Anna Kharzhevskaia

I think my ability to pre-adapt and adapt to uncertainty has been key to my success. I can not only adapt to something that already exists, I can pre-adapt to things that didn't happen before. Because I grew up in a very unstable situation, in a country where everything changes all the time, I learned to be ready to do something that didn't exist before and change my mind very fast. I've learned to be stable in my ethical decisions, but be ready to change my actions because of changes in the world, because we don't have a stable world now. This ability to pre-adapt and adapt has helped me a lot - it's how I was able to move to a completely new country, learn a new language quickly, and build a whole new career and life from scratch.

The best career advice I've received is to break the walls and break your fears, because many walls exist only in our imagination. If we step beyond them, we can see that they are breakable and we can move forward. The main point is being in action and moving - sometimes you need to move before you have time to give in to your fears. I was very scared when I left my country and moved to the United States not knowing anyone, moving completely to a new country with new people. But 3 years later, I built a whole life here with friends and a close circle. The key is to try and try again, to keep moving forward despite the fear.

When you feel like it's a dark time and you don't have any energy for the future, when you don't believe in yourself and feel like you're inside that darkness - that is the point from where everything good can start. It's part of the process of how our mental health and mental system works. Don't give up in this dark moment of desperation. These moments exist to give us a new start. The key is to move and be in actions - it really helps you move forward. Don't give up, just keep moving forward.

I think AI technology has changed everything in business processes and how organizations work - that's a huge challenge. From one side, it can change a huge team of people and save time, but at the same time, no one knows how we can use this in a more effective, efficient way. We need to figure out in the next 2, 3, 5 years how to build some new processes of using AI in business and healthcare, everywhere. Beyond the challenges, AI used alongside society every day can really help people grow professionally.

The most important value to me is to be an ethical leader. Sometimes it's better not to win, but to save yourself - to do only what is aligned with you ethically. Because if you're not true to yourself one time, it will be difficult to overcome other complexities in your life. For me, it's about saving yourself, your personality, and being an ethical leader for your team. I believe in leading people, not managing them. There's a difference - from management can come micromanagement, but from leadership comes the principle that if you work hard, other people will also work hard.