CHAPTER 10
The Right Way to Find a Career Sponsor
by Sylvia Ann Hewlett
As part of her employer’s mentoring program, every month Willa meets one-on-one with Joan, a former executive vice president at the global financial services firm where they both work. Warm and nurturing, Joan is a tireless champion of working mothers like Willa, having herself negotiated a flex arrangement working out of her home in Connecticut while overseeing operations in India.
Joan is unquestionably Willa’s role model as well as mentor. But is she the senior leader best positioned to get Willa promoted to her dream job of heading up M&A at corporate headquarters? Probably not.
As sympathetic confidants, mentors can’t be beat. They listen to your issues, offer advice, and review approaches to solving problems. The whole idea of having a mentor (or a few) is to discuss what you cannot or dare not bring up with your boss or colleagues. But when it comes to powering your career up to corporate heights, you need a sponsor. As I explain in my book, Forget a Mentor, Find a Sponsor, sponsors may advise or steer you, but their chief role is to develop you as a leader. Why? Not so much from like-mindedness or altruism, but because furthering your career helps further their career, organization, or vision. (See the sidebar “What Do You Bring to the Table?”) Where a mentor might help you envision your next position, a sponsor will advocate for your promotion and lever open the door. Sponsorship doesn’t rig the game; on the contrary, it ensures you get what you deserve—and can propel your career much farther than mentors alone can.
When scanning the horizon for would-be sponsors—and yes, you need more than one—many high-potential women make the mistake of focusing on role models rather than powerfully positioned sponsors. My research shows that they align themselves with people whom they trust and like or who, they believe, trust and like them. According to survey data from the Center for Talent Innovation, 49% of women in the “marzipan layer,” that talent-rich band just under the executive level, search for support among those “whose leadership style I admire.” What style is that? Forty-two percent are looking for sponsorship from collaborative, inclusive leaders because that style of leadership is one they embody or hope to emulate.
WHAT DO YOU BRING TO THE TABLE?
Just as you would with a mentor, you want to make sure your sponsorship relationship is reciprocal. Show your sponsor what skills or qualities you provide and how you can help advance their vision or career.
Some protégés add value through their technical expertise or social media savvy. Others derive an enduring identity through fluency in another language or culture. Consider acquiring skills that your job doesn’t mandate but that set you apart and make you a stronger contributor to a team. For example, Genpact CEO Tiger Tyagarajan had a special ability to build teams from scratch and coach raw talent—an invaluable asset that was key as the firm transitioned from a startup into a multinational info-tech giant. One 25-year-old sales rep, noting that her potential sponsor “wasn’t exactly current in terms of the internet,” took pains to brief her on job candidates whose résumés bristled with technical jargon and references to social media innovation that she simply couldn’t understand, let alone assess for relevance. “I just helped educate her so she didn’t come off as some kind of dinosaur,” says the rep, whose tactful teaching gained her a powerful promoter.
Finally, don’t be shy about your successes. Alert potential sponsors to your valuable assets. Since it can be difficult to toot your own horn, work with peers to sing each other’s praises. A VP at Merrill Lynch described how she and three other women, all high-potential leaders in different divisions of the firm, would meet monthly for lunch to update each other on their projects and accomplishments. The idea was to be ready to talk each other up, should an occasion arise. “So if my boss were to complain about some problem he’s struggling to solve, I could say, ‘You know, you should talk to Lisa in global equities, because she’s had a lot of experience with that,’” this VP explained. “It turned out to be a really effective tactic, because we could be quite compelling about each other’s accomplishments.” In short order, all four women acquired sponsors and were promoted.
Adapted from “Make Yourself Sponsor-Worthy” by Sylvia Ann Hewlett on hbr.org, February 6, 2014 (product #H00NIB)
The problem is, those aren’t the leaders with the power to push promising women to corporate heights. CTI research found that only 28% of men and women at U.S. companies say that inclusive collaborators represent the dominant style of leadership at their firm. Instead, nearly half of respondents—45%—say the most prevalent model is the classic, command-and-control leader who wants his lieutenants to fall in line behind him. Twenty percent perceive their top management to be competitive types: hard-edged, hard-driving guys who value quarterly bottom-line results above all. Very few—only 6%—describe their chief as a charismatic visionary who, because he or she is focused on the big picture, seeks out tactical, pragmatic support.
In short, what female talent values and seeks in a sponsor just isn’t on offer among those with real power in the organization. This profound mismatch helps explain why 40% of women fail to find the real deal: a sponsor who can deliver. As one woman ruefully told me, “I wasted 10 years talking to the wrong people.”
To avoid that mistake, take the following advice.
- Be strategic in your search. Efficacy trumps affinity; you’re looking not for a friend but an ally. Your targeted sponsor may exercise authority in a way you don’t care to copy but it’s their clout, not their style, that will turbocharge your career. Their power ful arsenal includes the high-level contacts they can introduce you to, the stretch assignments that will advance your career, their broad perspective when they give critical feedback—all ready to be deployed on behalf of their protégés.
- Look beyond your immediate circle of mentors and managers. While you should, of course, impress your boss—who can be a valuable connection to potential sponsors—seek out someone with real power to change your career. Would-be sponsors in large organizations are ideally two levels above you with line of sight to your role. In smaller firms, they’re either the founder or president or are part of his or her inner circle.
Sponsors don’t just magically appear, like fairy godmothers (or godfathers), to hardworking Cinderellas. Sponsorship must be earned—not once but continually. But when you link up to the right sponsor, the result can change your career.
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Sylvia Ann Hewlett is the founder and CEO of the Center for Talent Innovation and author of Forget a Mentor, Find a Sponsor (Harvard Business Review Press, 2013) and the forthcoming book, The Sponsor Effect (Harvard Business Review Press, 2019).
Adapted from content posted on hbr.org, September 11, 2013 (product #H00B7X)