The Gamechangers in Resilience series highlights visionary leaders who are redefining resilience by sharing their innovative strategies, impactful experiences, and practical insights to inspire and empower others in the field.
This week, we have the unique opportunity to highlight the work of a former iluminary, Leah Andrews. Leah now leads corporate security at HelloFresh, where she brings her wealth of experience and an infectious passion for the art of resilience engagement.
Known for her curiosity, empathy, and knack for storytelling, Leah is a true Gamechanger in helping organizations—and the people within them—thrive in the face of uncertainty.
Q: How did you get started in the field of Resilience?
Leah: Technically it started with Y2K preparations as a newly minted IT business analyst. Soon after, a business continuity role opened to develop a program to prepare for OCC audits. Thankfully the internet was around and I could search what ‘business continuity’ meant and it was love at first sight.
The role took my understanding of the company and love for people and process and layered in the context of resilience. I leveraged that role to encompass life safety/emergency response, BC/DR, records management and retention, and crisis management – it really framed my holistic approach.
Q: You are not only a featured Gamechanger, but an iluminr alum! What was that like?
Leah: It was both the longest and shortest year. Fantastic team mates and great customer champions with interesting problems to solve!
You know how after you’ve been roller skating for a while you still have that moving feeling? I feel like it took me several months to return to earth from the iluminr orbit!
Q: What are some of your favorite memories working with clients at iluminr?
Leah: Such bright minds and creativity out there with a spectrum of challenges. Their interesting perspectives through various cultural lenses brought so much insight and many gut laughs! My time conducting numerous Microsimulations and learning about resilience challenges like persistent load shedding in South Africa was definitely a favorite for me.
Q: You have an exciting role now. Tell us about that.
Leah: I’m at HelloFresh in the Corporate Security team developing a business resilience program. I’ve been implementing threat monitoring and risk assessment practices and getting to know operations and mapping business services and dependencies.
Additionally, I’ve been reviewing our foundational elements of emergency response / incident management and escalation protocol across our different site types to see how we can ensure effectiveness and consistency to increase response speed and reduce impact.
Q: One of my favorite things about you is your love for people. But it can be difficult to engage people in the art of building resilience. What are your secrets for building more effective engagement?
Thank you so much – I feel the same about you Paula! It’s definitely a superpower in the resilience space.
I would have said this before Ted Lasso but it’s so relevant now.… be curious!
It’s critical to listen with empathy and gain context about what teams are doing (not what may be written) and what their challenges are.
Being curious usually leads to finding common ground – how can you or your resilience efforts help them or at a minimum, not impede the business.
Leveraging that insight, paired with a good story or analogy, can quantum leap engagement. This can turn into a model of working smarter not harder in terms of organizational culture and how to better craft your resilience program. Thankfully, I learned this lesson early in my career and it’s been a game changer (doh – is that too on the nose?!). We’re often in a position to identify and support efficiency improvements for front line folks and leaders and I’m all about force multiplying good impacts.
Q: What is the leadership playbook you are writing for yourself in real time?
It’s important to meet people where they are – not where you think they are or should be.
Over or under estimating anything (a situation, perspective, skill sets/capabilities) can become a hot mess express if you don’t take the time to get the needed context and clarity.
This is another great area where listening and creative curiosity can level up your impact. I’m working on a quality check around biases and dependencies to try and increase my effectiveness, and reduce my hairpin trigger areas, in everything from training and facilitation to program development.
Q: How do you apply the lessons of resilience in your own life?
Tactically, I’m thinking about what-if scenarios and always bring things with me to support that: snacks, extra water, bandaids, tourniquets, battery packs, and the like.
Strategically, I’m pretty adaptable when things go ‘askew’ but that same flexibility can sometimes lead to a lack of intention and alignment if I’m honest.
I dabble in a lot of areas but progress definitely requires small actions regularly (a la Daryl Cross‘s deliberate practice insights) to develop habits that align to your goals. My new mantra for 2025 is to be more intentional – so I’m working on setting some North Star objectives and establishing guardrails so that I have fluidity but don’t let myself stray too far from desired objectives in areas like new skills, exercise, healthy eating and longer term goals like retirement.
