I’m going to take a risk here and say that one of the biggest mistakes I see career climbers make is spending too much time finding mentors. Of course, mentoring relationships can be incredibly valuable and I wouldn’t want to discourage them. But when I’m asked by new recruits, “What is the fastest way to advance my career?,” finding mentors is simply not at the top of my list.
I’ve only ever had two official mentors in my career. But I have had a TON of sponsors.
So…What’s the Difference?
I find that many people have never even heard of the idea of sponsorship. So what’s the difference between a mentor and a sponsor? Well, mentoring is when you meet someone regularly, you give them your problems, and they give you advice. They will probably also give you free coffee, which is pretty great.
A sponsor is someone who gives you opportunities.
What do I mean? Sponsors are generally senior leaders within your company and in positions of influence. They can highlight your accomplishments to other leaders and direct opportunities to you when appropriate. They are the people who will advocate for your success and in return you will represent their brand and deliver results.
Most of my biggest career moments came from sponsorship:
The very first re-architecture project I owned was creating a spellchecker that worked in Microsoft Office's 140+ languages. The assignment came from an architect outside my reporting chain. He pushed the opportunity my way because of how much energy I put into reading the background research, understanding the codebase, and fixing bugs in my spare time.
Later, a different engineering leader gave me a shot a running my first 30+ person organization. I’d impressed him with my ability to drive smaller innovation projects in the Microsoft Office organization (which is really hard, long story). He needed someone who could build a team, balance innovation with practicality, cut red tape, and ship on time. The project, InfoNav, was the first team I ever built ground-up and resulted in me getting to meet a childhood hero, Bill Gates.
Last example: when an Engineering Director in the Cloud and Enterprise group at Microsoft needed someone to fix an urgent problem with service deployment, my name came up. At the time I had no previous cloud experience, but I the Director knew I could learn quickly and deliver.
This was the first cloud infrastructure project I ever worked on and resulted in me taking on new responsibilities I’d never imagined. Couple years later, that initial cloud experience (and a bunch of hard work) led to me become General Manager for a SaaS project called Power BI, which is now a $500M business.
I could go on. In each case the biggest opportunities came from people knew my history, who trusted me, and became my advocates at key moments. Great sponsors!
Bagging a Sponsor
So, how can you get a sponsor? The first technique is simple: Ask. About half of my sponsorships came from simply repurposing the standard mentorship coffee meeting. But instead of asking for career advice, I talked about my work history, explained my aspirations, and then asked, “What would you do if you had an extra pair of hands?” You’ll be amazed at the opportunities that arise when you ask that question to the right person.
The second approach is to tune your opportunity radar. Lift your head up from the keyboard and observe problems going on in your organization. Listen to what your leaders are saying. You will see that they are continually leaving you tips about what matters to them.
Whenever I host a town-hall or team sync, the most common question I get is, “What keeps you up at night?” I’ll then explain a few problems happening in the team/company along with potential solutions. Rarely do employees realize that these are prime moments to offer help and gain a sponsor. It happens infrequently but when it does it’s a beautiful thing.
Caution and Conclusion
Yes, asking for sponsorship will generate more work for you — probably well above and beyond what would normally be expected. Also, sponsorship is a two-way street, so be careful before committing to the next big challenge. Don’t let your sponsor down! Despite these concerns, the rewards of sponsorship far outweigh the risks.
Finally, a note for executives and managers: It is the responsibility of leaders to make new leaders. If you still aren’t sponsoring, start now!
rock on-nick