Before Boardrooms, There Were Pulpits, Podiums and Choir Stands

“Some leadership lessons aren’t taught — they’re absorbed.

In the Black Church, they seep into your spirit between Sunday School and fish fries. They hitch a ride in the choir stand, on the platform behind the pulpit, on the marble floors of fellowship halls.

Over the past year, while writing Call & Response: 10 Leadership Lessons from the Black Church (Amistad-HarperCollins/JVL Media llc), I had the honor of sitting with 13 of the most brilliant Black executives, entrepreneurs, and experts you could imagine.

C-Suite trailblazers.

Innovators.

Movement makers.

Every single one of them rooted in something deeper than degrees, titles, or LinkedIn profiles.

What I found along the way wasn’t just confirmation of what I already knew in my bones — that the Black Church has been the original leadership academy for generations — it was a rich, layered tapestry of shared experiences, small but seismic truths.

And it’s those smaller truths I want to explore with you today.

Because leadership, real leadership, doesn’t start after the GMAT or in the corner office. It starts somewhere much closer to home for many Black executives — and it was a lot less glamorous.”

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