Sponsorship For Women: How To Find One and Engage With Them

Nowadays, you’ll find there are more women in executive roles. Career Addict listed 16 of them in their article Top Female CEOs: The 16 Leading Women of Business in 2019.

But even though women have held executive roles for years now, it hasn’t been as easy getting there as it has been for their male counterparts. The climb up the corporate ladder was – and still is – their Everest.

You see, men have never had a problem climbing the ladder of success. And the reason men are practically handed an executive position is because they have someone in their corner paving the way for them. In the corporate world, this kind of back-up is known as a sponsorship.

Meanwhile, women have to prove themselves capable of handling an executive role. We have to show that our family life won’t interfere with our work life. That we won’t have a sign of working mom guilt when we have to be at work rather than catch our kid’s soccer game or ballerina recital. And our experience and results are analyzed and scrutinized heavily.

Women also have a support system but it’s more of a mentorship. That is, someone who gives them career advice and points them in the direction to go.

What women need are sponsors and in this post, I’m going to show you how you can get a sponsor to help you move up the corporate ladder.

Before I share my tips for finding a sponsor, let me explain the difference between a mentor and a sponsor.

The Difference Between A Mentorship and A Sponsorship

In their article, Mentor vs. Sponsor, Leaders Edge defines a mentor as someone in a position of experience who offers advice and gives suggestions on how to expand their network.

And a sponsor is someone in a senior-level executive role. They are personally vested in their protégé’s career development and provide network connections to move up that corporate ladder.

Notice the difference between the two?

Now let me show you how you can find a sponsor and engage with them.

Know Where You Are Going

Clarify your 3 to 5-year career plan. It’s difficult for a sponsor to advocate for you when they don’t know exactly what they’re advocating. For example, perhaps you are in a marketing organization and want to eventually become a general manager or director. What other roles and skill sets do you need for that? You might need to spend some time in the finance organization or in the product management organization to gain the skill sets you need to reach your ultimate career goal.

Create A Two-Way Dialogue

Reach out to executive leaders in your organization who you admire and share a specific idea that would add value for them. This might sound a little bit scary but most high-level leaders are looking for new ideas and solutions. For example, maybe you have forged an influential partnership that could be scaled to other parts of the business. Put five slides together and walk through your idea. Or perhaps you have an idea for a new way to reward and recognize people. When it comes to developing a sponsor relationship it needs to be more than just networking and a review of your goals.

Map Your Next Assignment

Be clear on 2 to 3 options of what you want your next assignment to be. This could be what you envision your next role to be or you could be looking for a stretch assignment in a different part of the organization. Expose that to some of your senior leadership as they will keep this in mind when they are looking to find strong energetic staff to tackle problems in the organization.

Stand Out

Package up and share your results in a way that makes it easy for your direct boss to share up the chain. As women sometimes we don’t want to tout our accomplishments but a concise email with strong data points and outcomes can be easily shareable through the higher ranks and another way for senior leadership to be aware of who you are and what you’re capable of.

Follow Up

Gaining a sponsorship is not a one-and-done. You will need to continue following up to keep yourself on top of mind for top leadership. Continue practicing points one through four to help you gain and keep a sponsor …or two or three.

Wrapping Up This Sponsorship Post

I hope these suggestions to find a sponsorship were helpful. If you have any suggestions, please share them in the comments. And please pass this blog post on to women you know who may be struggling to climb the corporate ladder of success!