Your Ticket To The Top: Sponsors

Sponsors are your ticket to the top.  

Women with sponsors are 27% more likely than those without sponsors to seek a raise and 22% more likely to seek ‘stretch assignments’ that build their leadership experience.

Powerful sponsors set talented professionals on the “path to power and influence” via three main factors: pay raises, high profile assignments, and promotions. Senior leaders who believe in your potential and are willing to take a bet on you. 

Sponsors advocate for protégés, helping them earn raises and promotions and garner success in their shared environment.  Sponsors generally work at the same organizations as their protégés. The best sponsor relationships begin when you WOW your sponsor with your excellent work, leadership skills, and ability to build relationships in the organization. 

Sponsors actively seek out and facilitate career-expanding opportunities for their protégé, and, in turn, the protégé commits to stepping up and demonstrating value to the organization, even if this requires them to shift their way of thinking and their leadership behaviors, in order to be successful. 

Sponsors expect a great deal from you – stellar performance and loyalty. 

Sponsors open doors and provide access, while protégés support and drive a sponsor’s vision.  You should seek out someone to be your sponsor who is well-respected, has a seat at the table of power, and is a master networker.  This person should have all the connections to take your career to the next level and beyond.

An ideal sponsor is your person on the inside… someone who will not just vote in your favor, but will also make the affirmative effort to convince their partners to do the same. 

It is on you to build these relationships, which are ignited by great performance and excellent deliverables.  A great way to get in front of potential sponsors is to offer to help them on a matter, get involved in their pet community project, join them for their favorite exercise class, or volunteer to help them with a white paper or presentation.

For these relationships to develop, it is imperative that they know you and trust you. 

Your sponsor needs to know that your goals are aligned with their goals and the objectives of your organization.  Then, when they give you an opportunity, you need to do it exceptionally well. 

Your sponsor has emblazoned you with their brand and you want to make them SHINE ✨ 

Share how you cultivated these impactful relationships and leveraged them to gain influence in your organization in the comments.