What is sponsorship?

Sponsorship is when a senior person leverages their influence to create career-critical opportunities and advocate for under-represented talent — in public and private spaces.

Effective sponsors consistently apply, what Helen terms, the Sponsorship CODE.

  • Connect — introducing to professional networks, senior figures and other groups that are typically out of reach

  • Open — creating career-critical opportunities that increase visibility, showcase talents and demonstrate readiness to advance

  • Defend — challenging biases and unfair criticism that limit talent potential and career growth

  • Endorse — advocating towards other senior figures when career-defining discussions and decisions come up

“Sponsorship is critical, as without sponsors, people with potential would never get the opportunities or the visibility to reach higher leadership goals.

Mentoring, coaching and training help the individual grow, while sponsoring opens the organisational barriers to let them keep growing.”

Sponsors increases the likelihood of career advancement [7]

53%

21%

for people who sponsor

for people who are sponsored

But not everyone has easy access because of the…

…“Sponsorship Gap”

Diverse talent

> 50%

Traditional peers

This gaps widens in advancing to executive ranks where it increasing counts to have pivotal exposure and assignments to demonstrate ‘leadership potential’. 

The challenge is even more acute for intersectional women and other marginalised groups.

  • 1 in 5 white men, 1 in 8 women and 1 in 12 people of colour are sponsored

    [8]

  • Men receive 15% more promotions, despite 83% of women and 76% of men having at least one mentor

    [9]

  • Only 5% of up-and-coming Black employees succeed in winning sponsorship compared to 20% of their white peers

    [10]

  • Trans and non-binary employees are less likely to be sponsored compared to their cis counterparts - 21% versus 32%

    [11]

  • 86% of sponsored women of colour report a positive impact - but are 12 percentage points less likely to be sponsored compared to white women

    [12]

“You need that trusted voice to vouch for you and push back on all the reasons that are being used to say that you are still not ready.”

“Sponsorship is critical. Corporates will lose their talent. There is also ESG - they are being monitored on this.”

Why rethink sponsorship?

Sponsorship approaches are not created equal. Three patterns emerge.

  • Sponsorship is left to evolve organically, often confused with mentoring, coaching and other practices.

  • Ad-hoc interventions default to ‘how to find a sponsor’ tips and leaders being asked to ‘cold’ sponsor someone they do not know.

  • Formal programmes vary between high impact and falling short - not always working deeply with human behaviour and organisational culture.

Helen’s ground-breaking research reveals the underlying human dynamics of sponsorship, generating a new definition and model for positive change.

Sponsorship

/ ˈspɒn sər ʃɪp / - the definition

Mutually trusting, co-created and beneficial relationship to leverage a more senior person’s power and reputational capital for diverse talent advancement and systemic leadership transformation.

Sponsorship Rings

A ground-breaking framework to examine the behaviours, mindsets and systems needed for better sponsorship - as a core leadership competence.

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