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YFF Profile Seeing the bigger picture


BIFA Young Freight Forwarder of the Year 2018 finalist Lisa North thrives under the pressure of the logistics environment. Her ability to see where – and how – to make improvements has enabled her to bring different teams closer together at aerospace logistics specialist B&H Worldwide


Lisa North began her career in logistics in a junior role, and has worked her way up, learning the business on the way. “I did data entry for two years, working from


4 pm until midnight. I would see the air waybills and I found them interesting, so I joined B&H Worldwide to learn more about the industry. I have been here for seven years now and I love it,” she said. That much is clear from her enthusiasm for the


various challenges that arise in the day-to-day running of the courier department and export team – both of which fall under her remit today. “The biggest lesson for me has been learning


to work in a big team, and changing teams all the time. I oversee a team of 21 people at the moment. They all have different personalities and I have to keep them all happy. I also have to find out their strengths and weaknesses and manage that to make sure they are all coping with their workload,” Lisa explained. She believes that a little care and attention


from management goes a long way to keep staff happy and motivated. “If I notice that someone is having a bad day I often pull them in for a chat, and I take the team out for dinner occasionally to help everyone connect. That sort of thing makes people feel appreciated. “The only times I ever felt like leaving a job


were when I felt like management did not care. This is where my experience of working my way up from scratch is so useful: I can look back to how I felt, and say ‘I have been there!’” Lisa is also aware that finding the middle


July 2019


ground between being liked and being respected as a leader can be tricky, especially among colleagues who have been in the business for decades. And while the gender gap is narrowing, she said: “I am going on a course on assertiveness for women soon. It is important because this is still a very male-oriented industry. I would say 90% of the team are male.”


Perspectives Among the contributions she has made at B&H Worldwide, Lisa has taken the initiative in setting up training to help bridge gaps in knowledge across departments. For example: “I could see there was a


disconnect between the warehouse and courier teams, so I swapped some staff members around for two weeks and had them do each other’s jobs. It made a world of difference because they could then understand how someone else might struggle if they did not have the right information on a label, for instance.


“It is the same with the night shifts: there was


a big handover gap so I asked some people to stay later and others to arrive earlier to see how difficult it can be to pick up ten files from the previous shift. “I also sent two operations clerks to Miami.


They were able to offer their opinions on how things could be done and it has improved how our Miami office works – as well as giving them some perspective on how things work here. It is nice for operatives to go on this sort of trip, not just management,” she pointed out. Lisa herself would like to step into a


management role, probably as an export manager rather than an account manager because she enjoys working with teams of people. Plus: “I work better when I am busy and on a


tight deadline. Having 500 things to juggle focuses me and I love working under pressure,” she said. Just the right sort of person, then, for a career in aerospace logistics.


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