By Owen Phelps, Ph.D. Director, Yeshua Institute In two days I turn 70. That’s not bragging. That’s taking a deep breath of gratitude. Without the graces of God and the miracles of modern medicine, I would have checked out from a heart attack on Easter Sunday, April 20, 2003, at age 55. My obit would not have mentioned my 50th wedding anniversary, celebrated this past December. It would have said I was survived by five grandchildren, not 16. It would not have mentioned my work with the Yeshua Institute or The Catholic Leader. My book, The Catholic Vision for Leading Like Jesus: Introducing S3 Lea...

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Pope Francis is now dropping by for a brief daily visit, thanks to an old friend and S3 advocate, Salesian Father Michael Mendl, who provided us with a link to the new video service recently. The pope is willing to drop by your laptop, tablet or phone too. You just have to sign up for The Message of the Day – a free, professionally produced video that runs for one to two minutes daily. A link to that day’s short video arrives in your email each morning. The content is created from the pope’s daily homilies at Santa Marta and other venues. The videos are produced in English, Spanish and Portuguese...

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We’ve got some good news for nonprofits that often struggle to complete financially for employees with better resourced employers in the for-profit world. Money isn’t everything. And if money is scarce, you don’t have to settle for being an employer-of-last-resort. What you do have to do, however, is engage the passions of people and help them connect their work to what matters in their lives – their purpose. Big shift “Over the last two decades, the relationships that individuals expect to have with their employers and their roles at work have begun to shift,” says Alaina...

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By Dick Kunnert Yeshua Institute Senior Fellow & Board Member In the Head module of the Catholic Vision for Leading Like Jesus, participants are asked to look at the issue of life’s purpose. Why did God make you? You are not an accident. In God’s worldview, He intended for each of us to be part of the planet. He gave each of us a set of gifts to develop. And for those who suffer disability, He carries the expectation that those of us with gifts will attend to our sisters and brothers who need help. We are not waifs just set adrift in the world to waste our talents. Actually, parents are to help ...

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“Listening is difficult because it involves suppressing your ego long enough to consider what is being said before you respond.” Stop. Think about that. To be an effective S1 Servant Leader, we must begin with the premise, “It’s not about me.” That’s as true in conversations as it is anywhere else. In fact, even if the other person is talking about me, the reality is that he or she is usually not talking about me. He or she is talking about his or her own perceptions and feelings. A good listener starts from that premise, so there’s no reason to be defensive no matter what...

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Nicholas Petrie, a senior faculty member at the Center for Creative Leadership, devotes much of his professional life teaching leaders how to keep the pressures of their lives from morphing into stress. The good news is that it can be done. Petrie should know. He’s had to deal with one of life’s great stressors – cancer. And he had to do it three times. Fortunately, cancer was not his only teacher. He credits Dr. Derek Roger, who had spent 30 years researching why some people in difficult situations become overwhelmed and others don’t, with changing his outlook. “He taugh...

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