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How Your Brain Is Secretly Running Your Leadership (And What To Do About It)
A conversation with brain science expert and author Sherry Yellin on the Leadership Powered by Common Sense podcast with Doug Thorpe
Introduction
This is Doug, and you’re listening to Leadership Powered by Common Sense. Hey, have you ever struggled with learning something new and different? People that I’ve known all have varying degrees of learning ability or disability, and my guest today is going to help us maybe crack the code on cognitive learning and how the brain works and can help us understand better ways to get things done. My guest is Sherry Yellin, a fellow Texan and happy to have her here. Sherry, welcome to the show.
Well thank you. It’s nice to be here.
Meet the Guest: Sherry Yellin
Yeah. So if you will it’s kind of a tradition on the show that I asked my guest to give a quick flyover of their history of what led them into the work they’re doing now. So would you do that for us, please?
Oh, excited to, because it’s not where I thought I would be. So I wanted to be a college English teacher until I became a college English teacher.
And a friend of mine, who was also named Sherry, was starting a workplace education program at AT&T. So this is back. AT&T is big spools of copper, cable manufacturing lines, soldering circuit boards, those kinds of things. And so she called me and she said, will you help me? And I said yes because it meant I didn’t have to grade anymore five paragraph essays. So I took this job and that really changed my life forever. There was one particular lady who came into my cubicle one day, shared with me that she couldn’t read, and her sister had always worked beside her, and they transferred her sister to another location, and she was 50 something years old, had 20 something years on the job. I had no idea how to help her, but we thought maybe together we could figure something out. And so I started working with her and had just this overwhelming desire to unscrew the lid and look in there and say, how does the brain learn? If I knew the answer to that question, I could help her so much faster.
And she single handedly really changed the trajectory of my life. I went to a new university, went to a new graduate program to simply get the answer to that question. How does the brain learn? It still is what fires me up today because we’ve got so much still to learn. But what I was learning, even in those early days, was so practical and realizing educators needed to know this. Parents needed to know this. Leaders definitely needed to know this. And that became the fire under me every single day. And I started my own business, you know, a few years later in 2001, to do that very thing, to help leaders better understand this piece of equipment, spare themselves, and then so that they could ideally get better results with less effort with their teams and their companies.
Why Leaders Struggle With Change — And What’s Really Going On
Powerful idea. And so often, I run into leaders who are struggling. They feel like their teams are stuck and potentially for a lot of different reasons. But quite probably it is learning it. It is the idea of something new and different has begun to happen in their business model and the bottom line. In a single word, people need to learn something different. And we’ll get into this. I don’t want to stray very far here, but you might have a thought on something else that I talk to leaders about is unlearning. Sometimes we get programmed to think and act a certain way, and we discover as leaders we got to do something different. So there’s a little bit of unlearning that has to happen. And I may be making a stretch here, but I’m guessing the same mechanics that allow us to learn and help us unlearn as well.
So yeah, you’re spot on, because often times when we’re wanting people to change, we do go to actions like take these different actions or stop doing these certain actions. But we really do have to dig one level deeper and ask, what are the beliefs that are driving those actions or not driving the actions? Because and as a fellow coach, that’s where real sustainable change happens and your beliefs feel so familiar and they feel so certain.
And that’s where the real change happens. But that’s also where the real struggle happens. I sometimes talk about beliefs like the clothes in your closet, right. They don’t fit. Maybe they don’t fit anymore or it’s not who you are today. It’s just it feels familiar. And I think the familiar is probably one of the most important hidden characteristics that can either hinder or help people learn and change. We really do have to question what feels familiar. And it’s hard to do because it is sort of like the fish in the water. It’s been such a part of you. You’ve been wearing those clothes for so long, you don’t even recognize it anymore. So learning, first of all, requires us to shake up the familiar.
“That’s Just the Way I Am” — The Spectrum of Resistance
You know, my clients can tell you I often like to talk about the concept of putting things on a spectrum, a scale or a range of high and low and black and white or plus and minus and all that. And talking about this in particular, learning and changing and growing and adapting. I think there are those on a far end of the spectrum that you’ll hear say, that’s just the way I am. I, you know, I’m not going to change. I’m, I’m, you know, I’ve been doing what I’ve been doing for so long. I’m, you know, nothing new and different. That’s just the way I am. And leaders certainly run into that from time to time, particularly the leaders that are in a bigger corporate setting that are subject to getting transferred around the company. They inherit teams. They don’t build teams necessarily from scratch. They inherit a team and they start meeting the people, and they were inevitably going to run into one of those folks that sits there. No, that’s just the way I am. That’s the way we’ve always done it and not interested. Don’t bother me. Don’t waste your time. Et cetera. Et cetera. Fortunately, that like I said, that’s on one extreme end of the scale in spectrum, and not everybody thinks like that, but there are degrees. When you come off of that absolute and you start working your way up the scale. You’re still going to have some hold back like that. And it is tied to some belief somewhere.
