Find a Sponsor and Know your Role as a Protégé 

Sponsors—I’ve had them throughout my career. In my early days, I didn’t know that’s what one should call them. Nor did I fully appreciate the crucial role they could play in one’s advancement. To better understand this sponsor-protégé relationship, let’s first go over a common misunderstanding.

What a sponsor is not:

A sponsor is not a mentor. These two roles should not be confused. While at times the same person can wear both hats, a mentor-mentee relationship is generally one where someone with greater experience offers advice and coaching to someone less experienced, and the mentor may or may not be a person who can exert significant influence on your career advancement. Additionally, a mentor typically does not have set expectations of the mentee’s performance.

What a sponsor is:

Unlike the mentor, a sponsor is a person of influence who advocates on your behalf at some personal risk and serves as a catalyst for career advancement. In the sponsor-protégé relationship, the protégé is an individual with talent but less experience and professional status than the sponsor. If you aspire to elevate your career, it’s important to find sponsors and to better understand your relationship with your sponsors. I recently heard author Sylvian Ann Hewlett speak about this in her new book, The Sponsor Effect. Check out this podcast where she discusses more about the sponsor-protégé relationship.

A sponsor is a person of influence who advocates on your behalf at some personal risk and serves as a catalyst for career advancement.

My first sponsor’s name was Ron. I talk about him fondly in my book, Beyond the Golden Door. Ron was the chairman of the elder board at my church. He was also the managing partner of a local accounting firm. When my first tax business failed, it was Ron who took a chance on me, inviting me to work for him and to serve his clients with my tax ideas. Ron advocated on my behalf with his other partners and risked some of his firm’s working capital to let me start an unproven practice because he saw it’s potential. Ron also coached me along the way. When he felt my career would be better served at a Big-4 firm like Ernst & Young, he advised me to pursue that opportunity instead of holding on to me for personal gain. That is a great sponsor!

The sponsor-protégé relationship is not a one-way street. The sponsor takes risk and pushes the protégé towards career advancement, but it is the protégé who must drive the sponsor-protégé relationship. It only works if the protégé overdelivers and proves him or herself worthy of the trust, risk, and investment made by the sponsor. The protégé must make the sponsor look good to continue the momentum in the relationship. In my case, I had to pursue Ron and make an ardent case for my ideas. Ron then took the necessary risk because he believed in me. I had to then work doubly hard to deliver the goods and execute. There is a give and take in the relationship, but it is the protégé that must do the heavier lifting.

You may be wondering, how can I find a sponsor? You don’t find sponsors by sending a mass email asking for sponsorship. Rather, as you begin your career journey, form relationships with a range of professionals in your organizations who are going places and continue to deliver high-quality results in your work. Over time you will identify a few you connect with well, and hopefully, the sponsor-protégé bond will form naturally.

Miss any of the 5 Keys to Success that You Didn’t Learn in College?
1. Under promise. Over deliver.
2. Understand your company’s value chain. 
3. Develop your executive presence.
4. Build your personal brand.
5. Find a sponsor and know your role as a protégé.