I happened to attend a forum on Monday morning to celebrate International Women’s Day at my workplace. A lot of meaningful things were said, but one thing stood out for me, which I thought I must share.
The main speaker was Nyeri County Deputy Governor Carol Karugu, a vivacious and colourful raconteur who skilfully told the story of her life.
She deftly wove anecdotes and important life lessons she had learnt throughout her journey into her story.
But Carol said one thing that I just can’t stop thinking about — the value of having a sponsor.
Now, to dispel any doubts, I am not referring to the derogatory term used to mean a man in a transactional sexual arrangement with a younger woman. We are talking about an executive sponsor here.
This is an individual, often powerful and influential, who speaks very highly of you in conversations that matter.
A sponsor believes in you, vouches for you and your capabilities to the right people.
A sponsor puts their neck on the line for you. They nudge you in the right direction, make phone calls that will change your life and get you appointments that would take you years to secure.
A sponsor tells the world how excellent you are. They know your CV by heart and would parade your achievements in a heartbeat.
Every time somebody mentions anything to do with your industry, a typical sponsor will say something like this: “Oh my God, you need to meet this lady Njoki, she’s an authority in that field”.
That, dear readers — especially female readers — is somebody you need if you ever want to get anywhere in this world.
I know this because I am a beneficiary of sponsorship.
Men know the value of sponsorship and they do it unapologetically. They actively seek out sponsors with lots of enthusiasm.
They are not ashamed nor embarrassed to ask a more influential man to throw in a good word for them in an upcoming meeting, job interview or career-defining assignment.
Women, on the other hand, have a long way to go in embracing sponsors. We are too timid to approach people we know will do us good, and understandably so, given that women have been conditioned to downplay their achievements, something I call “faux modesty”.
But this is not a men versus women conversation. Today, I am here to tell my sisters, go find that sponsor and be proud to have one!
The issue of sponsorship versus mentorship has been fodder for management writing for a while now. If you look through the Harvard Business Review, tens of article pop up on how women need to be mentored less and sponsored more. You will find an article titled “Women are over-mentored but under-sponsored”.
In the piece, Herminia Ibarra, a professor of organisational behaviour at INSEAD, mounts a brilliant argument on why “high-potential” women are over-mentored and under-sponsored.
She says that sponsoring someone is a very targeted job with an end goal in mind: “it has to do with fighting to get somebody a promotion, mentioning their name in an appointments meeting, and making sure that the person you are sponsoring gets the next assignment, and gets visible and developmental assignments”.
In another article titled “A lack of sponsorship is keeping women from advancing into leadership,” Prof Ibarra says that women are not scaling the heights in their organisations because they are not getting those “high-stakes” assignments that are a pre-qualification for the top jobs.
And they are not getting these career-making assignments simply because they have nobody to bring up their names when the key assignments are being dished out.
So today, I want to disabuse you of the notion that “sponsor” is a dirty word. I want you to debunk the myth that sponsorship is akin to favouritism. It is not. It is having a corporate guardian angel.
You are brilliant, you are smart and you deserve to have your name and your achievements talked about in those boardrooms.
I know it takes a lot of courage, but if you do not yet have a sponsor, you need to identify one and ensure that they are very highly placed. Do not be ashamed about it.
Take it from someone who knows — I would not be where I am today if it were not for my sponsor who won’t stop talking about my work to the people who matter most.
When you finally secure that sponsor, let it be your life’s mission to make them proud to be your sponsor.
The writer is the director of the Innovation Centre at Aga Khan University Graduate School of Media and Communications. The views expressed in this column are the writer’s own.
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