Our Focus

In the last century our lives have come to be dominated by ever larger, more complex organizations. Many of us work for them. All of us rely on them for our food, clothing, transportation, medical care, information, markets and most everything else that sustains and enriches our lives.

But organizations do not only enrich us. They complexify our lives. Often they frustrate us. Not infrequently they fail us.

Because the quality of our lives is so reliant on the processes of organizations, organizational effectiveness has become the central issue in benchmarking the quality of human life in the world today.

Improving performance in organizations — large or small — begins with a grasp what organizations really are. Seeing them in terms of mechanistic structures is simplistic. It obscures more than it reveals. Instead, we have to see them as organic, living systems.

Specifically, organizations are social systems that exist for a purpose — and their health relies on how well they interact both internally and with their external environments.

The internal and external interactions that give life to an organization are, in fact, relationships among individuals. Nothing contributes to — or detracts from — organizational effectiveness more than the ability of individuals to foster and maintain effective relationships. A part of that process involves leadership. So the leadership aptitudes of the people who make up an organization are critical to its effectiveness.

The purpose of the Midwest Leadership Institute is to develop the leadership potential of each member of an organization to achieve optimum performance in any environment.

Our Methods

MLI achieves its mission in four ways:

• Learning Materials
• Presentations, Workshops and Seminars
• Consulting services
• Coaching

Our Director

Dr. Owen Phelps brings a unique perspective the task of improving organizational performance that is grounded in his broad, yet intimate and hands-on experience in a variety of organizational settings.

He has served as an executive for a large, rapidly growing publications firm, as founder and owner of his own publications company, as editor and communications director for a large non-profit organization, as a consultant to both for-profit and not-for-profit operations across the country, and as a university faculty member teaching organizational dynamics to graduate business students.

There is one constant in his life. “I have always been a student,” he says.

Dr. Phelps has developed several unique approaches to optimize organizational performance that apply in every organizational setting, including:

• S² Leadership Edge — Research shows that an effective leader in any environment is a Servant Leader and a Steward Leader. Explore what these two concepts mean — and learn how you can develop your skills to enjoy the S² Leadership Edge.

• C₃ Leadership Framework — Management has three ends: compliance C₁, cooperation C₂ or contribution C₃. Discover the costs and benefits of each — and how you can become a C₃ leader.

• The Einstein Insight: Making Your Organization Whole Body Smart — See your organization in a whole new way that unleashes its power to achieve optimum performance,

Dr. Phelps shares these and other uniquely valuable perspectives and skills in his talks and seminars around the country.

Dr. Phelps’ faith-based credentials