When you walk into a crowded conference or party, who do you go towards?

What does your professional network look like?

How about the people you have mentored over the years?

It is human nature to gravitate to people similar to us. Think about how that similarity pull can have an impact on the diversity of our industry.

Mentorship and Sponsorship can break down barriers.

Why Is This Important?

  • It is human nature to gravitate to people similar to ourselves. Think about how this can have an impact on the diversity of our organizations and industry:

    • Who gets opportunities, whose performance is rounded up versus down, who gets additional career guidance and advice.

  • Being a mentor can broaden your circle of influence of new ideas valuable to you.

  • In research on mentoring, white male executives often don’t feel comfortable reaching out informally to young women and minority men, but are eager to mentor assigned mentees. Structured mentorship programs help foster those interactions.

  • Mentors broaden their circle of influence of new ideas.

Step 1: Create an Internal Company Mentorship Program

Mentorship - Internal Company

  • Assign pairs of senior leaders with mentees from underrepresented group.

  • Provide mentorship program information:

    • Duration of mentorship assignments. Example pairs meet for one year.

    • Frequency pairs should meet. Example once a quarter, monthly, bi-monthly.

  • Consider rotating mentor-mentee pairs annually. It takes the pressure off of pairs that don’t connect deeply. Those that did connect can continue relationships independent of the formal mentorship assignments, maybe even evolve to a sponsorship role.

  • Make sure your company looks not only at hiring, retention, and promotion numbers, but at how managers mentor, sponsor, and develop diverse talent.

Mentorship - External Industry

  • Seek opportunities to mentor people in the industry who are different from you.

Step 2: Mentorship Best Practices

  • Meet on a regular basis, such as every other month. Establish who should schedule the meetings.

  • Ask about and listen to your mentee’s passion areas, strengths, and ideas.

  • Share your personal experiences and career background.

  • Brainstorm ideas for your mentee’s professional development. Skills to develop, work experience to gain, exposure to different situations or tasks, training courses, etc.

  • Introduce your mentee to others in your organization and industry, especially people that may help with your mentee’s interests, goals, or developmental needs.

Step 3: Sponsorship - Raise Your Support Levels

  • What is Sponsorship versus Mentorship?

    • Sponsors are willing to use your own political capital to help a protégé.

    • Sponsors can have deeper impact on someone’s career by advocating for them.

  • Sponsorship Best Practices - Do you find yourself impressed by someone?

    • Advocate for career advancement opportunities: promotions, new positions, new growth assignments.

    • Sponsors can praise an employee’s traits to other leaders to increase their visibility.

    • Sponsors can translate feedback and help sponsees make plans to fill development gaps.

    • Help the set goals: both short term (1 year) and longer term (3-5 years).

Resources - Mentorship & Advocacy

Where did you learn your skills and industry knowledge?

How can you be important to a more diverse group of people?