Book Review - Forget a Mentor, Find a Sponsor

(Forget a Mentor)
Find a Sponsor 

(by Sylvia Ann Hewlett)

All AMAZINGNESS in this book! Definitely a new thought and ground-breaking concept on excelling one's career. With all the pressures and emphasis on work (i.e. career life), the strategies and methods to succeed are becoming so common that everyone is either laboring into overtime (shifting the standard working hours from 40/week to 50+/week) or laboring while taking classes full-time. Where does one get the time to actually live and enjoy family outside of work?

Well, to regain your personal life you'll need to come up with a new strategy. This lady, former professor of Columbia University, opens the door to a new, useful concept on maximizing your efforts at work while receiving the matching recognition and rewards. Stop focusing so much on building a team of mentors. Build a team of sponsors.

Interestingly, non-profits actually already do this (i.e. build sponsorships) in order to continue operating. The only difference with individuals is that sponsorship helps with finding job opportunities rather than financial opportunities. So, who are your sponsors?

Main Points

Here are the main points that I really liked from this book, and the author actually does a nice job of organizing this knowledge.

• The Sponsor Imperative - Part One of this book's table of contents
• First and straight to the point, we need to know what is sponsorship and how sponsorship works.
• Road Map for Proteges - Part Two of this book's table of contents
• Dream (envision your castle)
• Diagnose (your current situation and skills)
• Collect (a list of potential sponsors)
• Divide (or distribute your risks)
• Develop (what sponsors are looking for)
• Deploy (your currency)
• Dive-In (with a 'Yes')
• Pitfalls - Part Three of this book's table of contents
• Sex
• Distrust
• EP = Executive Presence
• Gravitas - How you Act
• Communication - How you Speak
• Appearance - How you Look
• Last Point: Envision and build toward your vision

Favorite Quotes

There were a lot of nice quotes by the author, but I'll limit to eight.

1. Climbing the ladder in any competitive field requires heavy-duty support from a senior person with heft and influence.
2. Sponsors give advice and guidance, but (unlike mentors) they also come through on much more important fronts.
3. Mentors give, whereas sponsors invest. <-- Key!
4. Sponsors may advise or steer you, but their chief role is to develop you as a leader. Your role is to earn their investment in you.
5. Cultivating a sponsor and leveraging the relationship to mutual benefit turns out to be a skill that serves people in nonprofits and education as readily as it serves people in for-profits and government.
6. Sponsors make it their business to see you succeed because you carry their brand.
7. *Combination of quotes here.* What proteges do? Own their ambition, define their destination, and deliver positive, useful results especially adding value to their sponsors.
8. 'Yet among proteges, only 32 percent say they "lead with a yes."' Lean-in with 'yes' and then figure out how to get it done - and do it well. Be confident and secure the opportunity before negotiating.

Favorite Verse

"That's right: making a fabulous first impression boils down to biceps." - Sylvia Ann Hewlett

What's Missing?

A nice table or chart showing all the statistics that she mentions would have been nice. Otherwise, it's still a great and useful read.