Mary Lee Kammer, CPA , is the President/CEO of American Nursing Services, a 25 year old company, doing $50+ million providing nurse and allied health staffing in 10 states with 18 locations throughout the country. After over 20 years of healthcare experience, she was appointed President/CEO in April 2005. Mary Lee served as CFO previously and also operated her own healthcare consulting firm. Her experience in a variety of healthcare settings allows her to operate the firm with a keen understanding of the needs of her clients.

The corporate office of American Nursing is located in the New Orleans area. In August of 2005 Hurricane Katrina, one of the worst disasters in American history hit and displaced all of the corporate employees for over 5 months. The corporate office houses all administrative functions including accounting, billing, payroll, banking and human resources for the whole company. In spite of this the company managed to grow 56% over the next to years.

w2wlink.com Question from Jean Lewis: When Katrina hit, what were the main aspects of your crisis management to which you attribute the continued success, and actual growth of your company?

Mary Lee Kammer: As CEO you are always looking to the future, the "big picture." Under normal conditions I have a coaching style of management. I present the vision and my executive management team makes it happen. I let them do it "their way" and stay out of their way as much as possible. In a crisis like Katrina you redirect yourself from the future to what has to be done in the moment. We sent over 30 people to live in different cities where we had offices. Every day my managers and I would meet and decide what had to be done that day. Many of my people were dealing with their own personal losses and displaced families but they reported to work and were ready to take direction. Everyone rolled up their sleeves and performed every task that they were directed to do. We lost some people so the ones that remained often had to take on responsibilities that were not their normal duties. They were my heroes and we were successful because of their incredible ability to remain calm and take action.

w2wlink.com Question: Is there any area of your work-life balance to which you attribute your ability to manage crisis well?

Mary Lee Kammer: The support of my immediate family. My husband took over the family crisis that we were dealing with so I could direct my attention to the company.

Sometimes I look back on my life and wonder how I have managed to do some of the things I have done. You know that saying, "When the going gets tough, the tough get going." I think this is true. Fortunately I have my family and my coworkers who work elbow to elbow with me because it is certainly something you cannot do on your own.

w2wlink.com Question: What were the greatest challenges of the crisis and how did you handle them?

Mary Lee Kammer: We had an emergency plan if operations were down for a few days. We never expected to be displaced so long. Communications were our greatest challenge because we had to rely on cell phones and the circuits were busy.

Getting people paid, getting our collections into the bank and keeping our information systems running were the things we directed ourselves to. Our IT guys worked around the clock to keep everyone up and running even if it took back-up generators. We were overdrawn at the bank because we were not getting mail. But because of our long relationship with Chase Bank they did not hesitate to cover us.

After the storm we met and rewrote our disaster plan which included moving our servers to a safe location, having satellite phones available and directing our payments to a lock box in a safer town.

w2wlink.com Question: Were there any other conditions that you think were advantageous that you were able to draw upon?

Mary Lee Kammer: Again, I would have to say the support of my staff. They made it possible.

w2wlink.com Question: You mentioned that your leadership style is normally coaching or hands off. Do you think that contributed to the building of trust in your leadership before the crisis and why?

Mary Lee Kammer: I do. We have a relationship that has a proven track record of success. They know that I have confidence in their ability. We work as a team and we know we can count on each other. I give them direction and let them manage the "how."

w2wlink.com Question: Was their anything you did after the crisis that you think helped the company to excel? You mentioned that revenue actually went up markedly that year despite the crisis.

Mary Lee Kammer: Besides redesigning our disaster plan, we felt a new sense of accomplishment that strengthened our trust in each other and made us aware of our abilities. We knew that there was nothing we could not do. It gave us a great deal of pride and motivated us to accomplish whatever goals we set.

w2wlink.com Question: What advise do you have to women leaders on managing and on managing crisis?

Mary Lee Kammer: Remain calm and collected and others around you will remain calm and follow your lead. Have confidence in your ability to lead. Pull on your own strength and take one day at a time. Build a team of people who you have confidence in and you know you can depend on.

To learn more about Mary Lee Kammer and American Nursing Services, see www.american-nurse.com . Check back at w2wlink.com every Sunday for more advice from top women business leaders in w2wlink.com's  C-Link Suite Interview Series.