The Southwest team: teller Nicole Ndanda, teller supervisor Jaime Kraus, Joline, teller Sue Koch, former personal banker James Gottemoller (just promoted to assistant branch manager–sales at Franklin), and universal banker Laurene Bobadilla.

Our Wrap-Up Rallies for fiscal year 2018 are all, well, wrapped up, and our top-performing branch managers and branches have been named. This month, we celebrate their achievements and dig in to how they did it. First up: Joline Lazarski at Southwest.

District manager Lauri Lunde says Southwest was consistent throughout the year, with bankers and tellers mentioning our products and services and making plenty of solid referrals, earning Branch of the Month or runner-up honors for 11 out of 12 months. Southwest exceeded its investment goals, finishing at 195 percent; finished at 148 percent for credit cards; and at 103 percent for loans. The branch was two checking accounts short of its 98 percent goal in that area.

“Joline has always stayed on top of the branch’s production and is able to put extra focus on different areas when needed,” Lauri says. “She has a great ability to adjust activities and behaviors to get different and better results.” And that’s a big part of why this is Joline’s sixth time being named a top branch manager.

For her part, Joline’s philosophy hasn’t changed much since last year: “Keep it simple and make sure you put the customer first,” she says.

She says focusing on customers’ needs, instead of on trying to hit numbers, builds trust among those clients, as well as staff and branch partners like our investment consultants — because then everyone understands the goal is to match customers to the solution that will work best for them. “If it’s not right for them, we aren’t going to push it on them.”

Joline credits her team, their other colleagues throughout the bank, and the branch’s “wonderful customers” with Southwest’s achievement. She notes that her experience helps, too.

“People come in, they realize I’ve been here 29 years, and they just start telling you everything,” she says, joking that hearing so much information is a little bit like being a hairdresser. Having done mortgages and investments during her time with North Shore Bank enables her to provide insight to customers working on their financial goals. “I can share how other customers have overcome obstacles, and that helps people.”