Top Things Keeping You from Leadership [Pt. 1 of #SponsorshipSeptember]
Pop quiz!
Which of these are proven to gain you a promotion and salary?
a. A sponsor
b. A mentor
c. Great reviews
d. Letting the work speak for itself
e. A kick-ass vision board
Before you butcher the Fall 2018 Vogue you stole from your dentist, the answer is A - a sponsor, aka, a senior leader who will actively advocate for your advancement. That's in contrast to a mentor who is typically thought to be someone further down you path who can impart encouragement and advice drawn from facing similar experiences.
According to Payscale.com’s 2019 salary survey, those with sponsors earn 11.6 percent more than those who do not. And while everyone could use a senior cheerleader, "For women, particularly women of color, having someone in a position of power who will go to the mat for you can be an effective way to combat systemic bias and break through the glass ceiling to positions of power and higher pay."
In her Fortune article, Stacy Jones explains that though only 3% of Fortune 500 companies share data on leadership diversity, among "high ranking officials, 80% are men and 72% of those men are white."
So finding ways to connect personally with a sponsor - over a love of cycling or the ‘hell of a season’ the Giants are having - may feel challenging and downright disingenuous. In companies where there is no real mandate for systemic change, a woman’s quest for sponsorship often leads to frustration and burnout. However, in orgs with a will to change or even a few ‘good apples,’ sponsorship may be viable.
One possible tactic to connect with a sponsor is to find the aspects of your professional story and vision that spark to them.
However, unless you're Olivia Pope and Don Draper's love child, this will be a learned skill.
And even then there will be pitfalls. During this, #SponsorshipSept, I will be publish a series of articles to unpack a few I've observed with my clients over time and how their story gave them the right reasons to connect them to the right leaders.
Trap 1: No Time For Narrative
A few months into his new promotion as VP of Clientele at a hedge fund, Reggie had been drinking water from a fire hose - learning all aspects of the new job while trying to outperform his predecessor. This, all while needing to attract and retain a killer team, convey their results and his brand as a leader to senior management, including the Legendary Fund Founder. He knew he had a compelling leadership story but since he’d spent most of his career perfecting the Art of Excel, he had no clue where to start to excel at the art of storytelling. Though he knew he had a problem, he sprinted away from it and plowed through the to dos on his 90 Day Plan.
Then he was asked to speak to the incoming class of new hires. He identified the opportunity to recruit fresh talent and workshop his narrative before trying it on the Founder. We began by grounding him in his values -- the things that kept him ticking as a human and professional. As he began to articulate what drove him to meaningful work, we started to understand his journey as a young analyst beginning at the company and how that influenced where he wanted to take his part of the organization. That story of the young man now establishing himself as a senior leader worked equally well up as down the org chart. To new hires, he painted an inspiring picture of the results of hard work and loyalty while also casting himself as a diligent student of the Legendary Fund Founder’s own principles.
Being a leader doesn't keep you from needing a leadership narrative.
It requires one.
How would having a leadership narrative change the way you were perceived in your org?
Who in leadership could it help you connect with?
Know someone who'd benefit from this note? Why not score millions of karma points & tag or repost? If you're getting this for the first time, sign up here to receive this newsletter every Tuesday.
If your next move is to figure out your next move, I do chill 15 minute consults to get you a plan around your next phase of leadership. If that sounds like it could be useful to you, click here to schedule a chat.