A number of years ago I read Sheryl Sandberg’s book Lean In and proceeded to lead a group of ambitious women to study and dissect the lessons in the book.
One thing that stayed with me was her chapter on mentoring where she explained how she had been mentored along her career journey and where she drew a distinction between mentorship and sponsorship. As ambitious women, we could do all the things she advocated for in the book, but there was a secret ingredient to advancement. The realisation that she did not get to where she got to purely on individual effort was profound.
No doubt she was smart and put in the effort required, but beyond that, other people vouched for her. Other people opened doors for her. Other people gave her a seat at the table. Someone was actively advocating for her behind closed doors.
She was sponsored. What a gift!
Our workplaces are fraught with barriers and structural biases that make efforts to advance oneself feel like a steeplechase, especially for mid-career women. Ambition and capability is not enough.
Access is the key. And access comes from SPONSORSHIP not MENTORSHIP.
Mentorship is about giving advice, while sponsorship is about creating opportunity.
Sponsorship requires one to introduce, give public credit, promote, position someone else, and risk one’s reputation for that person, because you believe in them and their potential. It requires that each woman who has gained a seat at the table, reaches out and pulls up a chair for another.
So, if you’re a senior leader, my questions to you are: Have you sponsored someone yet? Did you sponsor someone last year, this year? Did you nominate a junior woman for an opportunity she had no visibility of? Did you make an introduction that could shape someone’s career trajectory? Did you add chairs to the table you’re already on and invite others?
Imagine if more senior women sponsored other women.
Imagine the compounding effect and chain reaction that would have.
It’s my belief that every single act of sponsorship carries the potential to reproduce over and over, touching and reshaping career trajectories of multiples of women, across industries, countries and regions, if only “Each one, Lifts one”.