Forget a Mentor, Find a Sponsor (2013) is an inspiring book by Sylvia Ann Hewlett that offers practical advice to fulfill your professional goals.
Like Donald Asher (author of Who Gets Promoted, Who Doesn’t, and Why), Hewlett informs workers—especially women and visible minorities—how the world of work operates: hard work alone won’t get you where you want to go. You need a powerful person to open doors for you.
Mentorship is a common practice in corporations, but it doesn’t go far enough. A mentor gives guidance and advice, but a sponsor is your advocate with clients. A sponsor believes in you and stakes his or her reputation on you.
Why would someone do this?
Unlike mentorship, sponsorship is a two-way street. As someone being sponsored, it’s your responsibility to deliver performance and loyalty to your sponsor, effectively “burnishing their brand” across the organization. In this way, you provide your sponsor with an ally to accomplish his or her own goals and an ear to the ground in milieus they don’t have access to—like the ground level of the organization.
For freelancers, finding a sponsor means identifying and approaching those with power in client organizations. Focus on people “who could evangelize on your behalf with those people in their network who make the hiring decisions.”
Hewlett makes clear that you don’t need to emulate the leadership style of your sponsor or even like your sponsor—you’re not looking for a friend. What is important is whether the sponsor has the power to help you achieve your goals by getting you your next promotion.
What I’ve found most helpful about Asher’s and Hewlett’s books is the call to action they provide for those trying to navigate a system they don’t innately understand. Asher and Hewlett inspire workers to be agents of change, not busy worker bees waiting for someone to finally notice them.