In an increasingly competitive tech world, it’s often about “who you know” more than “what you know.”
This, in a nutshell, is networking — when someone recommends you for a job because they know your work ethic, abilities, and integrity.
For many people, this recommendation comes from a peer or career mentor. However, more important than the word of these relationships is that of a sponsor.
The value of having an executive sponsor is priceless. Your reputation is linked to theirs, so they don’t take on this responsibility lightly.
Having an executive sponsor in the tech industry can propel you ahead of the competition and fast-track your career. In this guide, we’ll walk you through finding your ideal sponsor to get you started.
What is an Executive Sponsor?
An executive sponsor is a high-level leader within an organization. This person steps in to take responsibility for a project’s success by advocating for positive actions.
Executive sponsors may team up with people with the skills to execute the project and reach the sponsor’s goal. This way, the team members complete the daily operations while the sponsor oversees the project’s scope.
Executive Sponsor or Career Mentor — What Do They Do?
Depending on your current career status and future goals, you may need a mentor or be in the position to find an executive sponsor. Both are beneficial and can help you advance in your tech journey, but they are not the same.
What’s an Executive Sponsor?
An executive sponsor is a stakeholder in your career, whereas a mentor rarely takes a financial stake in your advancement. Often referred to as workplace sponsorship, a partnership between an employee and a sponsor provides the junior worker with the guidance and opportunities necessary to build their skills.
This more noviced worker is typically called a “protégé” or “sponsee.” They’re paired with a leader or executive in the industry who has proven their knowledge and success and is willing to advocate for an up-and-coming individual as they grow professionally.
This career advancement happens strategically as the sponsee is given projects that enhance and develop their skills. However, not every company has a workplace sponsorship program, and many workers lack the connections and the means to find an executive sponsor.
How Are Career Mentors Different From Executive Sponsors?
Career mentors are professionals in your similar industry who offer guidance, advice, and support. These individuals help you recognize and address your strengths and weaknesses through goal-setting and network-building.
Executive sponsors have a vested interest in your career, sometimes by paying for courses or providing growth opportunities that involve their own projects. On the other hand, a mentor rarely takes a financial stake in your advancement.
Mentors have experience in their career field and a reputation as a person of integrity. The mentor-mentee relationship involves a shared connection through similar career goals and obstacles. Using the mentor’s expertise, the mentee can overcome challenges with guidance and support.
The mentor-mentee connection often involves a personal relationship. Mentors share their knowledge and experience and provide the mentee with feedback, advice, and critiques. Ultimately, the mentor seeks to empower the mentee with enough knowledge to navigate their career independently.
Benefits of Executive Sponsorship
When you know which direction you want to take in your career but could use guidance and opportunities to achieve it, an executive sponsor is the key.
Sponsor and Sponsee Benefits
This sponsor-sponsee relationship brings incredible benefits to the protégé, although the connection is not one-sided. Having someone to guide and mold is good for the company, boosting overall workplace productivity, culture, and success.
Why Executive Sponsors Take on Their Role
Let’s address the elephant in the room: taking on a sponsee can be a lot of work. So, why does a sponsor do it, anyway?
For one thing, sponsoring up-and-coming talent is a strong way to develop company loyalty. Whether this person is already working in the sponsor’s company or is new to the tech industry, sponsoring someone fosters a relationship that connects the sponsor and sponsee at a deeper level. This connection increases the likelihood that the protege will continue to work for or join the sponsor’s company in the future.
Sponsors who are allies for underrepresented groups can advocate for these individuals, ensuring their sponsee’s career advances. This sponsorship can be crucial in fields like technology, where diversity remains challenging.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are factors in the tech world that are often the driving force behind success. DEI is connected to stronger decision-making skills, innovation, and workplace satisfaction, all of which impact the company’s profit margin.
Benefits and Responsibilities of Sponsees
When people want to grow their careers and make a difference, they become dissatisfied with jobs that don’t offer professional development. This issue leads to increased workplace turnover, but many workers would stay in their jobs if they knew they were sponsored and their careers would develop.
