It’s well-established in the field of human development that sponsors are a strong vehicle to developing talent. In a business setting, sponsors are senior leaders who are willing to invest their own reputation advocating for an employee behind closed doors. This is how a sponsor differs from a mentor: Sponsors have an investment that mentors don’t. The protégé's career outcome is a direct reflection of the sponsor’s advocacy, and thus the sponsor works harder to ensure favorable outcomes and everybody wins. Mentors have an interest and provide sound advice, but they are not necessarily providing air cover and counting on the success of a mentee the same way a sponsor counts on a protégé to be successful.
The trouble is sponsorship is completely informal and hard to nail down. Sponsors choose who they want to invest in and it is typically not driven by the formal talent processes human capital teams lead. Many of those conversations end with mentors being assigned. And that will have value, but it is not the same as sponsorship. Defining and understanding how this relationship works is further complicated because sponsors don’t always declare themselves such. It is so often unstated that the protégés don’t even fully know when they are sponsored and what the implications can be.
If diversity practitioners are going to move the needle in advancing minorities and women in the organization, then we have to figure out how to use this tool more effectively. Talking with many sponsors, there are a few themes that remain consistent.
Sponsors have the power to influence outcomes and are willing to do so. Sometimes the relationship is built on an exchange of offers — what the protégé does for the sponsor and what the sponsor does for the protégé, which may or may not be explicit.
Sponsors choose who they want to help and their reasons for doing so are as varied as leaders'. Allowing that choice is important and formal programs hinder that. And yet, too often, minorities and women are last to be chosen if they're chosen at all. If we cannot address this, we will never change the pipeline.
One important first step an organization can take is to build a discussion of sponsorship into talent discussions. Understanding who is sponsored will help you understand who is not. If women and minorities are not sponsored, then you do not have a diverse pipeline. Knowing that, you can begin to ask and explore why they are not sponsored. This can root out any unintended unconscious bias that we acknowledge is always at play. The best defense against this bias is to bring it to the table for discussion. It is with consciousness that we make better decisions. Employers need to get conscious about sponsorship and who is getting this access.
Once you have determined who is sponsored and who is not, you must also consider who is working on important initiatives in the firm. The work one gets to work on matters. It determines who you will meet with and who will consider your outcomes. Preparing an update for the senior team or the CEO is different than preparing an update for an executive sponsor on work that is important but not visible. Look to see if women and minorities are on the larger projects because those who are will be ready for the next level sooner. The experience gained from high-level assignments is invaluable.
Finally, look at those who have identified sponsors and those on top-level projects and you will have distilled your pipeline. If it is not as diverse as you would like, determine which employees you would like to see developed. Identify the next projects coming and determine how these employees can get key roles in leading the work. Give them mentors to support their success. And if you can, let the mentors know that they will be evaluated on the success of the employee. If the mentor is willing (and it should be optional), then you have created the opportunity for sponsorship to grow. Many times, the relationship can grow if people have a real opportunity to get to know each other. Unconscious bias makes that more difficult because like is attracted to like and that reality leaves women and minorities not chosen. Creating this kind of partnership and accountability can hopefully extend beyond the project. And the success of the project should be good for the mentee and the mentor, creating a win for everyone.
Taking these steps can help an organization’s leaders have a realistic view of the current state, while also working to improve the future state. Firms can also require leaders to find protégés to sponsor. They can choose whomever they want, but they must sponsor some women and minorities. This step may seem counter to the informality of the relationship, but it is not. The most significant part of the informality is getting to choose who you will care about and invest in. An employer should not remove that but just require of its leaders that they actively sponsor other leaders. It is good for their development and the development of a leadership pipeline. Making explicit the expectation that women and minorities be included in that effort reduces the unconscious bias but requires leaders to be conscious about their efforts to include. These steps can put on you the path to strengthening the diversity of your bench by using an everyday tool that is hiding in plain sight.