It is. We’ve encountered that. We’ve encountered that where it felt like the entire culture was so stuck in their way of doing things and recognizing that they were no, they were not going to be able to remain competitive in their industry if they continued with those beliefs. But yet those beliefs were ones that they were going to die with. Like, you know, they might be wrong and it might cost them everything, but they’re my beliefs and I’m going to die with them. I’d rather die with my beliefs. I’d rather die right than rich.
Your Brain’s #1 Job: Keeping You Safe
Yeah. Or I think sometimes what quickly enters into the picture is risk for moving forward. And risk inevitably has an element of fear about it. You know what, if this happens or that happens, or this horrible calamity or failure or disaster and people somehow are innately wired for thinking about the dark side first, and kind of rare is the person that doesn’t start with that — they go immediately to the possibility and the cup half full kind of thinking.
Say, you’re spot on. That worst case scenario does seem to be the default setting for this £3 piece of technology. And your brain, the number one question your brain is always asking is: Am I safe? And when it perceives what I call in my book negative threat — so some threat is motivating — what I call negative threat is the debilitating kind of demotivating threat. It usually has three very distinct characteristics. One is that there is some element of uncertainty or confusion. The second characteristic is I don’t feel like I have a lot of control or voice or agency. And the third characteristic is what you just said. I’m anticipating some negative adverse outcome. And Covid was a case study in those three things coming together for a lot of people for a long period of time. And so there’s a reason why, at the beginning of that year, it started with things such as fighting over toilet paper. And then middle of the year, we were seeing riots and racial tensions like we hadn’t seen in years.
And by the end of the year, I mean, we were storming the capital. So you think about that very piece — when your brain does not feel safe over a long period of time, you do start to see some really bizarre behavior and people getting overly committed to the old way, overly committed to being right. And the other thing that we see — so these are just all good symptoms for a leader to be paying attention to — because if I start to see people being overly committed to being right. If I start to see them divide so that there’s an enemy, us against them, North Texas against South Texas, whatever, you start to see that those are just external symptoms that help you see that there is a lot of negative threat. And the good news, though, is that if those are the characteristics of negative threat, it gives, it informs me as a leader, where can I replace uncertainty and confusion with clarity? Where can I replace this feeling of no agency with more involvement and more control? How can I involve more? And then the third is where could I reframe that perceived negative consequence and show a compelling vision of the possibilities of the good that might come out of this change.
Maslow, Brain Science, and What Leaders Often Miss
Yeah. Boy. So much packed in there, Sherry. I like what you said first, starting with the idea of the primary function of the brain is to keep us safe. And that’s definitely something I told you in the green room. I’ve somewhat geeked out on brain science. I haven’t taken any formal courses, but I’ve definitely been doing some reading and research for my own benefit, and I find it fascinating. But that was the very key thing I learned early in the study was that our brain’s number one function is to keep us alive. You know, we’re a living, breathing organism, and the brain is the control center of all that. So it is designed and wired to create safety and survival. And I often pull that out and I go into Maslow’s hierarchy, thinking about levels of existence. And for those who maybe haven’t heard about Maslow, it’s a simple pyramid kind of thing. And the very first rung on the pyramid is safety and survival.
You know, am I warm, dry, do I have food and water? And, you know, am I going to live the day? And then you rise up above that to progressive levels of existence and actualization. And I submit to a lot of my coaching clients that when they’re thinking about their teams and their people, you’ve got to realize people show up at work as a variable every day because you don’t know where they are on that Maslow’s hierarchy when they clock in in the morning. They could have had a horrific fight with their spouse going out the door that morning, and they’re dealing with all the aftermath of that, whatever psychology and emotion goes with that. But their brain has flipped into that survival mode. You know, I want to survive my day and my relationship and, oh, you want me to do some work today? What? I’m not able — my front global capacity for critical thinking is turned off. All the resources are going to my lizard brain where I’ve got to find that cave to hide out in until this blows over.
