Arianna Huffington

If you have dyslexia or know someone who's dyslexic, you’ll understand the feeling of struggling to keep up.

That’s the inspiration for the new children’s book, "The Fly Who Flew to Space," by Lauren Sánchez. The Emmy-award winning journalist and philanthropist explains how the book was inspired by her own experience of dyslexia. Sánchez didn’t know she was dyslexic as a child and says that growing up she felt behind the other kids and scared of school.

She dreamed of becoming a journalist, but was convinced she couldn’t because writing was such a struggle. It wasn’t until college that she found out she was dyslexic and was motivated by a professor to follow her passion. Which she did, both through journalism and piloting helicopters!

In a fireside chat with @andersoncooper at the book's publication party, she talked about how she wanted to inspire kids to "chase their dreams, no matter how impossible they may seem."

Leaders need to have reserves of resilience to deal with crises as they arise. If as a leader you are depleted and running on empty when a crisis occurs, it's very hard to operate at your best.

The world got a lesson in the value of supply chains and the consequences of what happens when they break down during the pandemic. But for supply chains to be always on, the people who run them can’t be. And that goes for all of us, even if we don't work in supply chains!

Here is some advice I shared with supply chain leaders at the Association for Supply Chain Management (@ascm_hq)'s Connect 2024 conference.

➡️ Most important: You have to put on your own oxygen mask first. Too many leaders still buy into the misguided notion that urgent or chaotic times require them to be in constant motion and always on, or that they somehow have to match the frenetic pace of the moment. In fact, the opposite is true. Because it is judgment that we need from leaders in moments of crisis, not just stamina. So it starts with prioritizing well-being for yourself, and being a role model for well-being to give others the permission to do the same.

➡️ Technology is a double-edged sword: Technology accelerates burnout when we try to be always on. What's funny is how much better care we take of our technology than ourselves. But unlike machines, humans have to unplug to recharge. In the human operating system, downtime is a feature, not a bug.

➡️ The qualities that define a successful leader: Empathy, being able to listen, being open to new voices. Not just being a broadcaster all the time, but being a receiver as well. It first requires not constantly being in fight-or-flight mode. We can’t be open to others and their creativity and innovation when we’re marinating in stress hormones and just trying to get through the day or through the next hour.

➡️ To create a Thriving Culture: Communication is key! One of our core values at Thrive is Compassionate Directness, which empowers team members to surface feedback or any problems and challenges they’re having in real time. That allows not only team members to course-correct and grow, but the company as well. In any company, and certainly in supply chains, there are obstacles to growing the bottom line. There are challenges with engagement and innovation. Wouldn’t you want to know those sooner rather than later? Knowing them — and getting to work in solving them — in real time as they arise has huge benefits to all the metrics that go into the bottom line.

➡️ And finally: Well-being needs to be embedded into the fabric of company culture and into the workflow. A company is only as resilient as its people so an investment in the healthy future of your employees is an investment in the future of your company. To build resilience into your industry, you have to build it into your people.