MICHELE ROBERTS, executive vice president and community affairs officer for Bristol County Savings Bank, recently received the Sandra J. Pattie Distinguished Leadership Award at the sixth annual New England Women in Banking Conference held in Newport. Roberts was recognized for her role as a business leader and community advocate, fostering the bank’s support of nonprofits within the areas served by Bristol County Savings Bank. Roberts also serves on multiple boards in various roles with other nonprofits, including the Boys & Girls Club of Pawtucket, the Pawtucket Foundation, Meeting Street in Providence and The Schwarz School in New Bedford, the Leduc Center for Civic Engagement at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and the Greater New Bedford Funders Group.
What are the tenets of a good leader? I have found I am at my best as a leader when I have surrounded myself with smart, ambitious people, created a team-first culture, instilled confidence in those around me and made those I’m managing feel directly responsible for whatever they are working on. When all these elements are present, people feel empowered and invested in what they are doing, and a positive outcome is inevitably achieved.
In your experience, has being a woman in a traditionally male-dominated industry created any unique challenges for you or your career? I was lucky enough to meet Dennis Kelly, now chairman of the board at the bank, when I started my career in banking and he became a caring, inspiring mentor. He empowered me and gave me the opportunity to prove myself among my male peers. With that said, as a female I have always believed that I needed to be on top of my game as much as possible each and every day to not give anyone the opportunity to unfairly stereotype me.
What is one lesson you have learned through serving in leadership roles? A truly collaborative leadership effort is often more challenging but is usually more productive in the end. I feel a major part of leadership is identifying and connecting the right people with the right skill sets and providing guidance and feedback along the way to achieve the goal. There is nothing like working with a school, a city, an organization or another company and making an aspect of the community you serve better than when you started.
How does Bristol County Savings give back to the community? As a mutual community bank, we are always looking for ways to collaborate with various community partners to meet the growing needs of the population and support the local economy. Our officers and employees are also encouraged to volunteer their time and talents within the community and I’m proud to say we donated just under 6,000 hours of volunteer time in 2017.
Lastly, we invest in the communities we serve through our foundation with more than $1.8 million committed to local nonprofits last year and a total of more than $18 million donated since the foundation’s inception. Just last year we developed an equity investment program for community reinvestment activities throughout the bank’s market area to provide much needed capital for some of our partner organizations that are working hard to revitalize our communities.
