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Below, Jane Marie Chen shares five key insights from her new book, Like a Wave We Break: A Memoir of Falling Apart and Finding Myself. Jane is a leadership coach, public speaker, and cofounder of Embrace Global, a social enterprise that developed a low-cost infant incubator. She has been a TED Fellow, an Echoing Green Fellow, and a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum. Her many honors include being recognized as a Forbes Impact 30 and receiving The Economists Innovation Award. Whats the big idea? Like a Wave We Break is a story of self-discovery. When achievements define us or serve as an escape from hidden scars of trauma, we do ourselves and others a disservice. Pushing onward from a fractured foundation can break a person and limit their leadership potential. Self-compassion and self-worth are found not by running ahead, but by looking within. Such a journey is the incubator of lifes biggest breakthroughs. Listen to the audio version of this Book Biteread by Jane herselfbelow, or in the Next Big Idea App. 1. Our wounds can drive us until they break us I grew up in a home with physical violence. As a little girl, I often felt powerless. That sense of powerlessness became the engine that unknowingly drove much of my life. When I was a graduate school student at Stanford, my team invented a portable infant incubator for premature babies. Unlike traditional incubators, our technology could work without constant electricity. It was designed to be used in remote parts of the world. We turned the idea into a company called Embrace and set a goal to save a million babies. After graduation, I moved to India, where nearly 40 percent of the worlds premature babies are born. Over the next few years, we did product development, clinical testing, figured out manufacturing, and then we finally launched the product. It was so rewarding to save lives with our incubators. One of the first babies we saved was in China. We donated a few incubators to an orphanage in Beijing and they rescued a two-pound baby that had been found abandoned on a street. They kept him in our incubator for weeks, and he survived. Seven months later, I visited this orphanage and held this baby in my arms. Stories like his kept me going. Over the next few years, I gave my life to this mission. Seven months later, I visited this orphanage and held this baby in my arms. Our work was recognized by President Obama, funded by Beyoncé, and covered by global media. On the outside, it looked like a success story, but what fueled me also eventually broke me. The powerlessness I felt during my childhood had given me purpose, but it also drove me to complete burnout. After a decade of insurmountable setbacks and obstacles, Embrace nearly collapsedand I did too. Through it all, I learned that achievement, even when rooted in purpose, can be a survival strategy or way to outrun our pain. Our wounds can give us extraordinary drive, but if we never face them, those same wounds can consume us. This is a trap I see many leaders fall into. On the surface, it looks like grit or vision, but beneath, there may be an unconscious attempt to fill an inner void. Leadership can carry shadowsburnout, perfectionism, control, hunger for validationbut when we do the inner work, we stop leading from fear. We begin to lead from wholeness, and that shift makes leadership far more sustainable. 2. Healing starts with feeling When Embrace nearly collapsed, I didnt just lose my company; I lost my entire identity. Everything I had poured my soul into for a decade was gone. I felt utterly broken, and because I dont know how to do anything halfway, I bought a one-way ticket to Indonesia and launched a healing quest. I tried every healing modality I could find. I did a 10-day silent meditation retreat in the jungle, where I sat cross-legged for 14 hours a day, and no reading, writing, exercise, or even eye contact was allowed. I surfed epic waves, chasing adrenaline in the ocean just as I had once chased it in my work. I tried psychedelic therapy. I even did a frog poison ceremony, burning holes in my leg and vomiting so that there was nothing left inside me. With each experience, I hoped that maybe this would be the magic elixir that would fix me, but my real breakthroughs didnt come in the jungle, ocean, or during a ceremony. They came when I stopped running and finally turned toward the grief I was avoiding. This was way harder than it sounds, especially given that I trained myself not to feel anything to survive my childhood. As Bessel van der Kolk writes, The body keeps the score. Trauma isnt just in our memories. It lives in our bodies. Healing required me not to do more, but to feel moreto turn toward the pain Id spent a lifetime outrunning and to meet it with compassion. Our feelings are data. They carry so much wisdom. We live in an escapist society that offers endless ways to numb, be that through work, achievement, substances, or self-help rituals. You might be listening to this podcast as an escape, but true healing isnt about chasing the next fix. Its about learning to sit with ourselves, and this isnt just personal; it applies to leadership. Our feelings are data. They carry so much wisdom. When we can slow down enough to notice and honor them, we make wiser choices personally and for the people we lead. Leaders who can feel are leaders who can truly connect. 