In my new book Build Your Table: Find Career Clarity, Make Bold Pivots and Thrive – Even When the System Isn’t Built for You, I describe careers as resting on four essential “legs or pillars of the table”: Knowledge and Experience, Community, Opportunity, and Visibility. Each one matters on the road to career success. Lose one and your career wobbles. Lose two and it risks collapse or at least stagnates.
For managers, HR leaders, and business professionals committed to retaining and nurturing diverse talent, these four pillars provide a clear framework for creating more resilient careers and more inclusive workplaces.
1. Knowledge and experience
Ultimately, your knowledge and experience are what you bring to any role. Employers hire you for what you know and how you apply it. That means it’s your responsibility to maintain your skills and keep up to date with changes in your industry. But access to knowledge isn’t always equal. Courses, training, and even time can depend on resources and gatekeepers. Leaders must ensure learning opportunities are available equitably within their teams because knowledge builds confidence, competence, and credibility.
2. Community
No one does it all on their own. Your community — mentors, sponsors, colleagues, networks — provides support and advocacy. For those from underrepresented backgrounds, these connections can be the difference between stagnation and progression. First-hand experience shows the power of building platforms such as employee groups for women of colour. Not only did this raise my profile, but it created leadership opportunities for others, gave them visibility with senior stakeholders, and fostered a wider sense of belonging. Leaders can create supportive environments to listen and advise, mentor and sponsor, but also foster communities where voices can be heard, people can feel seen, and opportunities and connections can evolve naturally.
3. Opportunity
The right opportunities are often career accelerators. It’s what you know, certainly it’s who you know, and it’s also being in the right place at the right time (luck and timing). Those who land high-profile projects are more likely to be noticed and offered the next opportunity. By contrast, brilliant work buried in the background rarely leads to advancement. This is where sponsorship is key: having senior leaders open doors, recommend people for roles, and advocate for their potential. As leaders, being intentional about who gets access to the “right” opportunities is crucial for retaining and developing diverse talent.
4. Visibility
Even when you’re given the chance, visibility determines whether it matters. If no one knows you contributed to a major project, the benefit to your career advancement is lost. Visibility doesn’t always come naturally — I too have previously tried to stay behind the scenes due to my introverted nature — but creating and using platforms is vital. From presenting at team meetings to posting insights on LinkedIn, visibility ensures your work and aspirations are recognised. Helping your team to boost their visibility also creates new platforms for others. How visible are the individuals in your team? Do you know of some who are shy or quieter than others in meetings? What can you do to help build visibility, particularly for the underrepresented members in your team?
Building your table
Careers are shaped by many factors — timing, luck, resources — but these four pillars place those with ambitions for a successful career in the strongest possible position. They’re interconnected and they depend on others, which means leaders and organisations play a huge role in ensuring fair access.
For individuals, the lesson is to be intentional: work on what you can control, and influence what you can’t.
For leaders, it is to recognise that talent alone is never enough — the table only stands when all four legs are supported and one of your responsibilities as a leader is to help build those pillars to be as sturdy and long-lasting as possible.
About Beverly Vanterpool
Source: Beverly Vanterpool
Beverly Vanterpool is an author, businessperson and founder of Career Sistas (www.careersistas.com), a platform dedicated to empowering women – especially those from who have ever felt like outsiders in traditional career spaces.
With over two decades of experience in roles in large multinational companies, Beverly brings a wealth of understanding from her personal career journey along with insights garnered from others through creating and leading groups within her former industry focused on diverse women.
Beverly holds an honours bachelor’s degree in economics/finance and management from Barry University in Miami, Florida, a UK accountancy qualification (ACCA), and an MBA from the University of Cambridge.
Originally from the British Virgin Islands, Beverly has successfully navigated the complexities of relocating as an immigrant, working in the UK over the last twenty years and professionally is known as a changemaker.
As the founder of Career Sistas, she empowers women through storytelling on her podcast, Stories by Career Sistas and plans a wider range of services targeted at supporting women in their careers.
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