Sponsorship is a leadership capability that doesn’t just happen naturally. It must be developed and trained―but it is easy to overlook.
Leaders need speed in their businesses―speed to respond to market dynamics and constantly changing customer requirements. And yet, the ability to accelerate development of our talent is often stymied by the very intensity of their workloads necessary to deliver that speed for the business. Talent stalls when there isn’t a way to grow within their current roles, or a way to get excited by seeing possibilities beyond their immediate roles.
We’ve been working with clients on their approaches to internal sponsor programs. I can confirm that intentionally selecting sponsors and pairing them with high potentials they don’t know very well is a great start. The sponsors get exposed to new talent, have an opportunity to build a new relationship, and provide guidance for the protégé on their journey. This is a nice mutual benefit, but it falls short of the impact a sponsor program can make.
We have seen a number of well-intentioned sponsor programs proceed for 8-10 months, consuming valuable senior leader time with regular touchpoints and knowledge sharing, but failing to build a true sponsorship relationship, and falling short of the impact they could have.
So, why do they fall short?
Talent won’t accelerate with one new relationship. A well-executed program teaches leadership behaviors and requires leaders to take action on them―behaviors such as opening doors, finding opportunities, and introducing new key relationships.
Signature provides a roadmap for leaders to move beyond being a great mentor to becoming an accelerator of talent―a true Sponsor.
“When you mentor, you are helping problem-solve―but sponsorship is different―this means opening new doors. The Signature sponsor framework helped accelerate the process,” said SVP of Retail Solutions Underwriting and Digital Experience for Lincoln Financial Group, Heather Milligan. “My biggest ‘aha’ in the journey was realizing the heaviest lift of my job was in the beginning. I needed to go deep on my understanding of my protégé and build the relationship quickly. That results in more obvious doors to help open.”
Heather pointed out one of the three critical success factors for good sponsorship. Signature’s approach ensures that all Sponsors understand these three key phases of the sponsorship journey, and what “good” looks like at each stage.
- Explore: Spend time understanding your protégé’s unique gifts, which part of their daily work lights their fire, where they have passion to do other things, and what “life” challenges they must operate within.
- Enrich: With deeper understanding of your protégé, you can enrich their internal network by connecting common interests. We encourage sponsors to bring their protégé to their own leadership team meetings so they see a different set of challenges and decision-making. And importantly, your extended team sees you making an investment in developing talent in the organization.
- Elevate: Sponsors can be hugely valuable by asking those in their immediate sphere to tap into the protégé for opportunities that can engage them in their gift zones and increase their visibility within the organization. True advocacy includes insisting that your protégé is ready for these opportunities, and then giving them a soft landing if they fall.
Sponsorship is not limited to two people who already know and trust each other. In fact, it can be even more impactful when it is a new relationship that expands the visibility of the protégé and the influence of the sponsor. It does, however, require an investment. Starting as a mentor, senior leaders must spend time getting to know their protégé before moving through a journey filled with actions that will raise visibility of the protégé. Without this, valuable talent may stall, and these future leaders just might see their growth opportunities are more visible “outside” of your own organization.
Sponsorship is a key leadership capability―one that benefits the protégé and the sponsor, and the organization in developing and retaining future talent.
