Definitely the best pack we have ever produced and the Board were very complementary on how it came forward.
CEO
Interviewer: So, if we think ten years back to your first day in the current role while acknowledging that you were already working for Westpac, what advice would you have given yourself on that first day?
Enterprise Executive & General Counsel: A couple of things. The first is a lesson that I learned through an external partner, Sue Tomat, and that is when you’re giving advice, writing board or executive papers, or giving presentations, switch from what is called writer’s logic to reader’s logic. Writer’s logic is the way you think about things. Reader’s logic is putting yourself in the shoes of your reader. It’s a really good technique when you’re preparing advice or a presentation to sit down and go through the discipline of anticipating the areas of concern or questions from the board, for example, and making sure the content is framed around that, rather than, say, including a long section on the background of the issue.
It’s thinking very logically about how to cut right to the chase and addressing the critical issues. So I think that is actually a really neat way of reframing the perspective and it’s a very good way of helping yourself be more effective.
Extract from interview of Group General Counsel and Enterprise Executive at a major Australian Bank
Thank you so much for your time yesterday! I learnt a lot.
I had to make a presentation to a group in North America this morning and I took on board your idea around canvassing the audience for questions at the beginning. So, I started the presentation by saying that I had some slides that I could go through but wanted to first check with the audience as to whether there were any particular questions that they had that should address as part of the presentation.
The response was no - but they appreciated being asked and if it was okay, they would ask questions as we went along - which is what happened.
The presentation went down very, very well. FYI, [team members] were also on the presentation and they thought it went well also.
Outcome is that they want to discuss partnering with us.
Founder and Director
Sue has a rare gift for communication. She blends a nurturing presence with a profound understanding of how humans think and behave, neurologically, emotionally and practically, shaped by decades of work coaching clients.
What sets Sue apart is her ability to draw out your deepest struggles through curiosity, not advice. She doesn’t tell you what to think, she helps you see clearly for yourself. That is her magic.
I am a better leader, wife, mother and friend because I have had Sue as my mentor for over 20 years. Her impact on my life is immeasurable.
Founder + Creative Director
Your thinking has been a game changer.
Partner
Thanks for shaping the way I communicate at work (across 3 different organisations and 2 different countries now). Time with you is absolutely invaluable for any organisation. Forever grateful!
General Counsel
Backing is given to people who earn it. You deserve success due to your professionalism. You are good – it’s that simple!
Divisional Executive Director
Your programs have been a huge success with lots of positive feedback. Based on the feedback received, I am reassured that this was a good initiative and worthwhile investment for the Company.
Director, Human Resources
Thank you for the magnificent services you provide to [our law firm] - you are the consummate professional. We love working with you.
Partner responsible for visual communication initiative
Thank you for your efforts in running this training for the business. Your clarity, energy and knowledge on this has been fantastic. The fact that you made the effort to workshop an actual paper really hit the mark for us.
Thanks for what you do.
Head of Direct and Self-Managed Superannuation Funds
The program continues to be extremely well received with anecdotal evidence that a big difference has been seen in quality of documentation being submitted to the Risk Committee.
Head of Risk Strategy & Transformation
We met when you ran a training course for [ASX100 company] employees many years ago. Most impactful course I have ever done. Your name came up recently when I was speaking to [Special Counsel] from [top tier Australian law firm] who is a friend of mine. Know you change people’s lives as you did mine.
National Operations Manager
I attended your course recently. It has been an absolute blessing! My stakeholders are getting much more concise and effective communications from me. It has also reduced the time I spend creating them. I can confidently say that this is the most valuable course I’ve ever taken in my 20-year career in banking.
Associate Director
Thank you for a highly informative and constructive session this morning. I really appreciated how you delivered it using lessons you had personally learnt and the 'handrails not handcuffs' approach. You conveyed 'if only I had been aware of this sooner', as opposed to 'I always did it and you must do it this way'. I, and I am sure others, left the session inspired to take a fresh approach. I put it into practice straight away.
Partner
I’ve worked with Sue for many years while leading multiple teams, and she is an outstanding coach.
She changes how you think. Working with her has made me more deliberate with empathy and far more intentional in how I communicate. That shift has strengthened my influence and noticeably improved team dynamics.
I’ve also seen the impact on those she has coached within my teams. Strong technical contributors have grown into confident, influential thought leaders. Their expertise didn’t change — their ability to express it and lead with it did.
Sue’s distinctive strength is her ability to challenge constructively and help leaders apply their skills across contexts, building both clarity and confidence.
Leaders who are already capable but want to elevate their influence and presence will benefit most from working with her.
General Manager
I found the session very useful not only for managing a team but also in understanding my client relationships and how I interact with people with different styles.
