Banking & Finance
Down to earth
How to be a visible leader
By Abby Cymerman
Smart Business Philadelphia | September 2008
Page 1 of 2
John Featherman
Chairman and CEO, First National Bank
Elvis is alive and well and working in the banking industry inthe person of John Featherman.
Or so he would have you
believe. Last year, Featherman —
chairman and CEO of First
Chester County Corp. and First
National Bank of Chester County
— donned a jumpsuit reminiscent of The King and climbed
aboard his company’s float at the
Christmas parade.
“We paraded around in front
of 10,000 people who are customers as well as our employees,” Featherman says. “The people enjoy the parade, and it’s
consistent with our role as being
a community bank.”
With 258 employees and
$68.2 million in 2007 revenue,
First Chester County Corp. is the
bank holding company for First
National.
A proponent of infusing fun
into the workplace, Featherman’s
also been spotted in a tuxedo at
his company’s recent annual
employee meeting, and he
opened the ceremonies at his
company’s Hollywood-themed
gala that included dinner, an
annual company report and
employee participation awards.
Smart Business spoke with
Featherman about how he
manages the fundamentals of
leadership.
Know all the characters. I’m a
huge relationship person. I
focus on building relationships
with all the parties that I’m
involved with. That includes
our employees, customers,
clients, executives, shareholders, vendors, investment
bankers, community members
and competitors.
On a personal basis, I know
most of the CEOs of the other
banks and financial institutions
that we compete with. I’ve
been here for a number of
years, so I know a lot of them
just through business activities,
community activities or social
activities.
When you get to know your
competitors as best as you can,
it helps you to understand their
business model. You see what
succeeds for them and what
doesn’t succeed, and you learn
from that. It’s a big part of
knowing your marketplace.
Manage by walking around. I try
to be as visible as possible. I
look for participation and collaborative efforts.
For example, we hold our
executive meetings once a
week, and we move them
around to different areas of the
bank. I’ll arrive early at the
meeting, and I’ll go into the
employee lounge and talk with
whoever’s coming in to get coffee. I’ll say, ‘Good morning,
how are you doing, what’s
going on, what’s new?’
Then, after the meeting, I try
to have enough time to walk
through that building and talk
with people that I see or stop
into someone’s office and
inquire about a project that I
know we’re working on. You
can learn a lot about what’s
going on, and the employees
see you in a different light.
Another example is our Chairman’s Birthday Breakfast
for the employees who celebrate a birthday that month. We
have a breakfast at a local
country club. During the breakfast, we each have the opportunity to talk about what we’re
doing at the bank and what
we’re doing in our personal life
— our families, our children.
That’s another opportunity for
me to meet with the employee
in an unstructured atmosphere.
They seem to enjoy that. I
pick up a lot of information,
and they have the opportunity
to ask me questions about anything going on with the bank.
Other companies could do
something similar to that, in
which the employees bring
their own lunch to a lunch
meeting so it doesn’t cost the
employer anything.
I’m an optimist, and it’s an
opportunity for me to show confidence and optimism about the
direction that we’re heading, in
the way I carry myself and the
way I conduct the conversation.
Also, it gives the employees the
opportunity to express their
concerns, and I wouldn’t get
that information if I just stayed
here in my office and did all the
work from this location.
