bank to the listed Bendigo Bank. Come the middle of next year, the affected people will change hats from member to customer. An interesting experiment in the strength of values-led propositions. Of all the banks, perhaps Bendigo is best placed to have a go at this transition.

It also feels like this is presented as a done deal (subject to regulatory approval yadda yadda). Members voices are important until they aren't, it seems.

No mention on price yet- a fascinating titbit into the value that Bendigo sees in the RACQ Bank portfolio. 

I wonder what RACQ Board will do with the cash?

It is possible that redundancies in ANZ's ESG team are a sign that they are all ready to go for the new reporting obligations on 1 January and a project team is winding down. 

And, if you believe that, I have a great carbon-offset scheme with Harbour views we need to discuss.

For a bank carrying $1 billion in extra capital and the current record holder for an ASIC fine, the new CEO is creating some interesting additions to his resume since he started at ANZ. His action list comes across as looking at the big changes coming up and targeting those teams for redundancies. 

If you believe your organisation is bloated and not focussed on the right outcomes, this is a brutal (and somewhat brave) solution that challenges the remaining people to focus on what you believe are the key objectives.

There is a lesson for smaller banks here. Not starting with redundancies (at what are already lean organisations). But focus! From the Board down, the priority list needs to be short, clear and understood by the whole bank.

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The Battle

Brigid Leishman

David Munro

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taplio

The Battle

Brigid Leishman

David Munro

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Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}David Munro's LinkedIn Performance

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