Penny Pennington’s decision to leave investment banking over two decades ago clearly paid off.
At the time, though, the move from banking to financial advising was viewed as risky, the CEO of Edward Jones said. Some people, she said, thought it was like “jumping off a cliff.” Despite having a successful career in banking, Pennington said she had a clear reason for making the switch.
“I wasn’t sure that it mattered that it was me who showed up every day in the first 14 years of my career,” Pennington told Business Insider.
Since starting at Edward Jones in 2000, one of the nation’s largest investment advisory firms, Pennington said being herself has “really mattered.” When advising clients and their families on major financial decisions, she said authenticity builds trust.
If she’s asking clients to open up about who they are, Pennington said she has to be willing to do the same. As she settled into the advising role, she said she realized people weren’t just evaluating her skills — they also wanted to hear her perspective.
“Who I am as a person can be attractive to some people, in a non-superficial way,” Pennington said. “In a way where people can say, ‘Wow, I think I can trust her. She’s credible. She’s reliable. She’s getting to know us.'”
Pennington said that, when advising others, it matters that “you are you.” It’s a lesson that she’s taken into leadership, she said. When she became CEO seven and a half years ago, she found herself walking into meetings outside her familiar world of clients and financial advisors and wondering, “What am I doing in these rooms? I don’t belong here.”
Over time, she realized the same principle from earlier in her career applied. Pennington said that her job was still to tell the story of Edward Jones and its clients, and she didn’t need to subdue her personality to do it.
“I can do that unabashedly, without apology, with incredible enthusiasm, and that works,” Pennington said.
Once she stopped trying to fit someone else’s mold, she said, her career took off. She credits her advancement at Edward Jones to being herself.
“When I started being me, that’s when doors began to open,” Pennington said.
