EMERGING INTACT: 'We cannot control everything that is happening around us, but we can control what we do in the face of it.'.

• Author: Elting, Liz

WE ARE, to a large degree, shut down here in the U.S., as the COVID-19 pandemic spreads through both big cities and small towns alike. As our economy grinds to a halt outside of essential services and the stock market plummets, business owners across the country are left wondering how they are going to get their enterprises through this mess and come out intact on the other side:

Stay strong and stay focused. The world is not ending. We are still here. We will be here when this is over--and it will, at some point, be over. We cannot control everything that is happening around us, but we can control what we do in the face of it. Focus on what you can be doing and get the work done, and keep yourself, your team, and your family safe. If you keep moving forward, you will have one less thing to worry about at a time when there already is plenty on your mind.

Be the calm within the storm. Giving way to panic and fear is not the answer. It really is easy right now to let all the bad news throw you off, even overwhelm you, but you cannot let it. Steady leadership is vital. I remember that, after 9/11, there was so much fear in the market as business leaders realized they did not know what the world was going to look like in a month, but that kind of fear only clouds your thinking, so now is the time to find a way to put that emotional part of your brain on pause for eight hours a day. Your team will need to be able to look to you as the calm within the storm of our new normal.

Be productive rather than reactive. Be decisive; prioritize; formulate a plan; and act. Let me be clear right now: nobody has any experience dealing with something on this scale. That was true of 9/11 and again in the financial crisis of 2008, but we cannot let that fact paralyze us. One problem with where we are right now is that we have extremely condensed time periods in which to make critical life-and-death decisions. That tends to encourage rash behavior and plays into a panicked mindset--but we cannot do triage simply by responding to each individual problem as it unfolds. That means you must focus; think ahead; plan as best as possible for the worst-case scenario; and be ready to make major decisions in the face of uncertainty.

Adapt and be a part of the solution. New problems require new solutions. Hanes, for instance, re-geared much of its production capacity to manufacture critical supplies like hospital gowns and face masks. While this may be a short-term state of...