How to Win Friends and Influence People is the title of a best-selling back by Dale Carnegie published way back in 1937. But St. Ignatius of Loyola was addressing that same subject centuries ago. And all the talk today about “customer-centered” enterprises would not have bee...

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  By Owen Phelps, Ph.D. Director, Yeshua Catholic International Leadership Institute At various times in our lives, we’ve all suffered the slings and arrows of difficult change. Maybe a move forced us to change schools and reluctantly leave dear friends behind. Maybe it was head...

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  By Owen Phelps, Ph.D. Director, Yeshua Catholic International Leadership Institute In a fascinating Harvard Business Review blog post, Bill Taylor, co-founder of Fast Company magazine, says the key to high performing organizations is recognizing that culture matters. And in an organ...

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  Father Antonio Brandao, a Portuguese Jesuit, once submitted a list of 15 questions about the spiritual life to St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits. The sixth question asked what method of meditation was the best. Ignatius replied by recommending the constant practice of seeki...

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A new book appeared this month which offers the first extensive empirical data regarding the role of servant leadership in creating and sustaining vibrant parishes. Servant Leadership Models for Your Parish by Dan R. Ebener, Ph.D., reports on two studies conducted in the Diocese of Davenport (IA)...

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St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, knew what "overload" meant. Recognizing that it's easy for us to get so wrapped up in what we're doing that we forget why we're doing it, here's what he told his followers in the Constitutions of the Society of Jesus: "...

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  Every organization likes to think of itself as effective and innovative, but you don't have to be the latest reincarnation of Einstein to realize that's not true very often. Especially when it comes to being innovative, virtually all organizations could do better — and most c...

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  By Owen Phelps, Ph.D. Director, Yeshua Catholic International Leadership Institute In the last issue of The Catholic Leader, we discussed some of the problems that arise in compliance cultures — where leadership sends the message that the chief expectation of followers is that th...

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Some things never change. Writing 500 years ago, St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, acknowledged that his followers often had difficulty finding time to pray. Although he insisted on the importance of making some time for prayer, he also offered another suggestion: Make your work you...

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Writing 500 years ago, St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, had some timely advice for us on the threshold of a new year and a new decade in a still new century. He insisted that just as any goal can motivate us, the higher goal of serving God should motivate Christians much more than bas...

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