Women Have Fewer Sponsors Than Men

Women Have Fewer Sponsors Than Men Im sending you to the conference in Atlanta as a presenter. Seeing the panic on my face, my ratgeber Jane continued, Youre ready. And its time you got a little exposure for the training youve created. I welches a few years in on my career journey, and Jane was my first mentor. I have never forgotten what she did for me, and how her support shaped my career path.Oprah has described a mentor as someone who allows you to see the hope inside yourself. That was certainly true of Jane for me, and of the many mentors and sponsors Ive had since.When you listen to people describe their mentoring relationships, youll notice that everyones experience and approach is slightly different. Ive had people describe relationships ranging from formal to informal,from full-on sponsorship, to having multiple subject matter expert mentors, to a peer-mentoring network.I dont know about you, but the idea that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to mentorship was a huge relief to me. The idea of having an end-all be-all mentor was daunting. I envisioned some old, white guy looking over the top of his glasses at me asking what my burning career questions were. Yikes Finding someone like that to mentor me didnt seem at all feasible, let alone interesting.Once I started to take a buffet style approach, picking and choosing the type of mentoring relationships Ive needed over the course of my career, it took a lot of pressure off. I found myself engaging in more mentorship activities.To be clear, not all of these relationships pack the same punch. There are stats that show women have as many mentors as men do. What we dont have, and what is critical to our success, are sponsors.Sponsors are mentors on steroids. They use their influence, open doors, actively advocate for you and let you draft off their success to build yours. And research show thatmen have 3-4 times more sponsors than women do.Thats a really big deal.Research conducted by The Center for Work-Life Policy and written up in Harvard Business Review highlights the importance of the sponsorship effect. People with sponsors ask for and get more pay and stretch assignments and are far happier with their rate of advancement.Having sponsors, then, is the secret sauce to moving in to leadership. So why do women have significantly fewer sponsors than men do? Three reasons1. Women think its cheating. Heres what I have to say about that get over yourself. If you try and do it all solo, youre slowing down your growth and the potential impact you can have on the world. Get comfortable with the idea of having sponsors. Its the way the game is played.2. Like Me Bias.Without realizing it, leaders tend to pick people who remind them of themselves when they were at an earlier stage in their careers when choosing who to sponsor. Since there are mostly white men in leadership, their like me bias causes them to sponsor other white men in a perpetual white male leadership-making machine.3. The implication of an affair. Older men dont want to sponsor younger women because they dont want people thinking they are having an affair. Younger women dont want to be sponsored by older men because they dont want people thinking theyve slept their way to the top. That makes sense.The good news is that with a little conversation and education, all three of these barriers can quickly be overcome. Once everyone understands how important sponsors are and their role, as women and as leaders, in making them happen its fairly simple to change the dynamics. Go ahead take the lead and start a conversation about sponsor relationships with your team and your boss. Youll be helping everyone get on board with women having more sponsors.Its time to step up to the mentoring and sponsorship buffet and give your career a boost. In parte two, well explore how.--Mo is the Founder of The Moxie Exchange, a training and peer mentoring organization for companies who want to recruit, develop, promote and retain women and create inclusive workplaces. Shes an advisor to CEOs of the nations fastest growing companies and is the founder 5 successful businesses. She also been known to sing loudly, dance badly and curse like a sailor.Fairygodboss is committed to improving the workplace and lives of women.Join us by reviewing your employer