Director, Private Wealth Management
I want to give a note of thanks for the excellent advice and training you gave on the Business Leaders course. My team was announced as the winner at the awards night, and you were [one of] the two key course presenters who made that a possibility. So thank you – I learnt a great deal and had a lot of fun.
Senior Consultant
I would sincerely like to thank you for your guidance and advice in helping us formulate our tender response. A number of your tender recommendations have also been incorporated into some of our more recent tender responses in which we have also been successful.
Divisional Director
Thank you for running the international webinar. As always, we have received great feedback on the session and our international and interstate teams were really grateful to have the opportunity to participate in the session. One participant has commented that they have noticed an improvement within the first week!
Project Coordinator
I sent an email to the Project Director to approve 5 complex variations. He approved within 2 minutes of sending. When I thanked him for the quick reply his response was: ‘Great email. That's why I can approve in 2 seconds’.
Proof that what you teach is FANTASTIC!! I am recommending this course to all my work colleagues.
Project Design Manager
The course was easy to understand and using our own experiences meant that we relate to it better. I was able to apply these principles straight away – it’s like seeing the matrix! Once you understand the principles it’s easy to make the changes.
I used these principles in a presentation recently and received positive feedback for it.
Thank you Sue, I appreciate the learnings.
Manager
It is wonderful to work with someone so committed to seeing the learning applied and continuing to support the firm’s writing culture.
Consultant - Learning and Development
I thoroughly enjoyed the learning experience gained and would recommend the course to anyone. This is due to Sue who is an excellent coach and mentor. Thanks again Sue. Very much appreciated.
Planning and Reporting Manager, Development Division
Great material and a standout facilitator. Thanks for your attention to detail and conduct of the course, it was very well appreciated by those who attended.
Manager
Sue Tomat ran two workshops on tendering with our professional staff. The firm had not prepared many tenders before and needed to learn new skills in this area. Within two months of completing the final session, the firm had won two important tenders - one in the private sector and one in public sector. The public sector bid was for an organisation that had had no prior relationship with our firm. We were appointed solely on the merits of our tender document. I believe that the training Sue did with our firm had significant impact on the quality of our bids and therefore, also on our future bottom line. Sue is a pleasure to work with and her training is very reasonably priced. I highly recommend her training.
Marketing Manager
For some time we'd been concerned about the quality of the written material being prepared, in particular the bureaucratic style and language staff consistently used in their correspondence and briefing notes. Instead of spending so much time editing documents and converting them to plain English it was decided to invest in some training. When looking for a suitable program, we were particularly keen to find a process that would encourage staff to apply their learning to their everyday work once they came out of the classroom. (Too often with training you don't see the translation between the learning and the application.) The one-on-one coaching that came after the workshop was an essential element in the process which delivered some impressive results. The training was rated very highly by the staff and the quality of their written material has definitely improved as a result.
Team Leader
I just wanted to thank you again for your time in providing my team with a very useful course. The feedback has been excellent. This style of course is an excellent tool for developing my team's business skills and will also assist them in their career development.
Team Leader - Server Development & Administration
Technology and Information Services
Sue leads with empathy, and this is what makes her a brilliant mentor. Sue takes the time to really understand who you are, including what drives you, the emotional contexts to that and the ‘blindspots’ that may be hindering your growth in both your personal and professional personas. Sue creates a supportive and trust-based coaching environment, which makes it easy to be honest, vulnerable and self-reflective. I can honestly say that I would not be where I am now without Sue’s support and mentoring. Sue accepted the challenge of mentoring me when I was a young, fragile and a near broken private practice lawyer over 10 years ago. With Sue’s coaching, I have developed strong emotional resilience and a deep self-awareness that I bring to my interactions with others and my work. This has enabled me to coach younger staff in the workplace, in turn driving their success. Sue has taught me what ‘true value’ means as an employee, leader and friend. If you want a coach that will hold you accountable for your words and actions, whilst encouraging you to explore and exploit your weaknesses to turn them into strengths; a coach that encourages self-exploration with the aim of building the best version of yourself, then Sue is that person.
Senior Lawyer
Congratulations on a workshop exceptionally well facilitated and coordinated. Your management and facilitation of the day was superb.
Manager
I have been receiving an embarrassing number of unsolicited client emails about how clear and helpful my advice has been!
Senior Associate
An excellent workshop, with precise and relevant examples. Have sat in more ‘workshops’ than I care to count, but yours have always been the most professional, most organised and most flexible – and the most valuable.
Manager Strategic Communications
Feedback from participants was excellent. Particularly:
Human Resources Advisor
Spoke to my manager about the document and he said it was probably one of the best, if not the best, renewal report that he has seen to date. When I mentioned I had followed your advice from the workshop, he was surprised, but pleased that the training had been worthwhile and a successful exercise for me to undertake.
