Careers rarely change because of a single leadership program or a perfectly executed succession plan. More often, someone gets access: to a stretch assignment, an important client, a senior-level conversation, an influential relationship — or simply into a room where consequential work is happening.

Four successful equipment finance executives described remarkably similar moments when reflecting on their own careers. Someone saw capability they hadn’t yet proven. Someone trusted them with a bigger opportunity. Someone advocated for them when they weren’t in the room. And, years later, each described choices they’ve made to do the same for others.

Each had been identified by women in our industry as a leader who had actively supported their careers — not simply with encouragement or advice, but by advocating for them, creating opportunities and helping them gain access to relationships and experiences that mattered.

I began these conversations wanting to understand what these leaders were doing differently. What emerged was a broader lesson about influence: successful leaders accumulate it over the course of their careers. The consequential choice is how they use it.

And one of the most tangible ways these four use theirs is by creating access.

Widening the Circle

Earlier in his career, when GE Capital was a dominant force in equipment finance, Eric Miller saw firsthand the power of informal networks. He describes a “good old boys’ network” — but is quick to point out that simply being a man didn’t guarantee admission. Too much talent was outside these circles. What mattered was access to relationships and to people who could influence opportunity.

Today, Miller believes leaders need to be more intentional about widening those circles — creating the kinds of relationships that have always helped careers advance while deliberately drawing more women into them.

Miller’s approach starts with what people demonstrate. He values work ethic, character and results — and looks for people who are willing to work hard, dig in and deliver. For Miller, creating opportunity isn’t about advancing someone because she is a woman. It is about recognizing capabilities and ensuring talented people have the opportunity to contribute and succeed.

Stephanie Zschokke, executive vice president and general counsel, Ansley Park Capital, sees that philosophy in practice. Having worked with Miller at two organizations, she describes a leader who focuses on how people actually show up and what they deliver. She contrasts that with what she calls the “unwritten successor path” — the tendency for familiar, well-connected people to continue advancing through the same networks.

Zschokke also points to something women in business frequently encounter: directness, disagreement or visible passion can sometimes be received differently from a woman than from a man. She says that has not been her experience working with Miller. Leadership discussions can be direct and passionate, and she has never felt that Miller applies a different standard to her than to the men around the table. What matters is whether the discussion has purpose, the work gets done and the business gets results.

Kathy Berryman, managing director, Ansley Park Capital, experienced this in a recent business interaction. After receiving external feedback that she had been “too aggressive” with a prospect, Berryman found herself second-guessing herself. When she told Miller how much the comment was affecting her, his response was characteristically direct: “If it was an issue, I would have called you. Do not overthink this. Take a breath, you’re OK, all is good.”

Miller wasn’t telling her to ignore feedback. He knew Berryman and her work. His message was perspective: consider the feedback, but don’t allow one person’s characterization to outweigh the larger body of evidence about who you are and what you can do.

Spend Your Capital

When Dominic Janney entered the equipment finance industry in 1994, professional networking looked quite different than it does today. Early in his career, he recognized that long-term success required more than technical expertise — finding the right avenues to build meaningful, lasting industry relationships was essential.

As president and CEO of Canon Financial Services (CFS), Janney is explicit about the strategic importance of relationships in career development. As a mentor to several rising leaders, he intentionally distinguishes between advising and advocating: he aims to be a sponsor, not just a mentor. Janney’s belief is that “Mentors provide valuable guidance behind closed doors,” Janney explains. “I want to use my executive capital to open doors for people in public.”

For Janney, sponsorship means putting his own credibility behind high-performing talent. That philosophy extends beyond individual mentoring relationships to the industry’s broader empowerment efforts. Janney has been an active participant in empowerment programs, including his support for LeadHER, Monitor’s inaugural Women’s Leadership Summit, which brought together hundreds of women from across the equipment finance industry. For companies like CFS, backing programs like this isn’t time away from work; it’s a leadership investment. It reflects Janney’s conviction that sponsorship must create pathways for talent across the entire organization, not just direct reports. He says, “If leaders aren’t willing to use their advocacy on behalf of high-potential team members, we’re failing to maximize our influence.”

As senior director of Human Resources at CFS, Amy Pagano has seen the power of Janney’s sponsorship in her own career growth. “Dominic doesn’t just offer guidance from the sidelines; he creates space for leaders to perform at the highest level,” Pagano notes. “His advocacy has given me a direct voice in executive decision-making and elevated my presence across Canon U.S.A. and the wider equipment finance community. He doesn’t just create opportunities; he empowers you to step into them with confidence.”

Janney views strategic exposure as an indispensable part of talent development. While technical skills get professionals through the door, he notes that future executives must learn how organizations truly operate, how decisions are weighed, priorities shift, and key relationships are managed. He describes his role as pulling back the curtain and entrusting leaders with complex, high-stakes challenges before they feel completely ready, while offering steady support as they sharpen their executive judgment.

Sometimes Opening the Door Is Literal

I know something about this personally.

