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Meditations on Leadership with Don Carpenter
Leadership begins within.
In Meditations on Leadership with Don Carpenter, author, youth development pioneer, and relational leadership coach Don Carpenter invites you into a weekly practice of deeper reflection, personal clarity, and meaningful connection.
Each episode begins with a short meditation from Don’s soon to be released book, The Inner Work of Leadership: 52 Meditations for a Life of Meaning, Courage, and Growth. From there, Don offers personal commentary and lived insights before welcoming a guest, leaders from all walks of life, to explore how that week’s theme plays out in their own professional journey. The episode closes with two powerful questions to help you pause, reflect, and grow as a leader from the inside out.
Whether you’re leading a team, a classroom, a nonprofit, or your own life, this podcast is a companion for those committed to doing the inner work that sustains courageous outer change.
Meditations on Leadership with Don Carpenter
The Stillness That Leads
In today’s episode, “The Stillness That Leads,” Don reflects on the power of contemplation and silence as essential foundations for grounded, authentic leadership.
Joining him is Jack Carpenter — a lifelong mentor, spiritual guide, and Don’s uncle. Jack served with Young Life from 1961 to 2015, including over 20 years as a regional director. He and his wife Judith raised four children, spent twelve years living and working on the campus of Dana Hall School, and later moved to Maine, where they continued their shared commitment to spiritual formation and youth development.
Throughout his life, Jack has helped launch numerous youth-focused initiatives, served on the Governor’s Committee for Mentoring Youth, and founded Youth Forum Maine, a rural leadership project inspired by Youth Forum Minnesota, where he has served as Executive Director for over the past 30 years.
This conversation is a quiet invitation to consider how stillness — far from being the absence of leadership — may in fact be its most powerful source.
To learn more about Don's work, upcoming offerings, and leadership resources, visit carpentercompanyconsulting.com
If something in today’s episode spoke to you, I hope you’ll subscribe and continue the journey with me — because leadership begins within.