b'LEARNLAURIE COOKES INSIGHTSon LEADERSHIP DURING the PANDEMICfeatured in Interviewers David Benjaminand would be under control in a few and David Komlos, Syntegritydays. What I wanted us to talk about co-founders and Forbeswas the opposite. So we started to contributors | 23 April 2020 look at the datafrom sources that cant really be disputedand played David and David:When did youout the potential scenarios and realize the pandemic was aboutcreated options that were tangible, so to impact your day-to-day life andit became something we could have work? What immediate actions didcontrol over. I think for all of us, we you take, and how ready was yourneeded to get past the dont tell me, organization to adopt these actions? dont tell me phase of denial. I could have been totally wrong. I wish I was.Laurie:I first had an inkling that we were facing a problem as data andHowever, the HBA was quite fortunate information started to come in aboutas we have been set up as a virtual the situation in China and Europe. Iorganization for more than a decade. remember thinking this could reallyThis familiar work environment enables impact the 2,000+ attendance numbersus to be nimble and adapt quickly. for our annual Woman of the YearWe initiated our crisis management (WOTY) event, scheduled for late Aprilplan, we executed processes already in New York City. But I didnt alert myin place to make decisions with our team, because I didnt want to distractboard virtually, and we had financial them during a very busy January. Itreserves that would last us longer than took a bit longer before I realized thatrecommended as a benchmark. This this wasnt just an attendance issueput time on our side in terms of how we for WOTY, though, but increasinglyreacted and adapted. The floor didnt looked like a cancellation issuesuddenly fall out from under our feet. and much, much more than that.David and David:How has your role When I did raise the potential magnitudeas a leader changed, given the need to of the impending situation, notoperate in the midst of a pandemic? everyone was on the same page with me. My team was incredibly focusedLaurie:People look to their leader on getting their job done and here Ias the visionary. You can very easily come talking about cancelling WOTY.get bogged down in managing the For all of us, it seemed surreal; out ofday-to-day of a crisis, but this is your bounds to even consider. Remember,time to lead. Even if you dont know at the time, President Trump was stillif the direction is the right one, your telling people this was not an issue,people need to have confidence that 28'