More takeaways from the Women in NeuGroup meeting featuring three senior executives at one company.
The Women in NeuGroup (WiNG) virtual meeting held last week highlighted the use of mentoring circles as a building block for sponsorship—where someone senior to you in the company advocates for your advancement. Our first story described how the process works at one major American multinational, as described by three senior executives. Below are more takeaways from the meeting as distilled by Anne Friberg, senior director of peer groups at NeuGroup.
- Yes, you can build your own. It doesn’t really require corporate sponsorship to build mentoring circles like the one featured at the WiNG event. You can start your own with women (and men) whom you know and just go for it. The one stumbling block may be to get budget approval for things like traveling along with mentors to other company facilities, for example, but most of the suggested actions don’t incur much cost. (Of course, almost no one is traveling now, but that will change some day.)
- Don’t be afraid to ask someone to be a mentor (or even sponsor). The worst that can happen is they say no. The key is not to let that dent your confidence, and the silver lining is that it also opens up for a conversation of what it would take for them to consider mentoring or sponsoring you.
- It can get awkward with close associates. What if you started out at the same level with a long-time colleague, but now you’re in a more senior role and you’re mentoring that person? And what if you really feel you cannot in good conscience sponsor this person for a promotion or joining your team? Remember the key tenets of productive mentor and sponsor relationships: They require trust, honesty, communication and commitment. When you’ve known someone for a long time and may be friends outside work, this is hard. But—gulp—take a deep breath and be honest about why you cannot sponsor someone, and be generous about sharing what you believe the areas of improvement required for your sponsor support are.
- Prepare yourself for being sponsored. Not everyone is as aware as they would like about their own skill set or what’s required for being “discovered” and sponsored. If that sounds like you, it may pay to take an assessment from StrengthsFinder or similar services. That way, you can be more confident in putting yourself forward for something that suits your strengths, or seek out opportunities where you may need to dig deeper and develop an area that’s less of a strong suit for you to balance out your skill set. And mind you, a sponsor who’s gotten to know you may well see strengths and capabilities more clearly than you do.