3. Resilience comes from self-compassion For most of my life, I thought resilience meant powering through. If I was tired, I kept pushing. If I was afraid, I doubled down. I believed grit was strength, but that belief is what led me to burn out. On my healing journey, one of the most transformative frameworks I encountered was Internal Family Systems (IFS), which teaches that we are all made of a multitude of inner parts: Protector parts that drive us to achieve control or push harder so that we dont have to feel pain. Exiles are the wounded parts that hold emotions like shame, fear, or loneliness. The Self, with a capital S, being the calm, compassionate core of who we are. One of my protectors was the warrior within who was willing to fight every battle. Someone nicknamed this part of me, Janis Khan. Another protector was the overachiever, the part that kept me working to exhaustion. That part had won my life for decades. When I began turning toward my parts with compassion and curiosity, I began asking, What are you protecting me from, and what are you afraid of? Beneath these protectors, I met the scared little girl who felt like she was never enough. For years, I had abandoned her. Slowly, I turned toward her. I told her, You are enough exactly as you are. For the first time, I met her with love. This practice changed everything. Real resilience is about cultivating self-compassion so we can meet life with authenticity and courage. When we are kind to ourselves, we are more willing to take risks, stumble, and even fail because we know we will still be okay. As leaders, this matters deeply. If we wan to create psychological safety for others, we first need to create it within ourselves. Only then can we build teams and organizations where people thrive. 4. Our biggest breaking points can become our biggest breakthroughs When Embrace shut down after 10 years, I reached the lowest point of my life. I was having panic attacks. I was depressed. There was a part of me that didnt want to be doing the work anymore because I was so burned out. Another part of me saw the collapse as a failurethe death of everything I had worked so hard for. But the unraveling of Embrace ended up cracking me open. It forced me onto a healing journey. For the first time, I had to confront the history that lived inside me. I would have never chosen that path if the company hadnt collapsed. For the first time, I had to confront the history that lived inside me. One of the teachers I had the opportunity to learn from was Tony Robbins, who often says, Life happens for you, not to you. I really believe these words. The adversity I faced growing up and the powerlessness I felt as a child became the foundation for my purpose, and the collapse of Embrace became the doorway into my healing. We often think of challenges as obstacles to overcome or detours from the life we planned, but sometimes they are the teachers we need. My most painful breaking point turned out to be the catalyst for my deepest breakthrough. 5. We are worth more than the sum of our achievements For years, I believed that if I just worked harder, achieved more, and saved more lives, then maybe I would finally feel like I was enough. But no award, recognition, or headline ever quieted that inner voice of self-doubt. When Embrace shut down, I had to ask, Who am I without my mission, my work, my title? I think its a question many of us are facing now because of AI that is capable of doing our jobs faster and better than us. We live in a culture that defines us by our output, but we are enough just as we are. We each carry an innate worth beneath all that noise of titles and social media likes. We each carry an innate worthiness that cannot be taken away. Having an unshakeable inner sense of worthiness gives us the resilience to face whatever life brings. The collapse of Embrace freed me from the prison of equating my worth with my achievements, and as a result, opened me to a life that feels fuller, freer, and more authentic. In a miraculous and serendipitous turn of events, Embrace was saved. It continues as a nonprofit, and this year we reached a million babies saved with our incubators. That goal we set nearly two decades ago. I am so proud of this milestone, but it no longer defines all of who I am. My worth is not in headlines or metrics. Its in the simple truth that I am enough, just as I am. You too are enough, just as you are. Enjoy our full library of Book Bitesread by the authors!in the Next Big Idea App. This article originally appeared in Next Big Idea Club magazine and is reprinted with permission.