You make a great point, because that’s true. When your brain is hijacked in a way by negative threat, it severely compromises your ability to be creative and innovative, to be collaborative, to see things from different people’s perspectives, to be open and flexible and fluid. All those things that we want for our leaders, and that’s what we want for every member of our team. When the brain is under threat, those functions are kind of, by most measures, almost completely offline. So you do think about that person walking in the door or turning on their screen wherever they’re coming to, however they’re coming to work. If they’re already compromised, it puts even more responsibility on the leader to create this safe environment, to have a trusting, safe place for people to offer up ideas. And it is about — do we have a brain friendly culture? And a brain friendly culture is first and foremost one that is actively seeking to minimize threat and increase trust.
Google’s Project Aristotle and the Case for Psychological Safety
Right. Well, and I often speak about the famous Project Aristotle that Google did and where they introduced the concept of psychological safety. And it’s hard to believe, but that was actually ten years ago. 2016 is when that study came out, and brought us into another level of leadership thinking that is very closely tied to the brain. I don’t recall the report getting into the brain science as much as just stating the study results that they compiled that said, you know, the fundamental question was, we hire great people. Why aren’t all teams high performers? Because of the good people that are on the teams. And they were struggling as a company with that idea that not all teams performed at a high level like some did. So they dug into two years of study to determine that. And what they came away with was this idea of psychological safety as the runaway winner of thought on how some teams perform better. The high performing teams had a high degree of safety, psychological safety. People could bring their thoughts and ideas forward without fear of retribution or reprisal. They weren’t going to be ridiculed for what weird idea they came up with.
It was a free flowing and respected environment on those high performing teams. And they set the course for trying to teach leaders how to create that environment, that culture aspect. I like your word — how would you say it — brain safe culture.
Brain friendly culture.
Friendly, I like it.
And that was the motivation to write my book, The Science of High Performance Leadership. Because when you look at how the brain learns and how the brain learns best, what kind of environment — it isn’t a mystery. There really are specific cravings that your brain has. And in the book, I write about seven strategies. Seven strategies that if you put those things in place, you’re aligning with how the brain works best. You’re going to have a great culture. And then out of that, you produce better business results. So the good news in all of it is it doesn’t have to be a mystery. When you look at how the brain learns, it reveals the map.
The Puzzle Analogy: Why “Show the Box” Changes Everything
You know, I’m fast forwarding a bit on what you just said. What I was thinking about is you were describing that — is even something as simple as changing a policy or building a new procedure. That’s a kind of learning the brain has to — no pun intended — get its head around. You have to absorb that in some mode of learning because it’s new and different. And that in and of itself, new and different is learning, right? Am I wrong on that?
Yeah. So you can make implementing that change or that policy a whole lot harder. Okay. And you can bring the hard — make it hard drama and create all the resistance. Or you could look at some strategies of how the brain works best and do it differently. One of those being — you know, we want to start with the whole. On average, your brain learns best whole to parts. But yet that’s oftentimes not how we teach.
Most of us didn’t learn that way. We learned random facts that made no sense to us at that time. Maybe in time it did, rather than whole to parts. And that’s oftentimes the way we lead. We lead parts to whole. So you think about it like this. If I threw out a 5,000 piece puzzle, most people are going to say, where’s the box? And I want leaders to show the box. Then let’s distribute the puzzle pieces, because now I know why this puzzle piece matters. First of all, I know how it fits, maybe with other pieces. I know what the ultimate goal is going to look like. So that’s just one little thing — let’s say we’re implementing that policy. Okay. Well, let’s start by showing the box. What’s this going to look like, what winning looks like and how it’s going to help us do these things faster or better. Because your brain is also always tuned into the station WIIFM — What’s in it for me? So if I can show the box, how that box matters and how it links to maybe reducing your pain or increasing your pleasure, I can reduce resistance at this point.
Then if I can involve you in the process of putting that together, then that hits a negative threat. But also it enhances accountability and ownership. I feel valued, I feel included. All those things that are critical to feeling safe. And you know, you can take the exact same project that could potentially cause burnout — if led properly, that exact same project can create challenge and excitement and growth.
