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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
When the Conditions are Right
In this episode, Don reflects on a lesson learned among the redwoods of the Pacific Northwest - that growth can’t be forced; it can only be cultivated when the conditions are right.
His guest, Elias Edwards-Jenks, embodies that truth. A former Trekkers student turned educator and community leader, Elias now leads the NOVA Alternative Education Program in Rockland, Maine, where he’s creating a relationship-based model that helps students reconnect to learning and to themselves.
Together, Don and Elias explore what it really means to build environments—whether in classrooms, organizations, or communities - where people can thrive. They talk about trust, belonging, the power of hands-on learning, and how leadership, like nature, flourishes when tended with care.
When the conditions are right, big things grow.
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.