Her Next Power Move

I’ll get right to it: I have room for two new executive coaching clients, and I’ve been wondering when you’d let me know you’re ready.

Between the shift to AI, the ongoing tug of war over return to office, and a job market that has good people feeling shaky, leading well right now takes more than it used to. If you’re the kind of leader who’s holding your team together through all of it, often wit...

EPISODE SUMMARY

There is a statistic that should stop every leader in their tracks. Only one in ten employees believes their feedback actually leads to action. In this episode, L. Michelle Smith takes a high-level journey through the August Circle cohort theme — The Trust Gap: Leading When Your People Are Watching Everything — and unpacks what the research says about self-trust, psychological safety, and what it actually...

HER NEXT POWER MOVE Episode 28: What Will Still Be Standing? World Work and the Leadership Legacy You Are Building Right Now

Episode Summary

There is a ledger that does not show up in any performance review or quarterly report. And yet it is the one that will ultimately determine what kind of leader you actually were.

In this episode, L. Michelle Smith explores the third and most demanding lens of the Leadership Revival Framework &mda...

Episode Summary

Most leaders moving through a hard season are doing exactly what the moment demands — keeping up, delivering, staying functional. What fewer are doing is asking the question that actually determines what they come out with on the other side.

In this episode, L. Michelle Smith draws on neuroscience and positive psychology to examine the difference between managing capacity and intentionally building it — an...

Episode Summary

When did you last follow someone else?

Most high-achieving leaders never stop long enough to ask that question. And that silence is costing their teams more than they realize. In this episode, L. Michelle Smith draws from the final chapter of her bestselling book Call and Response: 10 Leadership Lessons from the Black Church to explore one of the most counterintuitive concepts in leadership development: the power of ...

Episode Summary

Something shifted this week — and if you lead people, you need to pay attention to it.

A woman recently filed for religious accommodation based on her objection to using artificial intelligence at work. She won. The accommodation was granted. What was once a philosophical conversation has become an operational reality, and it arrived faster than most organizations were prepared to handle.

In this episode, L. Mich...

Episode Summary In this episode, host L. Michelle Smith dives into the essential elements of strategic leadership and the mindset shifts required for executive growth. Whether you are looking to level up in your current role or preparing for your next big power move, this conversation provides the insights needed to lead with purpose and authority.

Key Takeaways

* Lead with Strategy: Understanding how to pivot from operational manage...

Last night, I had the opportunity to speak with a remarkable group of professional women about what it really means to find your voice in today’s work environment.

What emerged in that conversation was powerful: for many leaders, this is not fundamentally a communication problem. It is a clarity, confidence, and regulation problem shaped by stress, uncertainty, overload, and the growing demands of modern work.

That insight insp...

🎙️ Episode 23: The Space Between: Where Leadership Gets Lost and How to Finds it Again

You can say the right thing… and still not be heard the way you intended.

In this episode of Her Next Power Move, L. Michelle Smith explores the often overlooked space between what leaders say and how their message is actually received—especially in moments of change.

As organizations lean into AI, leaders are being asked to communicat...

NEW YORK CITY & NEW JERSEY:The Call and Response book tour will be in your area soon! Mark your calendar to sit with myself and Carla Harris for a conversation about how heart-centered leadership is built, why we need it today, and where those foundational lessons came from for the both of us and many other amazing corporate leaders that are at the top of their games today.Join us and special host Michael Hyter for the engagi...

HER NEXT POWER MOVEEpisode 22: Capacity Is an Inside JobHosted by L. Michelle Smith

In this first episode back since the end of 2025, L. Michelle reflects on what has come into sharper focus during her Call and Response book and media tour and introduces the deeper shift happening across her work: a stronger emphasis on heart-centered leadership.

This episode takes a closer look at capacity, but not from the usual team-performance an...

Seems befitting that a I leverage AI for my end-of-year wrap up, in a year where I integrated AI into my coach-facilitator and C-suite advisement practice. Her Next Power Move is officially in hiatus until the New Year, so take a listen to the podcast created with the data I fed the platform to create the audio and the visuals you see here.

This year wasn’t about visibility.It was about validity.I spent 2025 heads down—...

Summary:As the year winds down, many high-performing leaders find themselves mentally drained in a way that sleep alone can’t fix. This episode breaks down the neuroscience of year-end fatigue—why your brain feels foggy, unfocused, or simply done—and why this season hits harder than any other quarter.

Grounded in research from cognitive science and positive psychology, we explore how chronic decision-making deplete...

Episode 20 — When It Feels Like the Wrong People Are Winning

OverviewEvery leader eventually encounters a moment when it looks like the wrong people are getting ahead — the shortcut-takers, the corner-cutters, the ones who maneuver instead of lead. It’s frustrating, not because you’re chasing recognition, but because you’re committed to integrity. In today’s episode of Her Next Power Move™, we exp...

Uncertainty is the leader’s constant companion. When everything around you feels unstable, it’s not about avoiding the chaos—it’s about learning to lead through it.

In this episode of Her Next Power Move™, I explore what happens in the brain during moments of instability and how leaders can use neuroscience-backed tools to stay calm, clear, and focused. You’ll learn why calm isn’t just an emotiona...

The world feels unsteady.

You can see it in the way people hold their breath in meetings, measure their words, guard their ideas.

We can’t fix everything out there—but as leaders, we can build trust in here.

Psychological safety isn’t warm and fuzzy. It’s powerfully practical. It’s the thing that makes teams speak up before problems grow, collaborate more fully, and dare to imagine something better.

Start...

🎙️ Show Notes

Thank you for your patience as I’ve been on deadline for the past several days but we still managed to crank this episode out for you. Enjoy!

OverviewWe’ve been taught that the harder we grind, the more successful we’ll be. But what if that belief is holding us back? In this episode of Her Next Power Move™, we’re dismantling the myth of hustle culture and redefining success on our own terms.

Gro...

Uncertainty is the leader’s constant companion. But what if you had a tool that didn’t just help you endure the unknown—but helped you thrive in it?

In this episode of Her Next Power Move™, I dive into Hope Theory, developed by Dr. C.R. Snyder, and show you how hope is more than a feeling. It’s a framework—rooted in psychology and neuroscience—that gives leaders both the belief they can act and th...

Here are the show notes for Episode 16 of Her Next Power Move™.

Episode OverviewAdversity is something every leader will face—whether it’s a failed launch, a tough layoff, or even personal loss. These moments can shake us to our core. But they can also become the very soil where new growth takes root.

In this episode of Her Next Power Move™, I explore post-traumatic growth—the powerful transformation that can happen...