Mentors offer insight and encouragement, but if you really want to level up, you need strategic advocacy—and that means finding a sponsor.
“Sponsorship is that X factor…” says career strategist Kimberly Brown, founder of Brown Leadership®. “Sponsorship [is]… who can pick you up from where you are and put you where you rightfully belong because they have influence and power… [Sponsors] advocate for you in a room you’re generally not privy to be in.”
Visibility is your responsibility
Many employees don’t pursue sponsorship because they believe their managers have their backs, but there’s little point in being what Brown terms a ‘stealth mode employee’: well-known for being reliable, efficient and skilled, but you don’t get any credit or exposure. Building strategic relationships allows you to start advocating for yourself and, in turn, encourage a sponsor to advocate for you.
“Most of the professionals I work with are in… the ‘magic middle’… that honestly does all the work and gets none of the glory,” Brown says. She helps her clients ensure their visibility strategies are sound. “Is [your work] actually visible, or is it happening in this smaller, contained area where only one or two people know your magic?… How do we understand where the power is and where the influence is in your organization?”
If your manager is not the source of that influence, you may need to work around them. “Don’t allow your manager to be the be all and end all for your career,” Brown says. She also encourages looking into professional associations, to spread your circle of influence beyond the workplace and into your industry. “We need to make sure that people know who you are outside of your company.”
Brown believes that being over-mentored but under-sponsored is an issue that disproportionately faces women, particularly women of color, where representation at higher levels of leadership dwindles. “There’s not a lot of women who are in those super high roles… and I believe a lot of that is due to [a lack of] sponsorship.”