With an executive sponsor, you, as the sponsee, receive tailored opportunities to help you gain career skills. Your sponsor would advocate for you to be chosen for important projects. They connect you to their professional network and help you build your own.
The right sponsor enables you to recognize patterns and changes in the industry and navigate them. They have a vision beyond what you may see, as they’re looking from a C-suite bird’s eye view.
In return, you listen to their advice, continue to grow an impressive reputation, and develop your professional career using your sponsor’s suggestions and career strategy.
Traits of a Good Career Mentor vs. an Executive Sponsor
There are stages in your tech career when you’ll need a career mentor, and others when an executive sponsor is the way to go. In either situation, finding someone who fits your personality, goals, and direction is essential.
Still, just because you know someone and have a foot in the door with them doesn’t make them the ideal candidate. Let’s look at the traits that make for a successful career mentor and executive sponsor.
Traits of an Effective Career Mentor
Mentors connect with mentees on a personal level. The more invested in your success your career mentor is, the more likely you are to learn from them and excel in your goals.
While anyone with experience in the tech field can be a mentor, these traits are associated with the most valuable mentor-mentee relationships:
- Empathetic and active listening skills
- The ability to provide constructive feedback in formative ways
- Excitement for helping others
- A proven track record of success in the same or a similar field as your career goals
- A willingness to share their knowledge and experiences
- Connection to their network of contacts
- Communication skills that include empathy and honesty
Remember, your career mentor’s goal is to help you grow. This means they may need to share some not-so-great feedback with you that could hurt your feelings or upset you.
Building a relationship based on trust and confidence helps you share vulnerable or potentially negative information without worrying that it will be taken the “wrong way.”
Traits of Effective Executive Sponsors
Whereas a career mentor connects with you more emotionally and personally, an effective executive sponsor has traits involving business leadership and project management success.
The executive sponsor role is designed to teach you how to adapt your career to reach the C-level. Although you may not intend to make it that far on the corporate ladder, you’ll learn the ropes to do so. For this relationship to be successful, the ideal executive sponsor is a senior leader or part of the leadership team of a company you work for or would like to be employed by.
In addition to this key trait, someone who makes an effective sponsor also has:
- Strong decision-making abilities
- Knowledge of project management tools and various strategies designed to meet a project’s goals
- Communication skills to help you understand a project’s lifecycle from the top-down view using KPIs and metrics
- Has buy-in as a decision-maker for upcoming projects
Not every executive-level leader wants the role of a sponsor. Look for someone who cares about retention rates in the company, is open to organizational changes, and is a key stakeholder in executive sponsor programs or similar growth-minded projects.
Tips on Finding an Executive Sponsor
Now that you know the type of person you’re looking for as a project sponsor, the next question is how to find them. This goal is easier if your current company has a project sponsorship program or you’re part of a platform designed to connect sponsors and sponsees, like Obsidi® Academy and Obsidi® Recruit.
But it is possible to navigate the sponsorship world on your own. Start with building your reputation in the tech industry by focusing on your education and current career projects.
Once you’ve established yourself as a knowledgeable professional, use your existing connections to reach out to those in the leadership teams around you.
Research these individuals and look for someone whose values and career goals align with yours. Be sure they have the influence you need within your industry and are respected. Then, introduce yourself, sharing your reputation and knowledge and your need for an executive sponsor to improve your career trajectory.
If they are open to working with you, verify that they have the time and energy to help you reach your goals. They may have good intentions, but they could have too much on their plate to be effective right now.
When you find a potential sponsor, pay attention to how you communicate with them. Is it mutually respectful and healthy?
If they seem cold, distant, and uncommunicative in phone calls and messaging, or if you’re informal or otherwise unprofessional, the sponsor-sponsee connection is unlikely to be effective.
Conclusion
One way to ensure you communicate clearly and respectfully and connect with people open to sponsoring you is to look for mentorship and stakeholder opportunities focusing on your skills or traits.
Obsidi® Academy and Obsidi® Recruit are designed to connect diverse tech professionals with senior executive teams in companies who want to hire them. Minimize roadblocks and optimize your search for the ideal sponsor for you by joining Obsidi® today.
