Leslie Yerkes
Cleveland , Ohio, USA
Community Member AuthorContact Leslie Yerkes
Leslie Yerkes has been advancing the cause of positive organizational culture for over twenty-five years, ever since she started The Catalyst Consulting Group with a mission to do consulting with a conscience. Her interests are many but her vision for a workplace emboldened by empowered, enthusiastic employees and managers is singular.
Author of five books, including three for Berrett-Koehler, Leslie tends to run with her enthusiasms only after testing their viability in the rubber-meets-the-road environments of the organizations she consults with, be they small passionate non-profits or global Fortune 50 conglomerates. She nailed ‘fun at work' with co-author Dave Helmsath way back in 1997, and revisited the concept with the essential Fun Works, Creating Places Where People Love to Work, in 2001.
In re-doing the book for a second edition, a lot of her experience and learning fueled a renewal of her enthusiasm. All of a sudden the idea of fun at work was not nearly as magnetic for her as was the conception of a soft science of organizational change, a conception for which fun and fulfillment were ingredients in a much more robust mix.
This mix was geared to provide a recipe for a richly complex, sophisticated and deeply human view about how to optimally support business success by supporting the success of the people that are the human core of the organization.
They Just Don't Get It: Changing Resistance Into Understanding, is of a piece with this too. The book addresses how communication can be undermined, while it provides practical techniques to explore and solve communication problems. There's little that can be changed in an organization unless stakeholders listen closely, and support their ow and each other's openness, and, are passionate about daring to do things—together-- differently.
As a consultant, author, thought leader, and keynote speaker, Leslie is all about deep change and other kinds of daring.
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Change is difficult but essential—Esther Derby offers seven guidelines for change by attraction, an approach that draws p...
Sought-after speaker and consultant Joan Kuhl arms young women with the tools they need to transform male-dominated corpo...
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Most books for people who would rather get a root canal than face a roomful of strangers tell readers how to fight agains...
“This is a must-read for bosses and subordinates alike, as it exposes our flaws but teaches us how we can work together t...
In forty-two succinct, surprising essays, legendary scholar Henry Mintzberg brings management down from the clouds and on...
Without a deep understanding of your company’s culture, any change effort you undertake will fail. Bestselling author Jon...
We are living in a time when dishonesty and duplicity are becoming commonplace. Each of us can fight this cultural corrup...
Tom Szaky sets out to do the impossible – eliminate all waste. This book paints a future of a “circular economy” that rel...
Top Cornell law professor Lynn Stout and her coauthors Tamara Belinfanti and Sergio Gramitto offer a visionary but practi...
Veteran project manager and University of California professor Zachary Wong identifies the eight most common people probl...
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Services include:
- Consulting
- Facilitating
- Performance coaching
- Speaking
Corporations Manufacturing
Ameritech, Chemical Methods, Ben Venue Laboratories, The Kirby Co., The Blonder Company, Summers Rubber Co., Chrysler Corp., TALAN Products, Cleveland Financial Group, TremcoCohen & Company, Van Dorn Demag, ConferonWIRE-NetDeloitte & Touche, Enterprise Rent-A-Car
Health Care
Fed Ex Custom Critical, The Cleveland Clinic Foundation, McDonald & Company, The Cleveland Oral Clinic, Norstan Euclid Hospital, Pro-Ed Communications, Health Hill Hospital for Children, Realty One, Hillcrest Hospital, Renaissance Cleveland Hotel, Hillside Rehabilitation Hospital, Roberts Express, Huron Hospital, Sheraton Suites of Columbus, Lake Hospital, SystemSky Financial Group, Meridia Health System, Sodexho, Marriott Meridia Institute, The Strang Corp., Meridia Mental Health Center, TRION Technologies, Meridia School of Management, The Victor S. Voinovich Co., Metro Health Medical Center, The Westfield Group, Montefiore Nursing Home
Civic and Community Service Organizations
St. Luke's Hospital, AIDS Taskforce of Greater Cleveland, South Pointe Hospital, Bellflower Center, Summa Health Care, Case Western Reserve University, Visiting Nurse Assoc., The Child Life Council of America, Wadsworth Rittman Hospital, Cleveland Council of Smaller Enterprises
Arts
The Cleveland Foundation, Cincinnati Arts Consortium, Cleveland Metro Parks, Cleveland Ballet, Cuyahoga Community College, Cleveland Museum of Art, Cuyahoga County Board of Directors, Lyric Opera, Cuyahoga County Board of Directors, National Afro American Museum, Greater Cleveland Growth Assoc.Ohio Arts Council, Hellenic Preservation Society
Government
The Hispanic Cultural Center, Cuyahoga Work in Training, Hospice of the Western Reserve, The Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, Lakewood City Schools, The Ohio Arts Council Recovery Resources Inc.Ohio Industrial Commission, St. Luke's Foundation, State of Ohio Training Assoc.,United Way of Defiance County
Available upon request.
"Leslie Yerkes is energizing!"
"Leslie's Session was excellent, it's nice to have hands-on in the learning process."
- MMAC Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce
"Catalyst's brainpower, strategic insight and ability to independently inspire the 'team' to reach the next level will double your cash flow in 12 months."
- David Strang, The Strang Company
