Mentors vs Sponsors: Getting Your Slice of Leadership Pie in Tech
Hello there, I am Natalie Richardson, the Head of Client Delivery at Inkling, an organization with the mission to create a more inclusive, more equitable world. Today, I’d like to explore how we can enhance female representation in the tech sector's C Suite. Despite accounting for 47% of the tech workforce, only 15% of executive leadership positions are held by women. Together, let's delve into why this is and how we can transform it.
The Problem: A Lack of Representation
The problem isn’t women, it’s the structures and narratives within organizations that create career roadblocks for them. Sometimes, these hurdle's aren’t intentional but are rather products of unconscious biases and lack of role models in senior leadership positions. It makes the path to upper-level management meets challenging, complex, and sometimes utterly confusing for women in tech.
Ironically, even though women are majorly underrepresented in tech leadership, an overwhelming majority of mentorship programs are represented by women, but unfortunately, these programs aren't yielding the expected results.
The Solution: Trading Cake for A Piece of the Pie
So, if mentorship isn’t working, then what will? The answer is: sponsorship.
Just to clarify, mentorship and sponsorship are different. Research shows employees with sponsors are 23% more likely to get a promotion. But here’s the catch - underrepresented groups, including women, are less likely to be sponsored. On the other hand, dominant groups get sponsored more often and by more people. In fact, men are 46% more likely to have a sponsor than women.
The Importance of Sponsorship
Sponsorship can make a real difference in breaking through unconscious bias, upsetting the status quo, and boosting confidence, resilience, and aspiration—particularly for women in tech. Female tech newbies initially plan to be promoted as eagerly as their male counterparts. However, over the first two years in the profession, the aspiration of these bright female graduates starts to fade, while it remains steady in their male peers.
How Sponsorship Can Expedite Career Progression
Contrary to popular belief, sponsorship is not similar to mentoring. A mentor's role is more private, involving casual catch-ups, career advice, personal development discussions— while sponsorship is more public, advocating for one's mentee to participate in high-value projects, pushing them out into the limelight, advocating for their promotions.
- Performance of the business - A sponsor helps you understand attainable business outcomes and development of a broader business strategy.
- Influence - A sponsor can enhance your image, help you develop an authentic leadership presence, and guide on how to present oneself to have the desired impact.
- Exposure - A sponsor can potentially reveal opportunities for you to showcase your talent, credibility, and contribute to other areas of the business—all of which can significantly enhance your career progression.
Wrapping Up
With the right strategic move and plentiful networking, getting a slice of leadership pie is possible. A formal sponsorship program, aimed at underrepresented groups, can be a booster shot to the corporate race, playing a massive role in increasing the diversity and profitability of organizations.
In this ever-evolving industry, let’s take a stand, learn more about the business, effectively influence one’s image, and get the exposure we need with the right sponsorship. Let's trade the cake for a piece of the leadership pie. After all, what's a pie without a slice for everyone?