The Change Formula: D × V × F > R
You know, thank you for sharing that. I’m reminded there’s a principle that I sometimes include in my leadership — when a leader is coming to me saying I need to do better at change management. There is a teaching that is represented by a little equation. And you may know this, but it’s — we all know or we all believe we’ve experienced resistance to change. You have an idea and you say, hey, team, what about this? And you feel the resistance start to bubble up. You know, we’re not going to do that. So how do you overcome resistance? Well, this model looks a little bit like an algebra equation in school.
So for any of you math averse people listening right now, don’t change dials. Just hang with me a minute. But it’s the letters D times V — that’s delta times vector — times F. The product of that, the outcome of that, has to be greater than R. And that means you’ll overcome resistance. So the three variables have to do first with the letter D, which stands for dissatisfaction. Is there a current state of dissatisfaction with where we are? And I often tell the story. In my early banking days, we had a computer system that was terrible. Everybody hated it. And when the leadership finally agreed to replace the system, they hadn’t even announced what we were going to do. Everybody just said, yippee! Bring it on, we’re ready. The dissatisfaction was so incredibly high. It kind of didn’t matter. I joke we could have gone back to stone tablets, and I think everybody would have been fine with it. But sometimes there’s not a lot of dissatisfaction. People are really kind of comfortable with the status quo.
So that’s not really a place you can do much with. But the next two are — V is the vision. It’s what you were saying about painting that picture, giving a moment of clarity and encouraging people to consider the possibilities. But being very clear and painting a good picture of what we can have as an alternative. And then the third one, F, the letter F, is one that I think gets missed all the time. And that’s the idea of first steps. As a leader, you have to be able to show people the first steps moving forward with the change, because how many times have leaders made a big announcement about a change and they’ve pumped it up. They’ve shown all the numbers. They’ve explained the rationale, the case for change. People leave the all hands meeting. They go back to their desk and they go, wait a minute, how in the world are we going to go from here to there? And that’s that absence of first step as part of the story and giving people that idea.
And I think without the first step possibility, people are prone to fall back into the lockdown with their brain saying this is more of a threat than it is a possibility.
Oh that’s fantastic. I love that model. Because you’re right. Just tapping into the pain, the dissatisfaction, or painting this big compelling vision isn’t enough. And so oftentimes — not always — but oftentimes leaders are more of what I call wow people. They see the big vision and all of those things and more. Many times their team are more how people. So while we’re over there chasing the next shiny new object with this big idea, their brains are immediately going to how. And by providing those — I’m just thinking from a brain perspective — by providing those first steps, you are reducing the uncertainty with that clarity that is so necessary to reduce threat.
Well, and I go back to your puzzle analogy there. The show me the box is the vision thing. Let me get the picture. And here’s all these pieces laid out before me. What do people usually do as a first step in putting a puzzle together? Most people go for the border.
Yes, I do.
Because you can recognize that one straight edge on a piece and you go, this must be part of the border. So they frame the border, and then that starts giving them the color and the shape and all the things that can then move to the middle and fill in.
And from a brain perspective, it’s also giving your brain the much needed dopamine that allows you to focus — adrenaline to have more energy to keep doing it — because there’s chemicals that are impacted by threat. And you know, that just that feeling of movement in some level of satisfaction as you pull those pieces together motivates people to keep going.
Yeah. Thank you for the puzzle thing. That’s where I was going with it. And now I’ve taught that change formula for a long time, but I never had a really good word picture to go with it. So I’m going to steal your puzzle idea.
You got it.
Because that’s really fundamentally exactly what it is.
It absolutely is. And, you know, you think about when, especially when it’s a large scale change, even more important to show what winning looks like and the path on how we’re going to get there. Because now we’re expecting people to collaborate and share resources. And so that throws in a lot of different variables that can cause resistance — and involving them in the process — very important.
The CRANIUM Framework: Seven Strategies for a Brain-Friendly Culture
So you mentioned in kind of unlocking the brain for better learning, you mentioned in your book seven things. Can you run through those real quick for me?
Yes, I can. So it spells the word CRANIUM because it’s just an easy way to remember. And each one really meets one of the brain’s cravings.
So C is challenge, and it meets the brain’s need for safety.
Trust — R — that meets the brain’s need to see that bigger picture, but also to see how it matters to me.
The A — the action strategy — meets the brain’s needs for balance and focus. So this idea of multitasking, or not taking your PTO days, and all of those things — the action strategy is really talking about your brain having severe limitations and you need to work with those. Like you can’t go without sleep. Just some basic things like that.
