When you are seeking assistance, it is helpful to know where to turn. The last blog covered the difference between therapists and coaches as excellent systems of support. This one will jump into mentorship and sponsorship as tremendous resources to bolster your career growth.
Mentorship
Mentorship is a relationship where the focus is on supporting the growth and development of the mentee. They are excellent resources because they are usually seasoned leaders with industry knowledge who can guide less experienced people to help them raise their potential by achieving career goals and success.
Mentors support mentees through formal or informal discussions about building skills, qualities, and confidence for career advancement. Since they have “been there, done that,” they could show you the ropes and provide information that can offer shortcuts so you can avoid mistakes and pitfalls they have experienced along their career journey. They can discuss strategically with you how to best position yourself for a promotion. If you are about to have a conversation with a skip level, a mentor can share vital intel if they have it; for example, this person likes information in bullet points rather than paragraphs, and if you send an email with an agenda and include these two topics, that will help you stand out. The best mentors provide those practical tips to set you up for success and do not just speak conceptionally. Mentors usually act as trustworthy confidants fluent in reading between the lines of corporate emails and complex management and can share the “unwritten rules” for advancement in their organization because they understand the challenges you are facing. Every cadence is different, but usually, mentors volunteer their time to do monthly check-ins.
A mentor can share potential contacts with you to bypass gatekeepers, they can also connect you with other potential mentors since helping your career usually takes multiple guides. We tend to make the erroneous assumption that just because a mentor has a fancy title that they have wisdom in every area, but similar to investing, we get the most benefit when we diversify. Having multiple mentors can help because each person has different values, ambitions, insights, connections, and industry specialties.
It might seem as though the benefits of mentoring are a one-way street, but when done right, it is an equally rich partnership. While the mentee gains insights and experience in their field, the mentor can take pride in their protégé’s successes, help to develop another and learn from their mentees. The best relationships are authentic ones, so be aware of downplaying potential issues because you are trying to impress your mentor. Also, if your organization provides you with a mentor, it is ok not to click off the bat because the best relationships take time to cultivate. And the truth is, organizations may not always get their matches right, and that’s ok; there should be options to get rematched for the best possible fit. To read more on this topic of creating excellent mentorship relationships, check out my 3-part blog series.
Sponsorship
A sponsorship is similar to mentorship, but in some cases, it can be more effective in advancing your career. A sponsor is someone in a position of power who uses their influence to endorse and advocate on your behalf by communicating with other high-status leaders in the company. A sponsor could be your boss, your skip level, or anyone who is in a position to influence others and who knows you well enough to use their power and political capital for your benefit.
While there can be overlaps and some can play dual parts, a simple difference between mentors and sponsors is that mentors talk with you to help level up your skill and give advice, whereas sponsors talk about you to help you move up and get your next position. Sylvia Ann Hewlett, CEO of the Center for Talent Innovation (CTI) says, “If you want to advance your career, having a mentor isn’t enough anymore, if you aspire to climb higher in this modern and competitive climate, you’ll need a sponsor as well.” CTI has tracked the sponsor effect since 2010 in four U.S. and global studies and the results show that sponsorship, not mentorship, is how power is transferred in the workplace.
What do sponsors do and how to get one?
A sponsor can share successful strategies with their sponsee relating to staying on top of new, required skills for your desired position and new opportunities. Then, they inform you of these requirements and prospects to help prepare you for a title change. They are invested in their protégé’s career success and will use their influence and networks to connect them to high-profile assignments, people, pay increases, and promotions. Every organization has mission-critical work associated with revenue generation or contact with key clients and partners; they are the plum assignments that people vie for. Sponsors can advocate for you to get these strategic projects. The truth is, many important decisions about your career - compensation, promotion, and new assignments happen in a room that you are not in. Sponsors can carry your papers and use their currency on your behalf.
To get a sponsor, you first want to identify who they are and intentionally create quality moments. Carla Harris, Senior Client Advisor at Morgan Stanley said you can study the organization for a few weeks and note the people who have a seat at the decision-making table. And if you cannot figure that out, ask someone. Aim to build relationships with 1-2 people, and one way to do that is to have frequent touchpoints. Harris talked about how she would find ways to interact with them; she would come in at 7:15 am and be sure to say good morning, have a conversation in the elevator, and bring occasional coffee. Any good relationship starts with those light touch points and develops further. Then when your name comes up, it can be as simple as that person saying, “I like that person; they are good,” or “how about that person sets up the client meeting?” And if there is no other data about you in the room, that comment will travel far because it implants a positive first impression among the other senior leaders.
If you can collaborate with the sponsor, doing great work often formalizes the relationship. You want to impress them so they can take on the risk of advocating for you. According to Joann M. Eisenhart, Senior Vice President of Human Resources at Northwestern Mutual, “Sponsorship is earned.” This differs from some organizations where mentors are assigned; sponsors cannot be compelled to spend their political capital on you. Only when a person knows your work, trusts you, and can attest to your character will they likely be an advocate for you. Most people will not risk their reputation for anything less. They may ask you to work on aspects of your career development before they are willing to go to bat for you.
If you already have a mentor and continue to build trust and authentically nurture the relationship, it can take on sponsorship characteristics.
And if you do not have any of those opportunities for collaboration with mentors and sponsors, find ways to stand out. If you are at a company town hall, get involved. Alison Wood Brooks, Harvard Business School Professor said, if you ask thoughtful questions, you come across smart and likable. You don’t need to have the answers, but good questions can set somebody else up for success. You can make the extra effort to attend events where you know leaders will be and interact with them; as Stephen Hawking once said, “Showing up is half the battle.”
How do Sponsors decide to take on Sponsees?
To determine if you will take on a sponsee, you can give them mini-projects to see how they do. You can connect the sponsee with somebody else and see how they handle the interaction. For example, if you know your sponsee wants to move from a client-facing role in 3 years to a strategic facing Senior Director role, you can link them with the Head of Strategy and if they run with that connection, grab takeaways, and integrate into the next steps, you know your work will be put to good use.
Some sponsors can be nervous because they might think sponsoring the wrong person can ruin their reputation. Carla Harris said, “if that is your fear, you are not sponsoring enough people.” When it is done right, developing and retaining talent by enriching more junior workers is a crucial part of their job, and the best way to grow your power is to give it away. In any given year, you can sponsor two or three people, but can mentor more than that.
What is the Sponsee’s Role?
Similar to a mentorship, good sponsorship is a two-way street. While a sponsor sticks their neck out for you and gives advocacy, it is good for you to show your reliability to them, live up to your potential, and deliver on your promises. Keep your sponsor in the loop with your successes and aim to exceed their expectations. Also, you can make your sponsor’s job easier to advocate for you by providing them with talking points so they can best represent your accomplishments.
As you think about breaking through your feeling of being stuck or eager to climb to new heights in your life and your career, you tend to go farther and faster when you go with others. While mentors and sponsors can offer assistance, they each have specialties. Mentors volunteer their time to provide wisdom and guidance and sometimes skill-building. Sponsors talk about you highly when you are not in the room to rise in your career. No rule says you only need one of these supports, if you have access to it, you can enlist as many people as you need.
Q: Who do you go to when you need help rising in your career? Comment and share your ideas. We would love to hear!
Quotes of the day: “We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give.” -Winston Churchill
“No one has ever become poor by giving.” -Anne Frank
As a Leadership and Executive Coach, I partner with others to help create powerful relationships to advance in your career, contact me to learn more.
Which supports do you use for your career growth?