With an abiding love for her team and cherished standard operating procedures, Sheralyn spreads her enthusiasm for life with a contagious smile. Known for her staple cheeriness, she continues to cultivate success with her rare blend of ambition and natural talent for operations.
Even as she plots her disappearance to an exotic location, Sheralyn maintains a reputation of hard work, kindness, and ability to elevate her business and peers, one standardized document at a time.
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Starting in order audit in 2012, Sheralyn transitioned to accounts payable and became the team lead in January of 2015. After a short stint in learning & development, Sheralyn promoted to order audit team lead in August of 2016. After a final transition to the agents team in February of 2018, Sheralyn promoted to director of operations for the agent team in May of 2023.
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EL
First things first, tell me a little bit about what you do in your current position and how you’ve gotten to this point in your career at EL.
Sheralyn
I am currently the director of operations for the agent team. My responsibility is to make sure that our outside agents who are brokering freight have everything they need to be successful.
We support the outside agents from a credit perspective. We also offer support by way of invoicing, paying carriers collections, you know, all things that outside agents don’t wanna have to worry about.
We’re kind of a one-stop shop. I manage a team of agent service representatives who deal with the day-to-day for them.
I came to this team from the administrative team where I had previously been in audit and AP. I had experience coming to this team doing a lot of the things that I’m now helping my team facilitate. That knowledge has been very helpful.
I spent about a year working with the training team because I came from education. Eventually, I decided that I really enjoyed the operation side more and when this position became available, I jumped at it! The rest is history.
EL
I had no idea that you had a background in education. That makes sense. You’re a very charismatic person! I’m curious to hear when you took an interest in operations.
Sheralyn
I discovered that I really enjoy writing and doing boring things like writing SOPs and figuring out policies and procedures.
EL
You’re a hero to us all. What about outside of work? What are some of your passions?
Sheralyn
I think that the thing that I love the most is traveling with my sister. We do a lot of traveling together. We often are behind the scenes talking about how we can make our next trip work. You know, planning ways that we could never return.
EL
Got it. I’ll scratch that from the record.
Sheralyn
[Laughs] I just really love traveling. I also have two dogs at home that I spend a lot of time with. I’ve crossed most of the things from my bucket list. Most of the places I wanted to go I’ve been able to cross off, so now I’m just gonna add new things to the bucket list.
EL
That’s cool. Tell me about a favorite place that you attended or one that was especially memorable for you.
Sheralyn
I think my favorite place that I’ve ever visited is probably Ireland. I could make a home in Ireland.
EL
Really? Why Ireland of all places?
Sheralyn
The people are just really nice. It’s also a peaceful way of life. Sometimes all I want is tranquility. I don’t know what it was about Ireland. It’s just an amazing place.
I mean, my sister and I traveled to Italy last year and that was a lot of fun too, but not a place I could make roots.
EL
I had no idea that you had such a bad case of wanderlust.
Sheralyn
Little bit.
EL
That’s beautiful. With such a diversity of ambitions, it would be interesting to hear your ‘why’ you do what do you do.
Sheralyn
I really like taking something that’s either broken or could be improved and finding a way to make it work a little bit better. I enjoy the feeling of accomplishing something and being able to do that for other people just makes it better.
I really enjoy the people I work with. We have a great team. The company is amazing. It’s been good for me.
Of course, we work to provide a good living for our families. But in terms of the reason I come to work every day, I just love the people.
EL
I think that is a completely satisfactory answer. I think a lot of the people here like you too. So, it’s symbiotic.
Sheralyn
Well, that’s another way that kids are like adults. I mean, we like to pretend that we don’t come to school to see our friends, but that’s really what we’re doing.
EL
In the context of that answer, it’s been apparent to me as I’ve worked with you, that you have a strong drive to help people. I’d lovento hear about a professionally significant moment that was fulfilling for you.
Sheralyn
I don’t know if this caused me to feel fulfilled, but it put me on a path that was important to me. When I used to work in AP, I was working with Tiffany and complaining about a client interaction. Finally, she said to me one day, “You know, they can’t see what you see.” She was talking about the system we were working in.
That helped me in the moment, but it also helped me understand that everyone is coming from different perspectives. I feel I have a talent for helping others to see things in a different way. It just kind of helps me understand my clients better.
That situation was a liberating moment. It’s helped me to consider when I should be looking at things differently to understand people better.
EL
I’m sure it was invaluable to get that perspective, especially given your current position.
Sheralyn
Well, thank you.
EL
You’ve got such a nuanced background and a strong charisma. You’re great with people. You’re great with operations. Where, then, do you go from here? Where would you like to be eventually and what is your future plan?
Sheralyn
You know, I don’t know the answer to that because I’d like to grow with the agents division. I really like what I do now. I’m really happy with what I do now, so wherever the growth of this division takes me, I’m game!
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We’re on the search for more senior account managers. If this interview resonated with you, apply at this link: https://www.englandlogistics.com/search-all-available-jobs/