It started when a marketing executive, floored by her ability to command a room, asked the one thing high-performers usually can’t articulate: “Where did you learn to speak like that?” At the time, L.Michelle gave the standard corporate answer something about her background as a media trainer. But for a woman with what she calls a "thriving curiosity," that wasn’t enough. She knew the source was deeper. She knew it didn’t come from a textbook or a certification.
Call and Response Author, L.Michelle Smith
She spent the next ten years looking for "legs" the data to prove that what she, and so many other Black executives, brought into the boardroom wasn’t just "personality." It was an applied science.
"I wanted to validate the wisdom that’s been spilling out of us for years," she says.
Her research led her back to the pews of the Black Church what she now calls the "Original Business School." It’s an intensive training ground where, at just 14 years old, L.Michelle was tasked with teaching adult Sunday School. In a community where "little people get big jobs," she was building leadership muscles and stakeholder management skills long before she had a Fortune 10 resume.
“The things we were told to 'check at the door' are actually our greatest competitive advantages.”
But this isn’t just a nostalgic look back. It’s a rigorous analysis. L.Michelle surveyed 155 high-performing Black executives (many of them ELC fellows) to codify exactly how these traditions translate to the bottom line. She discovered that the #1 skill for resilience in the C-suite isn't a productivity hack it's Hope Theory, the psychological science of anticipation.
When we spoke, L.Michelle was in the thick of what she calls "life, life, life." She’s navigating the beautiful, chaotic "sandwich" many high-achieving women know by heart: raising a teen volleyball standout while loving on her parents who live nearby. She’s "strung out," yet perfectly composed a living testament to the very resilience she’s spent a decade studying.
Her new book, Call and Response, is finally giving the C-suite a manual for the "secret sauce." L.Michelle isn't just telling us to be our full selves; she’s giving us the data to prove why it works.
Watch the full "Winning Season" conversation with L. Michelle Smith here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbZ2EUvCsSk
Order your copy of Call and Response: 10 Leadership Lessons from the Black Church here: https://amzn.to/4kwPVbN