Meet Penny St. Antoine

When you work for a company for many years, you get to know the ins and outs quite well. For Penny St. Antoine, Senior Vice President of Single Family Operations, her journey with MCAP began over 30 years ago and there’s a lot she has learned in that time — about the company, leading others and about herself. “I feel like I grew up at MCAP. I started off in the training department and I loved doing what I did because I was helping people learn,” Penny describes. “When I transitioned over to operational leadership, I felt like there were so many synergies between what I did before and what I was doing because a lot of operational leadership is helping people learn and grow and helping to remove any obstacles or pain points that are in their way.”

“Those entrepreneurial roots, that small family kind of feel has never really left us.”

In reflecting on the last 3 decades she has spent with the company, Penny shared how MCAP has grown and changed dramatically in some ways, while in other ways, has stayed very much the same. “When I started off [at MCAP] we were obviously a lot smaller and we were very entrepreneurial. That part hasn’t changed,” she says. “MCAP is always looking for opportunities. We don’t get stuck when bad things are happening. We look at what can we do differently, how can we use this as an opportunity to grow and get ahead. Those entrepreneurial roots, that small family kind of feel has never really left us.”

“Trust is one of the biggest factors when it comes to developing a great team.”

That small family feel and sense of community have been an integral part of building a strong team for Penny. Leading a team of over 200 people spread across Canada can be challenging, but Penny takes it in stride. “I honestly believe trust is one of the biggest factors when it comes to developing a great team. It’s something that my team and I really worked on the last few years,” she shares. “Identifying areas where trust had broken down and trying to repair them. Getting communication going and fixing things if they need to be fixed. That helped us when we went into the crisis with the pandemic and we were hit with high volumes and everything else.”

Penny’s growing team is additionally growing in diversity, something she is excited to embrace. “It’s important to embrace a diversity of ideas. You need to have a diverse workforce so you are getting diverse ideas otherwise you’re not going to change with the times,” she describes. “That’s why I’m really excited about having so many new people join us because they’re coming from different industries, all walks of life, and they’re going to help us get stronger and better.” Further to embracing this diversity, Penny discussed the importance of truly listening and welcoming the feedback of all team members. As she explains, “people want to feel like they’re included, that they have a voice and when you do have a diverse team they see themselves in others and are more likely to speak up but you’ve got to be able to listen too.”

“We’re fortunate to have a very active homeowner community that likes to tell us what’s going on.”

There are many benefits of working alongside and leading a team that interacts with our homeowners and brokers regularly — that direct connection with our customers is invaluable. “In the last 3 years, we’ve started to collect feedback from our homeowners. After each call or transaction, we started to pull feedback to measure where are our opportunities and what are our customers thinking,” she shares. “Not just positive but what’s causing them pain, what’s confusing, what’s causing them extra work.” These insights and pieces of information are then shared throughout the organization to help MCAP continually deliver what customers need and want. “I think we’re fortunate to have a very active homeowner community that likes to tell us what’s going on, they’re very involved,” Penny says.

“It’s not about climbing the ladder; it’s about how you’re developing yourself.”

Penny is one who is willing to take risks, to try new things, in her personal and her professional life. On the more extreme end, she’s jumped out of a plane for a milestone birthday. On the tamer side, she started a work book club to encourage others to read more and promote self-development. Learning and self-development are two things Penny has always been passionate about and she hopes to pass that along to others. “Something I’m always sharing with younger people and encouraging them is to learn as much as they can. That may mean moving around in lateral roles and exposing themselves to as much as they can whether it’s in the same company or moving to another company, reading, taking courses,” she says. “Learning and growing are so critical to personal success. It’s not about climbing the ladder; it’s about how you’re developing yourself.”

“If you are treating the people within your team well, they will treat your customers well and your business will be successful.”

Penny has great hopes for the future of the business as well as the impact MCAP can make in the community. One of those ways is supporting others through Women in Leadership, which is being celebrated this month. “We’re trying to support women especially when they’re having to make difficult choices in their life when they’re feeling helpless and hopeless,” Penny explains. “We’re part of an event coming up on March 8. It’s all about uplifting and empowering women and celebrating how far we’ve come.”

As an organization, MCAP strives to stand out in the industry and from Penny’s perspective, it all starts with our people. “We focus in on our team members first and foremost. I really believe that if you are treating the people within your team well, they will treat your customers well and your business will be successful.” She wholeheartedly stands behind the Blue Culture mantra people — not polices. “I love that phrase because it speaks to doing things from the inside first and then naturally, organically it moves outside of the company.”

With 30 years at MCAP under her belt, Penny continues to grow and develop. She is living out Blue Culture the best way she knows how — by leading others to achieve their full potential.