Forget a Mentor, Find a Sponsor: The New Way to Fast-track Your Career by Sylvia Ann Hewlett

Everyone knows the pre-requisite to be promoted, which is to put effort, be hardworking, and delivering results. Too often, our effort to deliver results set by superiors are seen as the ability to support the leader. This makes us stuck in our supportive role. Sometimes our action might be too subtle to our leaders and makes us missed our chances to be promoted. Usually we will turn to mentors for help, but the guidance provided is not the key for us to stand out. We need somebody to recognize us, and pulls us up. This person is a Sponsor.

Mentor is a person that provides guidance and help to a junior. Mentor-ship is usually a one way giving process. A mentee does not necessary need to perform well to get help from mentors, and the guidance and advice is often considered as a gift. Comparing to mentor-ship, a good sponsorship will create a win-win situation, where the sponsor will get a person that delivers the support the sponsor need, while the protégée will receive the cover and advocacy by the sponsor. 

Similarities and differences between sponsor and mentor 

Below are the steps of fast tracking your career through the help of sponsors.

 1. Have a vision of your success.

Before beginning the search for sponsor, the first thing you need to do is have a vision of your success. Back in 1971, when Walt Disney was leading the construction of the first Disney Theme Park, he decided to build the castle first. The castle was the very embodiment of the magic he intended to make. This allows everyone involved to see the majesty and the beauty of this vision, should they felt defeated or demotivated by the difficulties and set back throughout the process. Before you embark on your journey to success, having a vision of what success means to you will help you to be more focused on your objective and have a clearer direction.

2. Identify your strength and weakness, and what you can offer to your sponsor.

Sponsorship is a two way street. You want your sponsors to be able to advocate for you, your sponsors also looking for things that you can offer. When a sponsor has put his/her bet on you, his/her brand and legacy is at risk if you do not perform as expectation. Provide a reason for your target sponsor to put his/her bet on you. Understand what is your strength and experience that distinguish you, polish your skills and attitude, strive to exceed expectation, and be ready to say yes to the right person at the right time.

3. Looking for your potential sponsor

The next thing is to look for your potential sponsor. Try to get in front of would-be sponsors. Be proactive to seize opportunity so that you are visible. Attending networking events, request for meetings with your target sponsor, or spearheading projects in your target sponsor’s line of sight. Person that are easily approachable might not be the effective sponsor. You may not like the leadership style or personality. But this person has the power to change your career.

Also try to diversify your sponsor. Your target sponsor should include people inside your organization and also outside your work. ‘2+1’ is the ideal numbers of your sponsor. One in your line-in-sight, one in a different department, and one outside your organization. Your sponsors should be independent from each other. This is to prevent if at any point, one of your sponsors is down due to circumstances (leaving the company, company restructuring etc), you will not lost ground as your sponsors will not down all together at once.

4. Develop the relationship with your sponsor

Once you have identified your potential sponsors, develop the relationship by proving your loyalty. When you have form an alliance with your sponsors, always remember you are the extension of your sponsors’ brand. Always burnish your sponsor’s brand across the organization and grows his/her legacy. Demonstrate that you are trustworthy and having your sponsor’s back.

Always connect with your sponsors. Let you know what your challenge is and what your sponsors can do to help you, so that in critical times, he could cover you when necessary. If you have made any mistakes, try your best to correct them and let your sponsors know so that he is not taken aback.

5. Make yourself the safe bet by avoiding pitfalls.

There are also pitfalls and trip wires in getting a sponsors. Sex scandals is one of the primary reasons for male sponsors to avoid sponsoring the opposite sex. Ladies can make yourself a safe bet by keeping the question “how can I initiate this relationship with someone of the opposite sex without invoking the spectre of an illicit affair” in mind. Even though woman have their rights to dress to their liking, dressing appropriately certainly can help to keep the unnecessary gossiping at bay. Having meetings with your sponsor at a public place shows your relationship with your sponsor is not something you need to hide from the public.

The second issue is distrust. Workplace discrimination often cause misunderstanding. Sometimes, clearing the air in between your possible sponsors might help to reinforce relationship and avoid unnecessary misunderstanding.

6. Executive Presence

Lastly, after convincing your sponsor to advocate for you, you must also need to convince the others with your executive presence. It is the aura of confidence and competence that convinces other that you deserve to be in charge. The three dimension of executive presence includes how you act (gravitas), how you speak (communication), and how you look (appearance).

The top aspects of gravitas are:

1. Confidence and grace under fire
2. Decisiveness and showing teeth
3. Integrity and speaking truth to power
4. Emotional Intelligence
5. Reputation and standing/pedigree
6. Vision/Charisma.

Communication is also important to convince people to work for you and pitch your ideas. Appearance is crucial in painting your first impression on others. Every little details will make you stand up among your competitors..

Leveraging on sponsors is not a norm in our eastern culture, where we are taught to be humble and not to over shine ourselves. However in the present time, to speed up your climb in the corporate ladder or to land you on career changing projects, sponsorship is one of the promising way. I hope this sharing helps you to gain insight on sponsorship.

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