03/07/2019
I was watching a recent " Live - Women in Technology: Building Bridges to Possible" conversation. Cisco's Koen Jacobs talked about sponsorship and mentorship, and recommended getting multiple of both for one's 'personal board', and that too diverse ones - demographic/gender/seniority level in the organization.
But do sponsors know what the role entails or how to select protégés? - A recent HBR article by the Center For Talent Innovation's Julia Taylor Kennedy and Pooja Jain-Link - 'Sponsors Need to Stop Acting Like Mentors' indicates that most sponsors don’t really understand the role and consequently don't know how to do it well.
A sponsor has 3 responsibilities: 1) To believe in and go out on a limb for their protégé; 2) to use their organizational capital, both publicly and behind closed doors, to push for their protégé’s promotion; and 3) to provide their protégé with “air cover” for risk-taking.
HBR Article: bit.ly/Sponsors-Mentors
CTI Research: bit.ly/CTI-Sponsorship-Research