Adam Warner was my CEO for many years at Key Equipment Finance. At one point, my team had developed material that needed to be presented to the KeyCorp Board of Directors. Warner could easily have taken the work into the meeting and presented it himself. I would not have questioned it; frankly, I would not even have expected to attend.

Instead, he invited me to present it.

It was a simple decision, but it gave me visibility with senior leaders I otherwise would not have had. More importantly, Warner demonstrated his confidence in me in front of people whose opinions mattered.

That is what sponsorship can look like in everyday leadership. It doesn’t necessarily require a formal program or a grand gesture. Sometimes it is simply recognizing that you have access to a room and asking whether someone else would benefit from being there with you.

Sometimes the Door Itself Is the Problem

Warner also provides an example of what happens when a leader moves beyond opening a door for one person and begins questioning why the door is closed in the first place.

Years ago, eligibility for the ELFA Board — the industry’s most influential governing body — was expressly limited to CEOs, presidents and leaders of major revenue-producing businesses. There was an unintended consequence.

At a time when very few women held CEO or president titles in the industry, highly influential senior executives in roles such as finance, risk, marketing, technology, strategy and administration were effectively excluded from consideration. Warner saw the disconnect in very practical terms: a male CEO might lead a relatively small organization, while a woman in a large company could be responsible for billions in assets and still be deemed ineligible because of her title.

“Intentionally or unintentionally, it’s very exclusionary,” Warner says.

As ELFA Board Chair, he helped lead an effort to broaden the eligibility requirements so that senior executives with significant responsibility and influence could be considered. The significance went well beyond any one candidate. Broadening the criteria expanded the pool of leaders who could contribute at the industry’s highest level, and the ELFA Board has since become considerably more diverse — not only by gender, but by function, background and perspective.

Structural barriers are difficult to see precisely because they often don’t look like barriers to the people who have always been able to walk through them. Sometimes it takes seeing a talented person on the other side of the door to make the barrier visible.

Create the Space

Mark McGovern can point to several moments in his nearly 40-year career at DLL when someone trusted him, advocated for him or gave him an opportunity before he had fully proven himself. Those moments changed his career trajectory — and shaped how he thinks about his responsibility to others now.

As a business unit leader, McGovern saw potential in Jenn Bello, then a young contractor with little industry experience, as he was looking to build a strategic marketing capability. He gave her the opportunity, guidance where he thought it would be valuable — and room to “spread her wings.”

The bet paid off. As the function grew from one person to a full team and the business unit quadrupled in size, McGovern points to Bello’s work as an important driver of that success.

For him, the lesson isn’t simply about taking a chance on someone. It is about recognizing capability, providing access to an opportunity and then giving someone enough trust and autonomy to do something with it.

Bello, now head of Global Strategic Marketing & Digital, LifeTech, DLL, describes the access McGovern has provided as “creating the space.”

“When it comes to creating the space, Mark repeatedly welcomes me into projects, dialogues and rooms beyond my current job title to help me learn, listen and contribute, moving jointly towards my ambitions,” Bello says.

For her, the impact has compounded: “Listening and learning next to Mark has given me decades’ worth of experience in under one decade.”

As his own leadership responsibilities have grown, McGovern has become increasingly conscious of the influence that comes with them. He describes it as a “mantle” that leaders have a responsibility to use as a platform for the organization — and for others.

That responsibility extends beyond individual opportunities. Looking across equipment finance today, McGovern believes the industry is still not diverse enough — not only by gender, but by age, experience, perspective and thought. Progress is happening, he says, but “the pace is just not fast enough.”

For McGovern, that makes the issue less about allyship and more about how leaders use their influence. “It really is, in its purest sense, leadership,” he says. If systems naturally produced the best outcomes for everyone, special attention wouldn’t be necessary. But, he adds plainly, “the system doesn’t.” Sometimes leaders need to change the systems — or create new ones.

Who Gets Access?

These practices aren’t reserved for CEOs, and they don’t benefit only women. Influence begins long before the top of an organization chart. If you have access to a client, a meeting, an assignment, a relationship or a decision-making forum that someone else doesn’t, you have something you can choose to use.

Gender, however, remains an important test of how broadly we are doing that. The equipment finance industry has made visible progress, yet women remain significantly underrepresented in its most senior roles. If capable women are still disproportionately absent from the rooms where consequential decisions are made, it is worth asking not only why — but who has the influence to change it.

The four executives I interviewed didn’t describe a special playbook for women. They described choices: widening the circle, sponsoring publicly, creating space for others to learn and contribute, and challenging structures that unnecessarily restrict access.

Successful leaders accumulate influence along the way.

The consequential question is: Who will you bring into the room? •

Editor’s Note: Beginning with this issue, Monitor and LeadHER introduce Executive Lens, a recurring feature exploring leadership, talent and the future of equipment finance through the experiences and practices of industry executives.

Lori Frasier is a Future of Work strategist and executive advisor who helps leaders navigate the intersection of talent, leadership and business strategy to build organizations ready for what’s next. A longtime equipment finance industry leader, she is the founder of BrightPath Workforce Strategies and architect and co-lead of Monitor’s inaugural LeadHER Summit.