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E-Commerce
A majority of those expecting a holiday bonus this year are planning to check out once the check clears. According to a recent survey of 2,000 American workers by AI job application assistant JobHire AI, 59% are maybe or definitely expecting a bonus this year. Among them, 48% are already job hunting or planning to quit after their bonus is paid, and another 20% are considering leaving in the new year. The job market often sees a lot of activity following the holiday lull, as many spend the break reflecting on the previous year and setting goals for the next. This year, however, may see even more aggressive job -hopping, as many workers have become more financially dependent on their year-end bonusmeaning more are hanging on to a job they dont want until after its been paid out. From Bonus to Baseline According to the survey, 27% of workers say their annual bonus is essential for their household finances and another 42% say it helps a lot. The survey highlighted that something that was previously used as a retention tool became more like a way to delay resignations, says JobHire AIs CEO Artem Zakharov. Workers have come to view the bonus as a financial lifeline, but not a reason to stay. Overall, 68% of survey respondents admit to having stayed at a job longer than they wanted just to collect their bonus before leaving in the past, and many say theyre planning to do the same this year. When you expect to receive a huge part of your compensation package in one quarter, once that transaction is complete, there is no more incentive to stay, Zakharov says. In a survey conducted earlier this year by online job platform Monster, 95% of American workers said their wages havent kept up with rising costs, and 56% were actively searching for a higher-paying job just to keep up. At the same time, 69% struggled to find work in a slow job market. With a new year usually comes new budgets, explains Monster career expert Vicki Salemi. Companies may have frozen their headcount until year-end, so January opens up new budgets, and they may start posting new opportunities. Will there be jobs to hop into in 2026? Workers also demonstrated a lot of interest in changing roles this time last year, but struggled to find work due a slowdown in the market, and the situation hasnt improved much since. We saw job hugging this year, where people were less likely to leave their full-time job because they were concerned about job security, Salemi says, adding that new hires are often the first to get let go in whats referred to as last-in, first-out. Even if they were unhappy there was trepidation, because if they went to a new job they could be in the first round of layoffs, so that created a holding pattern across the ecosystem. Though its been a slow year for the job market overall, there are some pockets that are trending in the opposite direction. It’s been a tale of two markets, says Laura Ullrich, the director of economic research for online job platform Indeed. From a macro point of view, it’s a low-hire, low-fire environment, but if you look under the hood, some sectors like healthcare and leisure and hospitality remain relatively strong. Outside of those sectors, Ullrich warns, the desire to find a new employer in 2026 might be high, but the opportunities remain limited. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, unemployed job seekers are taking an average of 27 weeks to land a new full time role, up from 25 weeks last year. People may have the desire to switch jobs, but I doubt were going to see a big increase in quits if hiring isnt increasing at the same time, she says. With the level of uncertainty we have in the economy, its unlikely people will leave their job without another job lined up. Job-Hoppers Will Need to Get Creative in 2026 Those looking for a new job once their annual bonus arrives may find few opportunities in this market, but there are ways to tilt the odds in their favor. For example, Ullrich says those desperate for a new gig in 2026 may want to pivot their careers toward one of those booming sectors. For example, tech firms may not be hiring as many software developers, but there is a need for tech skills in the healthcare sector. Because some sectors are doing well and others arent hiring as much, think about how the skills that you have can be applied to a wider array of sectors, she says. Applying them in new ways could be very valuable in this labor market. Those who know they want a new job in the new year might also want to start their search now, even before receiving their year-end bonus. This is a great time for job seekers to start looking, rather than waiting until the first quarter, because there are significantly less applications so theres less competition, says Monsters Salemi. Some companies also have fiscal year budgets that end in January, and if they don’t fill this job the budget goes away, so there are many companies eager to hire right now. Though it could mean forgoing the annual bonus, Salemi says it may be worth making the move now, rather than risk getting stuck for another year.
