%201.jpg)
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
Built by Staying
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
In this episode of Meditations on Leadership, Don reflects on Built by Staying and the quiet power of long term commitment in leadership. He explores how trust, credibility, and transformation are not built through declarations or quick wins, but through showing up consistently over time, especially when the work is slow, complex, or unseen.
Don is joined by Emanuel Pariser, a longtime educator, co-founder of the Community School in Maine, and leader in alternative education whose reputation has been shaped by decades of staying with young people at critical turning points in their lives. Emanuel shares hard earned insights about trust, uncertainty, and the personal costs and rewards of staying when leaving might have been easier.
Together, they reflect on the difference between staying as an act of commitment and staying too long, what adolescents teach us about trust, and how leaders can build the endurance and humility this work requires.
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.