Forget a Mentor, Find a Sponsor by Sylvia Ann Hewlett - Book review

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Forget a Mentor, Find a Sponsor

The New Way to Fast-Track Your Career

By: Sylvia Ann Hewlett

Published: September 10, 2013
Format: Paperback, 256 pages
ISBN-10: 1422187160
ISBN-13: 978-1422187166
Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press












"Men and women with sponsors are much more likely to rise up through the ranks and hang on to their ambition. Sponsors - unlike mentors - give you serious traction", writes economist, founding president and CEO of the Center for Talent Innovation, and director of the Gender and Policy Program at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, Sylvia Ann Hewlett in her inspirational and career building book Forget a Mentor, Find a Sponsor: The New Way to Fast-Track Your Career. The author describes the crucial differences between a sponsor and a mentor, and shares her seven step guide to understanding the intricate relationship between a sponsor and the protege.

Sylvia Ann Hewlett understands, through her own experiences in academia, how critical the active support of a sponsor is to career success. She adds to her own personal story by including stories by other people who achieved success through the influence and advocacy of a sponsor. The author makes clear that sponsorship is not a one way event. Instead, one of the real values of sponsorships is how both people in the sponsor-protege relationship receive real benefits. Sylvia Ann Hewlett shares her ideas for finding a sponsor, working effectively and for mutual benefit, and how the idea of sponsors can become part of an organizational culture.

Sylvia Ann Hewlett (photo left) recognizes that mentors are valuable to career development and advancement. The author makes a distinction between mentors and sponsors that is not often considered by career guides. The mentor shares advice to the protege, and the sponsor serves partially in the mentor role, but more critically the sponsor serves as an advocate for the protege's career advancement. The sponsor has a seat at the table where those crucial career decisions are made, and takes a stance in support of the protege.

Sylvia Ann Hewlett presents a comprehensive guide to understanding sponsorships, attracting a sponsor for a mutually worthwhile sharing of benefits, and for understanding the some of the potential dangers and pitfalls that accompany unsuitable sponsors. The concept of sponsorship is considered in three overall sections as follows:

* The sponsor imperative: What is sponsorship and how does it work
* Road map for proteges: Finding and working with a mutually beneficial sponsor
* Pitfalls and trip wires: Sex, distrust, and executive presence

For me, the power of the book is how Sylvia Ann Hewlett combines a complete analysis of the value of two way street sponsorship, with the practical steps to establishing a rewarding sponsor-protege relationship. The author demonstrates clearly why it's simply not enough to find a suitable mentor. While the author acknowledges the value and benefits of working with a mentor, she also recognizes the limitations of the mentor role. To fill the important advocacy role, that is not part of a mentor-mentee relationship, Sylvia Ann Hewlett brings forward the role of the sponsor.

Sylvia Ann Hewlett shares her seven step process for finding a suitable sponsor, and also reminds the protege of their own responsibilities within the relationship. Unlike many discussions of the roles of mentors and sponsors, the author provides a complete analysis of some of the pitfalls that await the unwary who fail to conduct due diligence on their prospective sponsor. The stories of other successful sponsorships, and the career benefits they provided add an extra real world dimension to the book as well.

I highly recommend the essential and professional life changing book
Forget a Mentor, Find a Sponsor: The New Way to Fast-Track Your Career by Sylvia Ann Hewlett, to anyone at any stage of their career path, who is seeking a clear and concise guide to understanding and embracing the relationship with a sponsor. This book will not only advance your own career but will benefit your sponsor, and the entire organization as well.

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