You will accelerate your career by getting a mentor at work, but not everyone has someone to go to the mat for them.
By getting a sponsor pays a premium, depending on who the sponsor is, the magnitude of that boost.
Mentoring is important from the start to the end of the profession of an individual.
It can begin with having a mentor while in college and move to the boardroom where a mentor can counsel the individual person right role and provide valuable support.
Statistics indicate that in their professions, people who are mentored do well.
This is especially important, who can be encouraged and supported by a mentor to inspire them at the start or help them return to work after maternity leave.
Everyone in the office should look at mentoring others, man or woman, but too often women see negative mentoring and see junior female colleagues as obstacles to their own success. How can be a sponsor really be a mentor?
Mentor Definition
Mentors are important figures who lead you through the world of work.
They are like the guardian angels that will guide you in your difficult times.
Sponsors, on the other hand, play a different role: they are the ones who consciously support or lift your next promotion.
They drive you through a corporation or market’s ranks, ensuring that your name is addressed in closed-door meetings. “Mentors suggest. Sponsors act,” as Hewlett put it.
When her first sponsor was discovered by Alisha Ramos, a longtime design director at Vox and founder of Girls Night In Club, she stated she didn’t realize what a sponsor was and that was part of her dilemma.
“I think there’s so much mentoring focus that women have this myth: ‘ Let me find a mentor so I can move my career forward, ‘” says Ramos. But what always matters is to meet the people that will support you get up and paid through your business.
Build Trust Rather than Showing off Your Skills
Sponsors place on the line their own image when they propose a promotion, job or incentive for you.
This takes a great deal of trust. “Trust is just as critical as a success,” Hewlett says. “You’ve got to be loyal and honest because that’s a risk.”
Building a relationship with a potential sponsor to make them trust not only in their skills but in their loyalty to them as well.
Also, figuring a sponsor in an organizational structure involves looking for someone in a senior position who is prepared to open doors for you.
Turn Mentor Into Sponsors
Having someone to agree to be your sponsor does not work the same way a mentor does.
In a powerful position, you won’t go up to a person and ask them to help you step professionally.
It requires time and lots of reworking to building the relationship.
Hewlett recommends that you recognize someone who might be a great sponsor and ask the person to mentor you first.
“Make it a relationship”. With time, the partnership will evolve into more of a sponsorship structure once you have established a solid relationship and have demonstrated your skills and talents.
Sponsors Are Gatekeeper
To help you progress in your career, it’s a person in a position of influence. “You don’t have to like your sponsor,” Hewlett says. “You’re not trying to discuss your issues with a best friend or someone.”
Rather, you would like to put this person’s best foot forward, encouraging trust in them that you can handle what’s being put before you.
Hewlett advises against sharing your weaknesses or exposing them to someone who helps you advance your career.
Save a close friend or therapist with these details.
Know: gatekeepers can be supporters for your next promotion, the financing round, or major career move. Ensure they see your skill and reliability.
Who sponsors whom?
Usually, advertisers fund others in their own reporting chains.
According to our survey, about three-fourths of all respondents who state they have a lawyer said their primary boss is their sponsor, while another 16.3 percent said their agent is their sponsor.
This pattern is consistent across the ages for the most part.
With the exception of black women, over 70 percent of the protegés in each demographic group we examined, said their direct boss was their sponsor.
Nonetheless, black women had higher rates to claim that their boss was their sponsor – 20.3% of protegés preferred this choice.
Also See: How to Avoid the Common Mistakes that Leaders Make
