Lachelle Buford

I would put that back to faith, which is a huge umbrella. There's so much that I am linking to that - being authentic, being honest, having integrity, understanding that everything has its place, nothing is really that important that it should be overwhelming you. All of that, I believe, comes back to my faith and spirituality. But I also had a really good mentor. She was a CHRO, so she was pretty high - she accomplished a high level within the field of HR. What I appreciate about her was her style, and a lot of what you're seeing in me is what I saw in her. I don't know if she was intentional about making me to be what I am today, but it definitely is what I saw from her, and I applied it, and it has worked for me. I think having a mentor and staying networked has been a huge part of my success, and I think it's important for everybody to have that.

I think the best career advice was to go ahead and give everything the best that you can, but also understand that everything has its place, so there's no reason to stress. Everything is figureoutable. Do your best, but understand it's okay if you fail so that you learn. I really live by that whole understanding - try hard, if it doesn't work, what did you learn? Move on.

Opportunities will come and go, so go for them when you feel led to. HR is not one of those roles where you just sit and let things happen for you. You have to raise your hand and volunteer, and kind of be a self-developer. You gotta enjoy the work, it has to be passion work, but if you do that, it's inevitable that you'll be successful in HR. You have to raise your hand when you have a question so that you're exercising the critical thinking muscle. That's what people want. Otherwise, if we don't do that, we're just all going to be relying on AI for every little thing.

Definitely AI. I will say it's not a challenge, it's just something that is involving change, rapid change. Maybe I would say the challenge is keeping up with necessary adaptability. In my field, the first word is human, right? We're the opposite of AI. So human resources and coaching, we have to highlight what distinguishes us from AI. I think it is critical thinking, number one, but I also think it's culture - and I don't mean ethnicity when I say that alone, that's part of it, but it's also company culture. If we're in organizations and people are using AI, AI is going to validate everything you put into it. Well, a human is gonna challenge and pick up the cultural nuance, do unsolicited follow-up. We have to be more intentional around those things, otherwise we will not successfully adapt, and then we'll be outsourced with AI.

The top three that always comes to mind - number one, I do have a high regard for professionalism. I have a high regard for faith, but that could mean a lot - honesty, truth, integrity. I'm gonna put that under faith, because I think it's foundational for the type of faith that I have. And then lastly, humor is important to me. It's a high value of mine. I have to, in all things, incorporate that daily, to make life, including work, enjoyable.