The N in CRANIUM is novelty, and that really meets the brain’s need for curiosity and for growth.
The I strategy is interaction, and that meets the brain’s needs to be involved, to have a sense of ownership.
The U in CRANIUM is using emotion, and that really dives into emotional intelligence, but it really meets the need of the brain to have a vested interest in something.
And then the final one is M, which is the mosaic strategy. And it kind of amplifies all of them, but it’s the brain’s need for belonging. And interestingly enough, when you look at social rejection and physical pain, it’s virtually identical in your brain. So studies where people felt they didn’t belong or they felt rejected — it literally lights up the pain circuitry in the brain. So this idea to feel like I belong here, I’m valued — it is not touchy feely, happy clappy. It is science. And so if we want peak performance, we’ve got to make sure that you’ve got a culture where people truly feel a sense of belonging.
Trust Is the Foundation — Not a Soft Skill
A powerful, powerful stuff. Wow. Well, I love that, Sherry. What a great framework. And you’ve touched on so many really critical things. And again, as you were describing that, I’m thinking of some overlaps and parallels. I got a feeling you and I can talk about this for a very long time. To the audience, we’re not — we’re going to respect your time here. But again, kind of tied to the psychological safety study and some other things, a colleague of mine and I wrote a book back in — actually it came out right in 2020 — it was about trust. And how does a leader actually set up an environment for trust? And we had a six part wheel that’s part of the model.
And it gets into the idea that the way we build trust is by fundamentally poking the boundaries and asking questions. And I use the dating analogy when I talk about this — if you’re dating and you meet somebody new and you go out, what do you do? You sit there and you have a little bit of a dialogue, you’re probing. Usually it’s 20 questions, you know, where’d you grow up? What kind of food do you like? What about music? You ever travel? And it’s kind of surface, but it’s still that connecting. And if you like all the answers and they mutually likewise like all the answers, you do what — you agree to a second date. And then it starts to build, and eventually you might get to the place — hey, this could be my person. And I argue that the same thing happens at work for people in their environment. And I won’t go into all of it today for sake of time.
But there’s six focus areas and there’s a lot of parallel in your seven and my six with the idea of answering some of those questions and providing some of that information as a leader that people can connect to and really start to process properly. I’ll confess, I haven’t thought about the brain science aspect of what we’re doing with our six part wheel. But now that you’ve inspired me, I’m going to go do that. I think there’s a very real connection there that I think explains a lot of the dynamic.
I do too, and I’m going to look up your stuff on trust because it is foundational. And it’s one of those things that oftentimes we want other people to earn our trust. But the other side of that is what are you doing to earn other people’s trust. And so like it’s both given — it’s both extended, but it’s also earned on both sides of that. And so to just even focus on that one thing with a team can start to — you’ll start to see those other strategies come to life a lot easier, I would say. If you do nothing else, start working on creating an environment of trust.
If that’s the number one thing — your brain, again, is always just asking, am I safe? And it’s interesting when you look at different brains needing different things to feel safe. So a lot of times assessments can help you find some of that out. Like some people’s brains need to be in control to feel safe. So I want to give them more autonomy. Some people’s brains need to feel liked to feel safe. So it’s important if I give them feedback, I’m doing it maybe in a different kind of way. Some people’s brains need accuracy to feel safe and detail, and so just even knowing that about your team can start to feel greater trust.
Finding Each Person’s Zone of Genius
Yeah. You know, you saying that, I’m reminded of a guest I had a couple of years ago. She was talking about the concept of finding the zone of genius for your people, and it was exactly what you’re just saying. And she used the example. She had a person on her team that was very detail oriented, and she thrived mashing through minutia, you know, detail and kind of effort. And there was another person that couldn’t stand details. They were more of a big picture kind of person. And this leader that I was interviewing said that she learned quickly her best result was properly allocating work to leverage and take advantage of those predisposed strengths that people had. And I know that may be hard to do in some work settings. You can’t always carve things out that way. But certainly for implementing a change, there’s usually elements of it that are very appropriate for breaking down like that and letting the people with the natural bent go that way, have the lead on it and take care of that kind of effort for the implementation.
Yeah, we — the motivation behind the mosaic strategy, which is the last — is it’s exactly what you’re saying. You think about a mosaic artist. They know all the resources that they have, all the little fragments — and those are our strengths, our interests, our past experiences, our goals. As a leader, it’s being in continuous conversation and being continuously curious about what are all the people resources that I have and how can I arrange that? Similar to a mosaic, those are all just pieces pulled together.
