While many people use the terms Managing, Mentoring, Sponsoring, Advising and Coaching interchangeably, as I wrote in my blog in January 2019, there are fundamental differences. And there is a time and a place for each of these.
I recently uncovered some interesting research supporting how Mentorship paired with Sponsorship has a significant impact on career advancement, particularly for women.
But first – I have to share my initial dismay when I read an article claiming that “having a mentor (for women) had no correlation whatsoever with whether they got promoted or not” (and yet, “for men, there was a significant relationship between having had a mentor two years before, and having had a promotion two years later.”)
Since my mission is to empower individuals and organizations with the information and tools necessary to capitalize on the value of mentoring, imagine my consternation to read about the lack of correlation of mentoring with advancement!
I began to question my mission – why am I spending so much energy and effort to help individuals, particularly women, capitalize on the benefits of mentoring, if it doesn’t help them get promoted?
….and then I continued reading and doing more research.
And I found The Answer: Mentoring is a great tool to accelerate personal and professional development; and coupled with Sponsorship, it does correlate to promotions!
Whew – what a relief!
According to a Sun Microsystems study: Employees who received mentoring were promoted FIVE times more often than people who didn't have mentors. And Mentors received promotions SIX times more often than their peers who were not involved in mentoring programs.
So, all my efforts are not wasted – and that’s good news!
And more good news, I uncovered some tips you can use to effectively couple mentorship with sponsorship.
As an individual looking to advance your career
Don’t abandon your mentors. Embrace your mentors to continue to develop your skills. A mentoring relationship can give you an edge that differentiates you and elevates your capabilities. A mentor provides knowledge, insight, support, and guidance. And it’s proven that mentoring enhances leadership skills, accelerates careers, and provides many additional benefits for both mentee and mentor.
Explore opportunities to engage a sponsor within your company. A sponsor “Champions” you and your success. As an advocate for you, your sponsor might volunteer or nominate you for advancement. Men more naturally, informally, in an unplanned way, are getting this kind of sponsorship. It just happens. For women, you may need to be more deliberate in finding a sponsor. If you’re not comfortable asking someone to be your sponsor, ask you boss to help you find a sponsor. Or ask you HR business partner for her advice on finding a sponsor within the company. And the higher level your sponsor is, the better.
Do great work – And find ways to be visible for that work. Network and be known for the value you contribute since further visibility and advancement are as much about perception as they are about fact.
As a business leader, here are some tips to give your developing talent (both men and women) the opportunity to advance their careers.:
Separate your Mentorship and Sponsorship Programs - It’s hard to do a good job of both mentoring and sponsoring within the same program. Often the best mentors—those who provide caring and altruistic advice and counseling—are not the highfliers who have the influence to pull people up through the system. Having a stand-alone Mentorship program with specific goals, participants, metrics, etc. and a stand-alone Sponsorship program with different (but aligned) goals, participants, metrics, etc. will help you leverage the value of both.
Create a Sponsorship program with a specific focus on Women – Deutsche Bank created a sponsorship program aimed at assigning more women to critical posts. It paired women with executive committee members to increase exposure and to ensure that women had influential advocates for promotion. The result – one-third of participants were in larger roles after just one year.
Select and match sponsors with position of authority and influence – Unilever found success in establishing two key criteria for selecting sponsors: 1) experience in areas where the high potentials had development gaps and 2) a presence at the table when the appointment decisions get made.
Encourage the women in your organization: According to one study, without sponsorship, women not only are less likely than men to be appointed to top roles but may also be more reluctant to go for them. A friend of mine was “thinking about” applying to a prestigious graduate school; but had self-doubt – that little voice in her head questioning whether she was over-reaching. Then her mentor said, “Of course you’re qualified! They’d be lucky to have you in the program.” This was the critical push and vote of confidence she needed….and she reported to me this week that she was accepted! Look around you and find the woman that needs that vote of confidence – and cast your vote!
If your goal is to diversify the talent at the top, you need a mentoring program to recruit and retain a diverse talent pool. Then compliment that with a sponsorship program that attempts to make sure that talent - both men and women - are getting access to the critical kind of career help...which is sponsorship.
Photo by boris misevic on Unsplash