The following employees celebrate a milestone anniversary with North Shore Bank this month.

“When I started 15 years ago,” recalls VP and loan servicing manager Joe Fretschel, “Shorelines featured me in the ‘New Managers’ section. One of the questions asked was ‘What defines you as a manager?’ My answer then was: ‘Accountability starts and ends with me.’ Good answer at the time, I thought. But now that I’ve had 15 years to work on it, I think the biggest lesson I’ve learned is that it’s not all about me. What really defines you as a manager are your people: the people you’ve hired, trained, and interact with every day. If you’re lucky enough to find great people (as I am), and then they’re given training and the autonomy to be the best people they can be, they will come to define what kind of (and how good of) a manager you will be. Not to say that it’s perfect every day — it’s not — but when your high-performing people keep coming back for months, years, and in some cases decades, we must be doing something right. Whenever I beat myself up for a bad decision I’ve made, I look around my area and see all of the good ones.”

“Plans for the future: Support customer promise initiatives so that North Shore Bank is recognized as a leader of employee and customer engagement, both internally and externally in the markets we serve,” says SVP Sue Doyle, head of retail banking, who marks 10 years with the bank this month. “In addition, as customer preferences for digital banking grow, we want to work with retail leaders to continue to transform our branches to provide an advanced digital experience, complemented with knowledgeable bankers and convenient locations, while developing online digital experiences that keep abreast with customer needs and expectations.”

“One important lesson I’ve learned is to embrace opportunities that stretch your comfort level,” says commercial real estate portfolio manager Jon Habighorst, who marks 5 years with the bank this month. “Maybe it’s making a move to a different department, taking on new responsibilities, or mentoring a peer. It is those opportunities that create the most growth on both a personal and professional level. You’ll also be surprised as to what you will learn.”

More service anniversaries
20 years
Patricia Wells, Senior Staff Accountant–FAIR

15 years
Joan Watson, Floating Teller

10 years
Margie Brusa, Area Branch Manager, Brookfield Square

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