Mentorship vs. Sponsorship: What is the Difference?
(Image Credit: Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash)
Have you ever had someone champion you or support your personal and career growth? Do you remember how great that felt?
Your employees are seeking out development and growth as they join your organization.
In addition to training, education and external courses you can develop your employees through mentorship, coaching or sponsorship programs.
Understanding the difference between these programs is important when deciding how you’d like to support your employees and in determining which is essential to their professional development.
In our previous blog post, we looked at the differences between mentoring and coaching. Traditional mentoring is when a more experienced person within an industry or organization shares their knowledge and expertise with another employee who seeks advice and guidance. Coaching is a short term relationship where an individual pays a coach to develop new skills, achieve specific goals, and build confidence.
While a mentor and a coach are equally effective in helping you get to where you want to be, a sponsor takes this investment further by becoming more active in your career growth.
What is Sponsorship?
Most of us associate the word sponsorship with companies providing funding to a celebrity or athlete in return for promoting their product. In a workplace context, sponsors are experienced leaders or executives within an organization who use their influence to advocate for their protégé. A sponsor can help a newer employee obtain individual assignments, promotions, or other roles.
Sponsorships are also two-way relationships built on trust. Since sponsors hold a powerful position and influence in an organization and industry, they take greater risks to offer their support.
A sponsor will actively help advance a career by using their reputation to advocate on behalf of the protégé. By doing this, the sponsor gives credibility to the protégé. If the protege doesn’t deliver on expectations, it will reflect poorly on the sponsor’s reputation.
The Difference Between a Mentor and a Sponsor
While sponsorships and mentorships share similarities, there are notable differences between the two practices. Both mentors and sponsors offer guidance and advice, but sponsors go further and use their influence to take significant action.
The most important distinction between a mentor and sponsor is they both have a network that will benefit their mentee or protégé. However, they will use their connections differently to achieve the same outcome. While your mentor will introduce you to people in their network, your sponsor will ensure that you are considered for a project, role, or promotion by sharing your accomplishments and advocating for you behind closed doors.
A mentor will help you develop the skills you need to grow in your career, but a sponsor will make sure you are given the opportunity to advance in an organization by connecting you with influential people within an industry or organization.
Another key distinction is that mentors are role models for their mentees. Mentors will share their personal experiences and help you overcome a challenge, but they aren’t always active in your advancement. Sponsors are personally invested in your professional development and will open doors for you by providing candid feedback about your reputation in the organization and where you stand against criteria for leadership.
Why is Sponsorship Important?
Sponsorship is crucial to leaders who value equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) in their organization. Since sponsors have a seat at the table and are in ‘positions of power’, they can use their reputation to advocate for underrepresented groups.
Women and people of colour continue to remain underrepresented in leadership positions. Sponsorship is one of the most effective ways to advance anyone in organizations, including women, minorities, and other underrepresented groups. Catalyst is a company that has supported advancing women and sponsorship programs for years and you can check out their research as well.
Creating sponsorship programs that connect employees from different backgrounds is significant in helping women and other minorities advance in their careers. Sponsors can help increase their visibility by amplifying their accomplishments and achievements.
The Accenture and Semi.org 2020 report on sponsorship in the semiconductor industry revealed that the satisfaction with rate for advancement was reported higher for women and minorities with a sponsor than those without. Women with a sponsor had a satisfaction rate of 68% compared to 57% by unsponsored women. Similarly, minorities with a sponsor reported a 56% satisfaction rate compared to 34% of unsponsored minorities.
Providing sponsorship opportunities that will help employees feel included, valued, and respected, creates several benefits to employees and organizations. These benefits can generate significant business results including:
Better corporate culture
Higher employee retention
Higher employee attraction
Better customer service
Higher customer loyalty
Higher productivity
Higher profitability
Now that you understand sponsorship, the distinction between a mentor, a coach, and a sponsor, it can be simplified in this commonly referenced phrase: a coach talks to you, a mentor speaks with you, and a sponsor talks about you.
Whether you decide to create a mentorship program, a coaching program, or a sponsorship program, will depend on your business and organizational goals. Each relationship will create a different experience for your employees, but all are equally important in their professional development.
So how do you plan to develop your employees going forward? Try out one of these programs and the return on investment will be incredible!