In light of the Great Resignation and many women leaving their jobs due to the pandemic and other factors, human resources professionals should strongly consider creating sponsorship programs to retain employees who show leadership potential.
Sponsorship has existed for a long time, but it has not been deliberately cultivated at scale, especially for underrepresented groups such as women, ethnic minorities and LGBTQ+ individuals. It is a proven and powerful tool to elevate employees out of the “frozen middle” and into the leadership pipeline, particularly those who feel left out of the traditional sponsorship opportunities of the old boys’ network.
How Coaches, Mentors and Sponsors Differ While All Playing Valuable Roles
With a plethora of options on the career development menu, it is essential to understand the different ways in which coaching, mentoring and sponsorship build leadership skills and capacity across the workforce.
A coach is a secret weapon who can spot growth potential, help crystalize an employee’s goals and illuminate the steps needed to achieve those goals. Effective coaches help employees identify, manage and overcome interference with goal achievement. Most importantly, coaches hold people accountable.
A mentor is typically a leader within the organization who excels in the skills their protégé seeks to acquire. While mentors can be terrific, they may not wield the influence required to open doors to accelerated advancement opportunities and career growth.
A sponsor is a higher-level leader who expends their capital to help a high-potential protégé accelerate their career growth. Sponsors leverage their reputation and relationships to help advance the careers of their protégés. This makes a sponsorship a partnership with measurable outcomes in terms of professional visibility and career advancement.
Coaches, mentors and sponsors can all play key roles in an employee’s career growth. However, women and members of other underrepresented groups are often over-mentored and under-sponsored. It is time to shift that paradigm.
At many of the enterprise companies I work with, women in leadership pipelines tend to stall at the mid-career level. This happens for various reasons.
First, competition for higher positions gets more intense as the number of positions grows fewer. Second, qualifying for positions beyond middle management requires more than specific expertise. Visibility among decision makers and advocacy from other senior leaders are crucial. This holds back many women who say they thought keeping their heads down and doing great work would be the answer for rising into the ranks of leadership. That is not the case.
Unblocking the leadership pipeline requires HR and diversity, equity and inclusion leaders to focus more than ever on underrepresented talent. Above all, they must identify sponsors who can provide visibility and advocacy for high-potential employees. Enlisting sponsors to showcase future leaders’ abilities and to put protégés forward for more prominent roles or broader responsibilities is a must.
Finding the Best Sponsors and Making Matches
Sponsorship is a win-win-win for the protégé, the sponsor and the organization. But making the magic requires identifying and motivating the right participants.
Executive sponsors should demonstrate that they:
- Are committed to the process of sponsorship and cognizant of its benefits on multiple levels,
- Can offer the experience and contacts to help protégés expand their networks, and
- Have the stature and confidence to advocate for their protégés’ career growth.
Current leaders who recognize that they were formally or informally sponsored themselves and want to pay it forward make some of the best sponsors. Leaders who feel compelled to participate by their commitment to advancing diversity and inclusion also make strong sponsors.
A natural and easy pairing can be made when a sponsor already knows a protégé and wants to help that person advance in their career. Developing such an organic partnership is not always feasible, however. As a result, some ideal pairings happen between a sponsor and a person who works in another group at the same organization.
A sponsor who does not work closely with a potential protégé might want to speak with the employee’s manager and colleagues before committing to the sponsorship. Another possibility is to have the candidate contribute to a project being worked on by the sponsor’s group.
When identifying protégés, look for employees who:
- Have been on the job long enough to demonstrate their effectiveness and confirm their commitment to the organization;
- Belong to a group that is underrepresented in leadership, such as women and people of color, in order to diversify the leadership pipeline; and
- Show leadership potential and alignment with the organization’s values.
Beyond those characteristics, sponsorship candidates who embody the following traits are most likely to be successful protégés and appeal to prospective sponsors:
- Commitment—A strong protégé is someone who goes the extra mile and does what it takes to deliver. Most sponsors worked extremely hard while paying their dues and will be more motivated to help someone who is willing to put in the time and effort to excel.
- Capacity—Sponsorship candidates should possess enough self-awareness to know when they have the capacity to focus on their career growth and when they do not. Sponsors are busy people. If they are setting aside time for the partnership, the protégé must be in a position to do the same.
- Competency—People who excel in specific functions or skill, volunteer for stretch projects, take courses and hunger for knowledge attract the most ardent sponsors.
Key Roles for HR and DEI Leadership
In my experience with initiating sponsorship programs, HR and DEI leaders play huge roles in cultivating a culture of sponsorship in which senior leaders advocate for emerging talent. Specific actions HR and DEI leaders can take to help sponsorships succeed include:
- Connecting sponsorships to the organization’s values, DEI efforts and/or environmental, social and governance (ESG) targets and goals;
- Identifying the right protégés for the program—those with high leadership potential and who are ready to take on bigger roles or larger responsibilities while consistently demonstrating organizational values;
- Seeking out and enrolling executives who have demonstrated inclusive leadership traits to serve as sponsors;
- Evangelizing DEI innovations within the organization and beyond it; and
- Measuring program results and impacts in alignment with broader DEI and ESG initiatives and goals.
Professionals who specialize in creating sponsorship programs can be brought in to help facilitate the selection and matching processes, as well as to assist with designing, monitoring and assessing an ongoing initiative.
Making Sponsorships Work
A good starting point for sponsorship program participants is crafting their own value proposition to present to sponsors. This involves scripting a concise statement, or elevator pitch, about who they are and where they are going. In no more than five sentences, a potential protégé should clarify their expertise and intentions.
The employee should write out their list of the three to five points they want a prospective sponsor to know about them and be able to recite the list from memory during their first sponsorship meeting. Each item on the list should be backed up with stories or proof points. Delivering the pitch and then expanding on it will allow the sponsor to understand how best to leverage the protégé’s strengths and experiences while doing what they can to support the protégé’s career growth.
Many employees choose to continue consulting a coach and engaging with a mentor as they work with a sponsor. The roles do not conflict, and the roles are not mutually exclusive.
A coach can help refine the value proposition and offer feedback on what the protégé should be seeking from the sponsor. A coach can also provide a safe space where people can talk freely and openly about their concerns. A mentor can continue to provide specific help with competencies—and mentors who ascend to new positions can then serve as sponsors.
In essence, sponsorships are earned. Willpower and determination are essential, but achieving success is not a solo endeavor. It takes a team to help the next generation blaze their way into senior leadership. A support system of coaches, mentors and sponsors who challenge and champion women and members of other underrepresented groups will enable high-potential employees to advance into the leadership positions they deserve.
01 May 2022
Category
HR News Article