As a strategic adviser, career coach, and senior leader, I’ve spent a great deal of time attesting to the power of sponsorship for boosting executive careers, most recently as the lead speaker for a Voices of The ELC webinar on the topic. By helping people gain visibility and access to key opportunities, sponsorships are among the most valuable professional relationships you can cultivate on your leadership journey.
Like mentorship, sponsorships are relationships with people who typically have more experience, connections, or insights than you in an area where you want to grow. Both mentors and sponsors are invested in helping you to succeed. But while mentors will give you their best advice, sponsors take their advocacy a step further, using their political capital to talk you up to others.
Given the truth of that, what I’m going to tell you next might come as a surprise: Throughout my entire career — including senior leadership roles at UnitedHealthcare, Mayo Clinic, and major consumer brands like Target, Best Buy, and Macy’s — I have never had a conversation about sponsorship relative to my career advancement.
That doesn’t mean I haven’t had sponsors. I’ve had many of them, and I know from experience that having the right person vouch for you at the right time can greatly accelerate your advancement.
Nor does it mean I didn’t know what my career goals were or how to articulate them. I fully understood that to help me potential sponsors needed to grasp my ambitions quickly and in clear, specific terms.
So, you might wonder, why didn’t I initiate discussions to ask for sponsors? The reason is simple: Leaders already knew who I was and what I wanted based on how I showed up at work every single day. In short, my brand preceded me.
That’s not to say that proactively seeking a sponsor is wrong or bad. But if you’ve been looking to get to the next level for a long time and not finding the advocates or opportunities you need, consider making the following mindset shifts. Before long, your brand will precede you too.
- Think differently about sponsorship.The most important — and empowering — lesson I can share about how togain sponsorship is to focus less on how to get sponsors and more on how to add value to your business in ways that align with your passions and aspirations. When you do the internal work needed to pave the way for positive organizational outcomes and mutually beneficial professional relationships, sponsorships will follow naturally.
- Think differently about performance.Here’sa hard truth: Doing your job well does not earn you the right to be sponsored. To be sponsorable, you must be exceptional not only in performing your current duties but in actively seeking new opportunities to add value.
When I worked at Target, one of the most valuable perspectives I gained from a colleague is that you’re not ready to be promoted until you’re already leaning into doing the job you want. Ask yourself: Are you asking for new assignments? Is there an area you’re passionate about, and are you making that known to others? If someone asks you to do a presentation, are you viewing it as a strategic opportunity to get yourself in front of an audience of potential advocates?
- Think differently about relationships. Often when peopleseekto secure sponsorships, they fixate on looking good to their higher-ups without devoting the same energy to being a good teammate, coworker, or boss. That’s a mistake. Being sponsor-ready means understanding that every work relationship matters — a lot. After all, what leader would want to put their reputation on the line to sponsor someone who isn’t widely respected? And even if they did, what’s the likelihood their advocacy would make a difference among colleagues with whom you have a spotty track record?
Ask yourself: Are you gossiping at work or undermining your teammates? Are you conducting yourself in a way that’s worthy of sponsorship, even when no one “important” is looking? Similarly, with sponsors and coworkers alike, are you offering to help them reach their own goals and the company’s goals — or is it only about what you want?
- Think differently about self-promotion.Many people think about having a “brand” as synonymous with continually marketing themselves — reminding others what they do well, what sets them apart from others, etc. While there’s certainly a place for that, what’s even more important than touting your strengths is showing them to people, day in and day out, through the questions you ask, the initiative you show, and the areas in which you shine.
You want to be the person known for excelling at doing what they love. In that sense, self-knowledge matters more than self-promotion when it comes to being sponsor-ready. Once you make that shift, a coworker will transform into a sponsor the moment they say: “Oh, so-and-so really cared about advancing analytics in service of our strategy, maybe we should talk to her.”
Finally, don’t underestimate the power of curiosity. Requesting an informational interview with someone whose work you admire can be a great way to gain visibility in a low-pressure setting. No cheesy sales pitch required. Simply by being engaged and asking strategic questions, you’re demonstrating your value and planting seeds about your own aspirations — and telling others how they can help you grow.
