![]() Sponsorship can also be a driver of individual giving, the most lucrative piece of the philanthropic pie. Sponsorship is a great source of additional revenue and contacts. This is good news for you because just about every nonprofit sells-or should be selling-sponsorships. I’ve been selling sponsorships-or helping others sell theirs-for longer than I care to admit. In today’s rapidly changing business environment, protégés who prospered under your sponsorship and moved on and up can thank you by doing for you exactly what you once did for them.This is a guest post from Joe Waters, sponsorship expert and author of Selfish Giving. The more protégés you have, the stronger and wider your safety net will be. If we’re to deliver against certain strategic objectives and someone is displaying behaviors that aren’t helpful, then you’re serving the organization as well as your sponsor by informing about that behavior.”Īnd let’s not forget, too, that the higher you climb, the more exposed you will be. It wasn’t in an insidious, tattle-tale vein but from the vantage point of what would be helpful for the department. “I’d tell her that there was someone on her team who wasn’t performing the way they should. One protégée described herself as “the eyes and ears on the ground” for her sponsor. They need loyal lieutenants to bridge the distance and deliver a clear, unbiased and timely report of what’s going on. As leaders move up the ladder, they’re increasingly removed from the action on the front lines of the organization. Building a loyal cadre of effective performers can extend your reach, realize your vision, build your legacy, and burnish your reputation.īut protégés do more than enhance your brand and extend your influence they protect you. Still others may help you advance the organization’s goals through their ability to build teams from scratch and coach raw talent. Others contribute fluency in another language or culture. Some sponsees add value through their technical expertise or social media savvy. But she can put together a posse whose expertise is a quick IM away. In today’s complex organizational matrix, no one person can maintain both breadth and depth of knowledge across fields and functions. Why do it? Because the payoff is priceless. In short, sponsorship is about taking calculated risks. Should she stumble, or should any of those other directors turn hostile, the sponsor will come to her aid – because now that your brands are linked, it’s in the sponsor’s best interests to ensure his protégé succeeds. He’ll train a spotlight on his protégé so that other directors take note of her abilities and he’ll make introductions afterward so that she can follow up with them to bring her talent to a wider audience. He’ll coach her on her performance so that she proves to other what an excellent choice he made. He’ll get his protégé in front of directors to audition for a key role. According to the Center for Talent Innovation, whose intensive study of sponsorship has appeared in research reports, HBR articles and blogs, and will be published in my upcoming book,įorget a Mentor, Find a Sponsor, sponsorship isn’t just a nice thing to do it’s also a smart career move. Leaders of color who have developed young talent are overall 24% more satisfied with their career progress than those who haven’t built that base of support.Īlthough the role of sponsors and mentors are often conflated, the fact is, sponsors do much more. White male leaders with a posse of protégés are 11 percent more satisfied with their own rate of advancement than leaders who haven’t invested in up-and-comers. It turns out that there’s also a “protégé effect” leveraging career traction for leaders. In earlier research, CTI measured the “sponsor effect,” the quantifiable boost to pay, promotion, career satisfaction, and retention that sponsorship endows on protégés. When choosing his direct reports, he asks: “How many blazing talents have you developed over the years and put in top positions across the company, so that if I asked you to pull off a deal that involved liaising across seven geographies and five functions, you’d have the bench strength - the people who ‘owe you one’ - to get it done?” Just how important protégés are to a powerful person was made clear to me by this question, told to me by a Fortune 100 CEO.
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