An article in The Washington Post makes an interesting distinction between workplace mentors and sponsors.
“Unlike mentors, who typically are available to offer advice or a shoulder to cry on, sponsors are people in positions of power who work on a protege’s behalf to clear obstacles, foster connections, and assign higher-profile work to ease the move up the ranks.
Some of the nation’s most influential firms, motivated by the desire to have their leadership better reflect the diversity of their customers as well as research that has shown that firms with more diversity at the top perform better, are embracing this new way of breaking through the corporate glass ceiling.”
Is yours among the firms that truly “sponsor” its rising stars? While coaching, advice, and moral support are certainly helpful to a mentee, consider how your firm would benefit if senior partners had a better understanding of this distinction. How might formal criteria help partners effectively “sponsor” the next generation of leadership? At the very least, it would put another crack in that glass ceiling.
Authored by David Ackert