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E-Commerce
For most leaders these last five years have been ones of great volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. Political dynamics, economic shifts, massive layoffs, strategy pivots, technology disruptions, and more are shaping how we lead and what we can accomplish together. Leading through uncertainty is no longer a mere possibility, it’s core to the job description. Times of uncertainty call for fast executive decision-making with limited information, good enough risk assessment, and repeated pivots. I know this because I led a global philanthropy network while the world shut down in 2020. During those initial months, I relied less on staff input to determine our direction, despite deeply valuing a culture of co-ownership. My choices as an executive during this period had to be fast and decisive to keep us afloat, but also had significant ramifications. While I was able to effectively pivot to help our organization survive the crisis, I noticed that the staff who previously had driven programs now lacked ownership and motivation to move things forward. They deferred to me when I needed them to own their expertise. They didnt have audacious goals that matched our big North Star. They didnt bring ideas to brainstorms on how we could further innovate. At the time this frustrated me; I was exhausted and burnt out from managing the crisis without much support and I desperately needed my board and staff team to step up. What Ive learned since is just how common this is. After a period that requires a more top-down approach to decision-making, organizations and leaders rarely snap back to a high agency and collaborative cultureeven if thats what they value. Why? Because teams have become conditioned to defer to others to make decisions, and we exist in a culture where this is the norm. What leaders need to do is find a way to reinvigorate that distributed leadership as quickly as possible after the initial crisis management. How we lead during these moments can set us up to become more nimble, adaptable, and creative. Given the continued volatility we are all experiencing, leaders who can embrace uncertainty as the time to share and shift power will find themselves better supported and prepared to navigate ongoing turbulence. Here are three strategies I have observed and learned to use with boards, staff teams, and leaders as soon as possible after or during periods of uncertainty to help organizations move through the crisis while deepening a culture of shared agency. 1. Disrupt any top-down culture creep If your crisis management plan or campaign requires a tight-knit group of leaders to make decisions, look for ways to redistribute that power as quickly as possible. This might mean delegating some of the lower risk decision-making opportunities to team members and fully getting out of their way. You could also try taking yourself out of the picture temporarily to help disrupt the well-grooved habits that people might have in relying on your input. Leaders who step away for a week or two off while putting in place an interim leadership structure often come back to find that their teams have rebuilt more trust and agency. One executive I worked with faced a strategic crisis at the same time as their pre-planned time off. While some leaders might have cancelled their vacation, I encouraged the leader to take that leave. They put in place an interim leadership team, created a point of contact for the Board to rely on if things escalated further, and quickly distributed power and authority. Now, the interim leadership team continues to be an important brain trust, supporting a more distributed approach to decision-making. The new relationships and capacity built during that crisis moment have helped the organization adapt as circumstances continue to change. Its important to remember that top-down leadership is the culture were swimming in, and it is the obvious choice. Distributed leadership requires active planning, focus, practice, and a counter-cultural approach. When done well, strategic leadership redundancy allows for organizations and leaders to be more nimble and resilient. 2. Re-orient to story and purpose Crisis often narrows our point of view to daily or weekly operations. Leaders, however, need to quickly get back to being the chief visionary officer. Teams rely on leaders to provide this perspective, inspire them to connect to each other, and work towards a shared purpose. Over the years, Ive talked to numerous teams during times of crisis and transition. One thing that I hear is that leaders have to default to being doers during this time, despite the fact that their genius lies in being storytellers, visionaries, strategic dot connectors, and community builders. When I talk with the people around these leaders, a common thread is that people want to feel inspired and connected to the vision that brought them to the work in the first place. Look for opportunities to remind people of your shared values or help connect them to the bigger picture of where they are going. When you tell the story of what you are building together, you refocus and reenergize people to bring their best selves in working toward your shared North Star. As leaders, its not always easy to prioritize this kind of vision and value-setting work. It might seem more frivolous than the clear tasks and list of items you can easily check off. But over my 20+ years in social change and public sector roles, Ive seen that executives who lead with this kind of visionary approach first are the ones who are able to build teams of people enthusiastic about navigating uncharted waters. 3. Engage openly in learning and reflection Uncertainty necessarily moves many leaders into a control-oriented mindset. However, navigating uncertainty and sharing power over a long period of time requires curiosity and a beginners mindset. Reject your knee-jerk reaction to have all the answers. Instead, model holding uncertainty and curiosity to the people around you. Admit where you have learning edges and acknowledge the questions youre holding. Anne-Laure Le Cunff, neuroscientist and author of Tiny Experiments, shares this wisdom: Leaders need to optimize for curiosity by creating an environment where its safe to experiment and learn in public. When teams see their leaders openly sharing their learning process, including the missteps and uncertainties, it creates psychological safety, which encourages everyone to embrace their own curiosity. This is how you can create a virtuous cycle of continuous reinvention. Curiosity is also power-sharing in practice. This shifts leadership from being about I share answers and direct people around me to complete tasks to I identify questions from my perspective and enable people to come together to experiment, learn, and find solutions together. From here organizations get better results and can navigate uncertainty with more relationship and trust. Together these three practices help break down any unhelpful power dynamics, create trust, and reinvigorate teams to co-own and co-create. Better yet, leaders who implement these practices before a crisis will find themselves well-equipped to navigate uncertainty with creativity, clarity, and courage. Good leaders can use their power; great leaders know when to give that power back.
Category:
E-Commerce
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