Hewett, an economist and the founding president and chief executive of the Center for Talent Innovation, a Manhattan-based think tank, shows why sponsors, not mentors, are the proven ticket to the top and why women and minorities need them most.
High-potential women have mentors but lack sponsors.
They fail to cultivate strategic alliances with individuals capable of propelling them into leadership positions and protecting them from other contenders.
One of the key reasons is that they don’t understand the quid pro quo and the mutual investment that ensures both parties remain incentivised to help each other over the long run, she notes.
Unlike mentors, a sponsor is a person of power who sees furthering your career as an investment in their own. Sponsors give advice and guidance, but they also come through on much more important fronts, notes Hewett. Crucially they are willing to give you “air cover” so that you can take risks.
She talks about the “two- way street” that makes sponsorship such a binding and mutually beneficial alliance between sponsor and protégé.
