LEARNING TO LEAD LIKE JESUS -- Several of the 180 seminarians who attended the 2015 Seminarians’ Fraternity Retreat gather around Bishop Paul Ssemwogere, head of the Kasana-Luwero Diocese, site of the gathering. Bishop Ssemwogere spoke on the retreat’s theme, "Called to Lead Like Jesus." How a single copy of a book starts a movement The Yeshua Institute is looking for partners to help us teach seminarians in Uganda how to Lead Like Jesus. Almost miraculously, the story of our work with seminarians there begins with a single copy of a book. Cultivating soil The soil in which our service to ...

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Alaina Love says good leaders are stewards of their organizations and “should be champions of the ideas and people who make it run.” Love, COO and president of Purpose Linked Consulting and co-author of The Purpose Linked Organization: How Passionate Leaders Inspire Winning Teams and Great Results, says one enemy of effective leadership is the desire to exercise control. “If you allow the culture that has made your organization successful to be smothered by corporate need for control, the opportunities to innovate will diminish. And the only ones who’ll be left at the table for dessert are you...

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In the Yeshua Institute’s latest video, Jesus: Best Leadership Model and Teacher, Dr. Owen Phelps takes less than four minutes to outline why Jesus is the best leadership model and teacher of all time. Owen notes that empirical evidence continues to pile up that self-serving leaders are not effective leaders over the long-term. “When it becomes obvious that leaders are looking out only for their own interests, followers feel compelled to look out for themselves first too,” he says. “Of course, that means no one is looking out for the organization’s mission. So it’s no wonder that o...

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Some years ago our school district’s board took a bold step and hired a woman from out of state to be our new school superintendent. I was elated. Soon I had the opportunity to meet her at a social gathering, and I came away thoroughly impressed and convinced that she was an excellent choice to lead the most important organization in our community. Among her first responsibilities was to hire a principal before the new fall term began. And when I saw who she had hired, I had second thoughts about the superintendent’s qualifications. Even before I had the chance to meet the new principal, I suspected we had a...

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“Amazing bosses try to make work meaningful and enjoyable for employees,” and they do it primarily by adhering to five rules of thumb, says Harvard Business Review (HBR). While none of the rules mention the leadership of Jesus, all of them correspond to the way he led and taught his disciples to lead. Here are the five listed by HBR (with our own reflections in italics). 1. Manage individuals, not just teams.  When you’re under pressure, you can forget that employees have varying interests, abilities, goals, and styles of learning. But it’s important to understand what makes each ...

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A story in the business magazine FastCompany reports that the Marines have made some changes in their boot camp training to increase the engagement of new recruits. No, they haven’t made the boot camp experience even more oppressive. Instead, they’ve added more options, as well as assigned tasks that come without instructions for how to complete them. The changes, according to Charles Duhigg, the New York Times reporter and Pulitzer Prize winner who is also author of the books The Power of Habit and Smarter Faster Better: The Secrets of Being Productive in Life, were made by the Marines after they discove...

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  A recent Catholic Vision for Leading Like Jesus Encounter in Palatine, IL, drew high praise from participants  -- perhaps increasing the appeal of an Encounter scheduled April 28, in Osage, IA at Sacred Heart Parish. Here is a sampling of comments from participants in Palatine: “Excellent presentation ... great resource to help me be a better Christian, employee, friend and mentor.” “Wonderful and inspiring.” “Very helpful and informative; it will help me in my work and personal life.” “Excellent! Even having read the book beforehand, I found that this...

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A Lead Like Jesus Jail Ministry founded by Yeshua Institute Fellow, Board Member and Senior Facilitator Dick Kunnert recently celebrated its seventh anniversary. To date the ministry has hosted more than 1,000 Encounter participants – and many of them have reported life-changing transformations as a result of the experience. “I think about (what I did) every day. I wish I never did it. No one was hurt, thank God,” a 19-year-old Hispanic prisoner told a reporter from the local daily newspaper six days after he participated in the Encounter. He had arrived at the first session of the Encounter with...

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If you’re wondering what to do with your life after Easter, Pope Francis has a suggestion for you. You can read his new apostolic exhortation, “Amoris Laetitia (The Joy of Love), on Love in the Family.” At 60,000 words and over 250 pages, it should keep people busy for a long, long time – especially if they have to sneak time for it into busy days packed with work and child care responsibilities. (A PDF download is available free here; various paperback editions are also available.) The new document, released at the Vatican April 8, is Pope Francis’ reflections on family and church issue...

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A Catholic Vision for Leading Like Jesus Encounter will be held April 28, in Osage, IA at Sacred Heart Parish. People who sign up through their parish can attend at no charge. The cost for others to participate is $79. “Many people don’t think of themselves as leaders, but anytime anyone tries to influence anyone else they are taking on the role of leader -- so that means everyone is a leader some of the time,” says Dr. Owen Phelps, Director of the Yeshua Institute. “At the Encounter we equip people to be effective leaders in their homes, workplaces, parishes and other communities of which ...

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