Account Executive
I thoroughly enjoyed the session and was able to walk away from it having gained several useful techniques. In fact, I was able to apply these techniques to a paper that I had to write four weeks later. As I had never written a position paper before, I was extremely grateful for the practical techniques that we had covered during training. What was of particular value, is that the training course actually used a real and meaningful example (eg another colleague’s position paper). As a result of reviewing and assessing that paper, I was able to easily apply key Do(s) and Don’t(s) to my own paper.
Employee
I just want to say thank you. Immediately after the session I edited an advice I had been working on and gave it to my boss for his review. He gave it back to me this morning and asked whether I had copied a precedent. I said that this one was ‘all my own work’ to which he replied ‘it's very good’. If you knew my boss, this is a MASSIVE compliment for him and I think that at least some of the credit should be given to you for such a useful session on plain English. So, thank you very much.
Lawyer
Your course was one of the two really great courses I’ve attended in my career. Although the course was primarily about writing, I also use the skills and frameworks I learned to decide what is and isn’t relevant and crystallise the issues and the recommendations I make. I can get to the key points without getting bogged down in minutia. I also follow the framework when scoping reports. Clients have said I save them time during the scoping phase. Clients have also told me that my new approach to writing helps them clarify the issues at hand and makes my recommendations ‘a lot clearer’. They also say the approach is now customer-focused: I now consciously write for the reader. Also, I’m using much plainer, clearer and more concise language. I am also now able to write succinct executive summaries. I believe the quality of my summaries also saves the executives in my business time. They are free to focus only on the key points and can avoid drilling down into the detail. I have brought the skills with me to my new role and they’re being very well received.
Strategic Analyst - Treasury
I just wanted to let you know that I thought the session was really useful (I think one of the most helpful workshops I have been to). It was very practical which meant that we had a chance to do plenty of short exercises to put into practice some of the skills Sue Tomat was showing us. A lot of the skills Sue showed us were things that I am often told to do and know I am supposed to use but have not necessarily known how to implement. I also thought that the structure (2 half days) was good because we were fresh for the whole time (rather than getting weary by the end of one long day) and it was also easier to manage getting away from the work demands for a half day than a whole day.
Lawyer
I wanted to get in touch to let you know that I have received a spot in the [international law firm] clerkship program! I’m completely shocked but very excited as you can imagine!
When they called me to let me know the outcome, they gave me a lot of feedback about my interview. The main thing they said they were impressed with was my confidence, my authenticity and my honesty. They liked that I was honest about only developing an interest in commercial law recently and thought that I seemed genuine in my motivation for wanting to work there.
My approach to the interview really shifted after our Zoom session, and I really feel I have to thank you for all your advice in regards to being honest and genuine. Evidently this is what got me over the line, and it has been such a good life lesson for me to learn as I enter the workforce.
I would very much like to mention my meeting with Sue Tomat, a gifted instructor on presentation and communication. The discussion with her revolved around the topic of being able to communicate lessons to both neurodiverse people and those who would be working alongside them and her expertise was greatly appreciated in this regard. Sue has personally taught extensive clientele across the Asia-Pacific region and from the very start of our meeting that expertise showed. She displayed passion, wisdom and gentle guidance with almost every sentence. She had captured my colleagues’ and my attention right from the word ‘go’. After meeting her and taking her advice to heart, the confidence I feel when presenting an idea that can potentially push boundaries has never been higher….
It is very rare that I come across someone with the ability to instantly create rapport with such a diverse range of people, while at the same time, being so natural in the way they communicate. I have always advocated the skills of rapport-building and effective communication as being the two most important factors to someone’s future success and I genuinely think you have mastered both of these skills.
I have been trying to immediately implement the skills you taught us at the workshop but I am instinctively falling back into a style of communication characterised by complicated and flowery language (as you can probably tell from this email). With time, I hope to reach your level of proficiency in verbal and written communication.
Once again, I want to thank you for such an enjoyable workshop and for highlighting the fact that over-complicated vocabulary is more of a sign of ‘insecurity’ than it is intelligence.
Commerce Law student
Attendance at Sue’s work readiness workshop had a life changing impact on my potential career trajectory. In short, her ability to communicate relevant information and engage students is exceptional and a truly invaluable experience with positive long-term effects. In my case, Sue offered me a reality check by addressing job suitability in a professional manner. Her honesty, integrity and transparent communication ultimately allowed me to listen and trust her. I am so grateful to have received the opportunity to attend her workshop and would encourage all students to do the same where possible. I couldn’t be happier with the outcome of my early career decisions which were initiated and encouraged by Sue. Thank you.
It was really nice to finally meet someone in the profession who is so candid and is attempting to break down some of the walls that make it difficult for so many lawyers to feel truly happy and fulfilled. I was actually quite touched by some of the things you said and I found the discussions quite profound as well. So, thank you for being so honest and open.