Flora Lawson, Ph.D.
Flora Lawson, Ph.D., is a strategist based in Atlanta, Georgia, working at the intersection of leadership, organizational behavior, and identity-driven performance. With a doctoral background in management, she focuses on how leaders and teams operate under pressure, particularly how identity, communication patterns, and decision-making dynamics shape organizational outcomes. Her work and commentary often engage with modern leadership frameworks that emphasize behavior, alignment, and the deeper structure behind how leaders influence systems.
Professionally, she serves as a consultant with experience across human resources strategy, workforce development, and organizational effectiveness. In her current and recent consulting roles, including work with firms such as Flora Raffine' LLC and FleXcellence, she has focused on strengthening leadership capacity, improving team alignment, and supporting organizational transformation. She is also closely associated with thought leadership conversations connected to Redlane Strategy Group, where themes such as leadership identity, pressure dynamics, and cultural coherence frequently appear in her commentary and reposted insights.
Flora Lawson earned her Ph.D. in Management from Walden University, grounding her expertise in organizational systems, leadership theory, and applied management research. She also holds additional professional certifications, including training in project management fundamentals. Across her work, she emphasizes a practical, systems-oriented approach to leadership—focusing on how clarity, behavioral consistency, and adaptive thinking contribute to stronger teams and more resilient organizations.
• State Certified Mediator
• Certified Leadership Training
• Executive Coaching Certification
• Strategic Planning Certification
• Project Management Fundamentals
• Change Management Crash Course: Change Management 101
• Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the Workplace Certificate
• Walden University - PhD
• Office of Human Capital Honor Award for Efficiency
• Office of Chief Operating Officer Award for Customer Engagement
• Smithsonian Star for Outstanding Customer Service Award
• Certificate of Pride in Public Service from Department of Veteran Affairs
• Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated
• Distinguished Toastmaster with Toastmasters
• Sigma Alpha Pi National Society of Leadership and Success
• Fulbright Scholar
What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to having a loving and supporting family to be in my corner. My career has led me in a variety of ways, and my family has always been there to support me. That's where I get restored when I come home from a hard day's work and I'm just zonked - my family knows how to pour back into me. I would also say being in tune with God and hearing His voice as well. So I would say faith and family are what I attribute my success to.
What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I've ever received is not to look for someone else to guide your career. You have to guide your career yourself. You have to be your best star player. You have to put yourself out there to let people know that you're looking for other opportunities, and not wait for someone else to sort of guide your career for you. It's important for you to be your own best advocate, because if you're not fighting for yourself, then no one else is going to fight for you.
What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I would say know your why. Know your why as to why you chose this career field. Know your why as to what it is that you're working towards, because if you understand your why, when the days are hard and long, you know that it's going to be okay, and you understand what it is that you're working towards. I think sometimes, just thinking back in my career as I'm training new people and new employees coming up in HR now, they just want to understand what I need to do. And I'm like, no, but you need to understand the why that's there. There's a lot of rules and regulations to this, and you need to understand the why, because if you choose the wrong code or something of that nature, it could impact this person later on down the road. So it's about helping people to understand the why. It's not just you do one, two, and three. It doesn't flow that easily, but you have to understand the why behind it.
What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The biggest challenge I'm facing right now is fighting the notion that I'm a former federal employee. That negative connotation has been put out there, and so many individuals in the private sector truly have believed the rhetoric. It has been a fight to look for a job or to go back into a federal career. Which is why I said, you know what, I'm not applying for another government job, I'll find something else out there. I have outsourced myself out to other companies and things of that nature, and it's been one of the best things I could have done for myself. Because now I'm not dependent on the federal government, I can truly say that I'm doing it for myself.
What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
The values most important to me are definitely honesty and integrity. Customer service is big for me too, because I like to treat people the way I'd like to be treated - that golden rule. But I also think there's a level of etiquette that we have to understand that's in the world of work, and we've sort of gotten away from that. Some call it political savvy. I would also have to say just being caring, or that level of compassion. I left the federal government because I felt like there was a lack of compassion for federal employees, and it has really changed how I view the federal workforce. That's why anytime I talk about the federal government and the employees, they are always top tier for me, because I was one of them and I understand how hard I worked in my career. So just because there's a bad apple doesn't mean that we're all bad. Having that level of compassion for employees is a high value for me as well.