Call and Response: 10 Leadership Lessons from the Black Church

In collaboration with JVL Media—a captivating exploration of why many high-performing Black business leaders attribute their transformational leadership qualities to their experiences growing up in the Black Church and how we can foster these skills in younger generations despite waning church attendance.

The Black church in the U.S. has long been a “one-stop shop” for developing Black leaders, teaching them many of the qualities required to lead effectively in today’s ultra-competitive, digital, and swiftly transforming corporate world. Many high-performing Black leaders benefited from their experiences growing up in this cultural institution steeped in rich history.

Merging cultural study with applied neuroscience and tenets of positive psychology, L. Michelle Smith dissect how these qualities are demonstrated by leaders across industries, from resiliency to their sense of undeniable purpose, their ability to build community and collaborative environments, the delivery and language of their speaking style to their unique leadership flair. She reveals how this historic institution has served as a timeless wellspring of leadership development, empowerment, and cultural preservation and ultimately, is Black leaders’ “secret sauce.”

Call and Response also explores whether the Black Church will be able to continue to ingrain these skills in future generations. Smith examines how cultural shifts have resulted in a decline in church attendance, how online attendance has risen since the Covid pandemic, and finally, how Black leaders may—or may not—be passing these traditions down to their children.

L. Michelle Smith helps organizations build heart-centered leaders who can lead well in a fast-moving, high-pressure world shaped by complexity, disruption, and machine learning. Working at the intersection of science and culture, she equips leaders to strengthen the human capabilities that matter most now: judgment, emotional intelligence, cultural intelligence, trust, adaptability, communication, and the ability to lead people through uncertainty without losing the human core of leadership.

She is the founder and CEO of no silos communications llc, a media and consulting company that develops executive leaders and transforms organizations through executive coaching, enterprise learning, culture work, and leadership development. Through her proprietary Leadership Revival Framework, L. Michelle integrates applied neuroscience, positive psychology, and cultural insight to help leaders grow from the inside out. With SOAR DISCernIQ and AI Intelligence, she is adding CQ, EQ, and IQ to assess leadership patterns more deeply, measure growth, and build stronger heart-centered leadership across organizations.

A bestselling, award-winning author, Fortune 100 C-Suite advisor, and certified executive and personal coach, L. Michelle has more than 25 years of experience across global agencies, corporate leadership, media, and entrepreneurship. She made vice president before age 30, senior vice president before 40, and later led her own agency as chief executive for nearly a decade.

She is the author of four books, including Call & Response: 10 Leadership Lessons from the Black Church, and the creator and host of The Culture Soup Podcast® and Her Next Power Move. Her clients have included leaders from American Express, Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Bank of America, Charles Schwab, Netflix, CNN, Capital One, and AT&T.