Mentors and Sponsors

Submitted: Oct 25, 2022 (08:07 am)

A mentor is a person who gives a protégé advice, answers questions, strategizes career moves and professional development. A sponsor is someone who promotes a protégé to other people to help advance the protégé’s career.

(Women in Leadership: Persistent Barriers to Gender Equality in the C-Suite (uwo.ca)) “In some cases, women are over-mentored and under-sponsored,” says Jeffery, who explains that mentorship is “when people speak to you” while sponsorship involves “people speaking about you.”

Share your ideas by responding to any of these question prompts or the essence of this topic.

  1. What is the difference between a mentor and a sponsor?
  2. Who are the sponsors or mentors in your life?
  3. How do you engage their support?
  4. Have you ever mentored or sponsored someone?

 

November 01, 2022 (04:49 pm)
kimberly.frykas says:
Conversations around the table focused on the need for both mentors and sponsors in our professional lives and the important roles that they play. We also discussed a quote from the book Nerve by Piper and Samarasekera (p. 67) "Mentors are people who take an interest in you, listening to your issues, offering you a shoulder to cry on, while giving advice and guidance. They expect very little in return. A sponsor, according to Hewlett, is a senior person who believes in your potential and is willing to take a bet on you; they advocate for your next promotion, encourage you to take risks and have your back. And they expect a great deal from you, namely stellar performance and loyalty."