They make a masterpiece though, and but it does require the leader to stay curious about that and to bring continuous conversation. If you think you’re going to get that by the one annual performance review, we’ve got that wrong. It’s — I would throw it out actually, if I were in charge. Those conversations should be happening all the time.
Right?
Right. But that’s only going to happen in a high trust environment. So it’s sort of like one can contribute to the other.
Practical Takeaway: The “Real Problem” Behind the Presenting Problem
Yeah. You know, and one last thought, speaking of trust, I was invited to do a presentation to a team yesterday, and the leader was really focused on trying to figure out how to build more accountability and purpose driven momentum for his team. And we were talking about that in a lot of different ways. But finally I said, well, there’s one question I haven’t asked you. I said — does your team trust each other and do they trust you? And he just froze.
He said ouch. You know, he said I think the honest answer in a word is no. I said, well, then we have a whole different body of work to work on before we get to this other thing we’ve been talking about.
Yeah. And what a great example, though, of the presenting problem — as we know in coaching — is not the real problem, but the presenting problem is pointing you in a direction to get curious about. If this is the result, what are the actions driving that result? And then let’s go one level deeper — what are the beliefs that need to shift to get to that result? And you — I mean, good for you for recognizing and asking and helping them understand that you could go in and you can implement all of these actions and reporting procedures or whatever, but we’ve got to get to the real root, which is the belief that I can’t trust, I’m not safe here.
Right.
That’s powerful. And that’s providing a great solution to someone.
Well, jury’s still out. I’ll see where he wants to go with this.
Wow.
But yeah, it was a great opportunity to see about that. And you’re right. We as coaches, that’s what we’re listening for as we’re hearing people present their sense of reality. You’re always keen to try to say, yeah, the problem that problem is not your problem.
It isn’t. And it goes right back to even what feels familiar. If we could just get really curious about how does that make sense to them, and how has that become what feels familiar to them — that’s where we can really start to make change.
Closing Thoughts
Great. I think that’s a good closing homily there. Sherry, I thank you so much for going on. And like I said, I’m confident you and I could probably have this chat for much longer. I’ll have you back for a second edition here, but tell the folks the best way to get in touch if they want to know more about your work.
Well, my book that came out in November is The Science of High Performance Leadership, and it’s available wherever you get books. And our website is yellingroup.com — Y-E-L-L-I-N-G-R-O-U-P dot com. We do a session every month. It’s the third Tuesday of every month. It’s a really neat time to just come together with other leaders from different industries. And we dive into a topic for about 45 minutes. And so that’s always an open invitation. And the nice thing is no camera required. You can just listen while you’re driving in if you want to.
We would love to have anybody join us there.
Well, good. Well, Sherry, we will certainly have those links in the show notes and encourage folks, when you do get a chance to check that out, please do. And take advantage of Sherry’s wonderful invitation there. But I think with this, we’re about wrapped up for today. I want to remind you, we do have a video version of this show over on YouTube channel by the same name — Leadership Powered by Common Sense. Join me over there. Leave us a comment. Let me know if you’ve got an idea for a guest or another show topic you’d like to hear. Always interested in doing that for you. But for now, we’re going to sign off. Say goodbye. Go out there. Make it a great day.
Meet Our Guest
Dr. Sherry Yellin is the founder of The Yellin Group, where she blends the science of learning with the art of leadership to help teams thrive from the inside out. With over 30 years of experience as an executive coach, leadership strategist, and educator, Sherry equips leaders to align with how the brain works best building trust, boosting engagement, and unlocking high performance.
She is the author of The Science of High-Performance Leadership and creator of the CRANIUM Framework, a practical, neuroscience-based model for leading with clarity, resilience, and influence. Her work has been trusted by NASA, Fortune 500 companies, healthcare systems, educational institutions, and nonprofit organizations worldwide.
Sherry’s clients range from emerging leaders to CEOs, and her impact includes guiding struggling leaders to become respected and trusted executives, helping organizations rise from their lowest to highest performance rankings, and equipping thousands with tools to lead without burnout or toxic culture.
A sought-after keynote speaker and podcast guest, Sherry is known for delivering bold insights, sticky stories, and actionable strategies that transform leadership and culture.
Learn more at yellingroup.com.
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