Flora Lawson, Ph.D.

I attribute my success to the unwavering love and support of my family. My career has taken me in many directions, but no matter where the path has led, my family has always been the place where I am restored. After a long, demanding day when I’m completely drained, they know exactly how to pour back into me and help me reset. I also credit my success to being in tune with God and listening to His voice. Faith and family —those are the pillars that ground me, guide me, and keep me moving forward.

The best career advice I've ever received is this: don't wait for someone else to chart your path. You have to take ownership of your career and be your own star player. That means putting yourself out there, letting people know you’re ready for new opportunities, and refusing to sit back and hope someone else will guide you forward. Being your own strongest advocate is essential. If you’re not willing to fight for yourself, you can’t expect anyone else to do it for you. Taking the lead in your own journey isn’t just empowering—it’s necessary for real, sustainable success.

I always tell people to know their "why." Know why you chose this career field, and know what you’re working toward. When you’re grounded in your purpose, the long days and hard moments don’t shake you—you understand what you’re building and why it matters. Looking back over my career, especially when training new HR professionals, I’ve noticed that many people focus on what to do. They want the steps, the checklist, the one‑two‑three. But in HR, understanding the why behind the work is just as important as the work itself. There are rules, regulations, and decisions that can impact someone’s life long after the moment has passed. Choosing the wrong code or missing a detail isn’t just a technical error—it can affect a real person down the road. So, I emphasize this every chance I get: it’s not enough to know the task. You have to understand the purpose behind it. When you know your why, everything else flows with more clarity, confidence, and intention.

One of the biggest challenges I'm facing right now is pushing back against the narrative that being a former federal employee is a liability. There’s been a negative connotation circulating for years, and many in the private sector have absorbed that rhetoric without question. I am part of the statistic of more than 300,000 Black women who have left the federal government, and that reality carries its own weight. It has made both job searching and even considering a return to federal service more difficult than it should be. At one point, I finally said to myself, I'm not applying for another government job. There has to be something else out there for me. That decision opened the door to a new chapter. I began outsourcing my skills to companies and organizations that valued my expertise, and it has been one of the best choices I’ve made. Now, I’m no longer dependent on the federal system to define my career or my worth. I can confidently say I’m building something for myself—on my own terms—and that has been incredibly empowering.

The values most important to me are honesty and integrity. Those two guideposts shape how I show up in every space. Customer service matters deeply to me as well, because I believe in treating people the way I want to be treated—the golden rule that never goes out of style. I also believe we’ve lost some of the professional etiquette that once grounded the workplace. Some call it political savvy; I see it as understanding how to navigate the world of work with respect, awareness, and emotional intelligence. Compassion is another core value for me. In fact, it’s one of the reasons I left the federal government. I witnessed a growing lack of compassion for federal employees, and it changed how I viewed the system. Yet I will always hold federal employees in the highest regard. I was one of them, and I know how hard I worked and how hard so many others work every single day. One bad apple doesn’t define an entire workforce. That’s why compassion remains non‑negotiable for me. Employees deserve to be seen, valued, and treated with humanity. Upholding that standard is—and will always be—one of my highest values.