Dawnn Monique Clisby

I attribute my success to my family upbringing, because those are where the values were learned, where they were instilled, and they were learned, accepted, and appreciated, and then I apply them in life. I have a very strong family knit root. My parents, I come from a family where my mother and father were married for years. If they were still here today, it'd probably be 60-odd years now. From the upbringing and the community I grew up in, always giving back, seeing acts of service, I think that my family life and my educational life and being involved in different organizations shaped who I am today, and shaped my values, and how I apply them, and how they're practiced. Christian values are important in the professional world, because there are some challenges and difficulties that you will go through where you're going to need that faith base. To know that there's a higher power that has all of that, and knows it all before you, and has it planned out, and if you just keep that faith and pray, I think that is also the root of it all, as well.

The best career advice I've ever received is to always have a positive attitude and don't react right away. You always have to have an open mind, meaning an open mind, an open attitude, always willing to learn. You don't know everything. Someone can always teach you something, so always have your mind open to learning. And then the second thing is don't react right away, because sometimes you want to use your emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence is so key and critical to strategy and to anyone in the professional world. You want to speak with intelligence but have control of your emotions. A lot of people have a hard time learning that, and I think that's key and critical to growth.

Keep up with the knowledge and industry trends. It's always fast-paced, and in order to be considered an expert and a respected expert in your industry, you want to stay on top of those trends. It makes you more successful in finding your candidate, and it helps the organizations trust your ability to do that, because it's in the delivery. If you don't stay up to date with the change and the trending and how fast it changes, you'll get left behind. You want to stay rooted and grounded as an expert and stay ahead. It's a way to stay ahead and to be on top of it by getting in front of it. That would be the best advice that I can say, and always be willing to pivot. Be open to shifting and have thick skin. You will get rejected, but do not take it personally, because what you're doing is you're looking for the next one, you're trying to uncover the nugget that you're looking for. That one wasn't the one, so just keep going. Keep going.

The mission and the vision of the company is together in differences, united in purpose. If you look at it from a global perspective of what's going on in our nation and our country today, with the recent executive order that came down from the president, it has affected the business. There are less organizations that have been willing to partner with me or with DC Workforce Solutions. This is why it's a great opportunity for me to continue to let them know that this is why we should, because people think differently when we come together, we collaborate. There's nothing that we can't achieve together when you have a variety and a diversity of minds from different backgrounds. When you come together, it could be so powerful. I just feel like there's nothing you can't achieve. But some of the barriers with what's going on with how he dismantled all of the DEI programs, all of the diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, as well as the detainment that are happening with ICE, it has really been affecting and impacting the communities that DC Workforce Solutions has really been helping. In ways that the country is making things a little bit more difficult, I'm being more creative and thinking outside of the box, which is what most people, most founders who are passionate, I encourage them that they should be doing things like this and getting involved.

Integrity is most important to me. I'm always doing the right thing when no one is looking, because the outcome and what's going to come back to you is going to be more rewarding because your heart is in doing the right thing. I would also say communication, clear communication, transparency, and that comes with honesty. You want to communicate clearly. You want to be honest, and you always want to deliver your why, because it shows what you stand on. And it's important for people to understand that, and your team to understand that, because that's where the respect is gained, it's earned, and it's gained. And then communication, to me, is all about collaboration, and you're working with others. And you're always going to need that clear line of communication, because you want people to stay on the same page if you're going to achieve or exceed the goals that you have set out. Those are the key values, professionally and personally for me.