Leadership in Recovery: How corporations handle COVID-19 isn't over after the health crisis.

• Author: Hall, April
• Position: ENDNOTE

What an interesting time to be a leader, to say the least. I hope beyond hope that the curve of COVID-19 infections has flattened by the time you read this. But we really don't know when that will happen, and such uncertainty makes leadership particularly difficult.

By the beginning of April, we've already seen trading on the New York Stock Exchange halted three times in two weeks as stocks swooned, recovered and swooned again. We've seen record unemployment claims and heard mayors and governors call for banks, landlords and public utilities to work with their customers in order to avoid evictions and shutoffs. Supply chains have been tested and stockpiles depleted. Hundreds of billions of dollars are being set aside to keep corporations and Americans working through the Paycheck Protection Program. None of this accounts for the human cost--the seriously ill, the dead.

I've been a leader in different ways over the years: at newspapers, in my family, in my community. Most recently I've taken on the title of managing editor and digital director at Directors & Boards. It's a leadership role that comes at a surreal time, but is welcomed nonetheless.

I got the good news in mid-March. When it became official, the promotion was announced on a video all-hands meeting, since we were all working from home by then. I would produce this, my first issue, from my dining room table with my colleagues supporting me from afar.

It's been intimidating. In addition to working longer hours to accomodate time spent handling same-day digital content about the pandemic's impact while producing this issue, I've also balanced my children's needs, and wrestle with remote technology for both their educations and my job.

As I acclimate to this new role, I look to you, our readers, for guidance on what it means to be a leader in what feels like a new world. In particular, I'm anxious to learn from those who are not just meeting their fiduciary duties, but who are also doing the right thing.

What "doing the right thing" means runs through our coverage of the ESG debate, and the COVID-19 crisis will be no different.

We will look for those directors and those boards whose decisions not only build and save shareholder investment, but also those who managed risk effectively before the crisis occurred, and those who are considering the interests of their stakeholders--employees and customers particularly--in response to the crisis.

Examples will guide our own actions and I...