The Surprising Benefits of Sponsoring Others at Work

HBR IdeaCast

Harvard Business Review

Leadership, Entrepreneurship, Communication, Marketing, Business, Business/management, Management, Business/marketing, Business/entrepreneurship, Innovation, Hbr, Strategy, Economics, Finance, Teams, Harvard

4.4 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 18 June 2019

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Sylvia Ann Hewlett, an economist and the founder of the Center for Talent Innovation, has studied the difference between mentoring and sponsorship and what leaders have to gain from the latter. She says it's important to seek out protégés who outperform, are exceptionally trustworthy, and, most importantly, offer skills, knowledge, and perspectives that differ from your own, so you can maximize the benefits for both parties. Hewlett brings real-world lessons from several successful pairings and tips on how to effectively launch and manage these long-term relationships. She's the author of the book "The Sponsor Effect: How to Be a Better Leader by Investing in Others."

Transcript

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0:00.0	If you work with early career professionals, my colleagues at
0:03.8	HPR have a great new podcast for you. It's called New Here. Think of it like the
0:08.4	Young Professional's Guide to Building a Meaningful Career on your own terms.
0:11.9	Share New Here with the Young Professionals in your life. a meaningful career on your own terms.
0:12.8	Share new here with the young professionals in your life.
0:15.9	Listen for free wherever you got your podcasts.
0:18.6	Just search new here. Welcome to the HBR Ideacast from Harvard Business Review. I'm Allison Beard. We all know that there are big benefits to having a sponsor at work, someone who has your
0:49.2	back and pushes you up through the ranks. But feel good aspect aside. Why should people want to
0:55.1	be sponsors? You're investing your time and energy and sometimes risking your
0:59.8	reputation to help someone else advance. Our guest today says that it's a hundred percent
1:05.7	worth it in very tangible ways. Senior executives who have a protéche
1:10.3	are 53 percent more likely to have received a recent promotion.
1:14.0	Entry-level people who sponsor someone else are 167% more likely to have gotten a stretch assignment.
1:20.0	And sponsors tend to feel more satisfied in their careers.
1:24.0	Sylvia Ann Hewlett is an economist and the founder of the Center for Talent Innovation.
1:29.0	She's studied dozens of sponsor relationships and has a lot of advice on how to make sure they
1:34.0	benefit both parties. She's the author of the book The Sponsor Effect, how to be a
1:38.9	better leader by investing in others. Sylvia, thanks so much for joining me today. It's great to be here. So we've talked about sponsorship on this show before, but for the uninitiated,
1:59.8	what's the difference between sponsors and mentors?
2:04.4	Very simply, mentorship is a gift.
2:08.9	It's a professional guiding, giving advice
2:11.9	to helping out a younger person out of the goodness of their heart.
	...

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