Who is your Sponsor?

In many contexts and in many businesses, we need someone who believes in us that is in a position of decision making authority. We need someone who knows how we think and likes it or appreciates it. They may even like us so much they would advocate for us to participate in something we have never done before. We need a Sponsor.  We need a Sponsor that thinks of us when new roles are discussed or in discussion about potential candidates. In the ideal world, it is those very Sponsors that put their good name on the line to put our name on the line.


Recently, I have wondered why I have seem to hit a period in my career growth where alot doesn't seem to be changing. I feel like I am trying new things but not a lot appears to be moving on the surface. Admittedly, this may be just perception and I won't attempt any glacier analogies because honestly I don't know or think that it really fits. The place I work has many slow moving aspects and the people that are moving and changing are the ones to watch, I am not one of those people. I recognized my own stagnation in my current role and it was becoming a real challenge to be motivated at work.

Feeling a little bit of a temporary malaise, I went to lunch with a colleague of mine and at the end of my discussion with him he said very matter of factly, "You are a high-potential for two years in a row and you haven't received a promotion or a different job because you don't have anyone that is willing to take a risk on you. Or they like what you are doing so much they can't risk anyone else doing it. Matt, you don't have a Sponsor."

I will take up his second comment/question later but did you notice the repeating words? It was about risk. It was the very definition of what it means to have a Sponsor. Someone that is willing to take a risk on you because of what they have seen, experienced or know is possible in your performance.

So what would you do if you are in this situation? You are working hard and may be even be an up and comer but nothing has changed, you don't even know if you are being talked about behind closed doors.

Here are the thoughts that I have come to:

• Continue to do what you are doing, you have something left to learn
• Ponder this...would you continue doing what you were doing if you weren't paid at all?
• Be bold, call up would-be Sponsors and see if they could give you any advice
• Look to other industries for how you could solve your biggest difficulty at work
• Get interested in how you could be a Sponsor for someone else
• This is the opportunity for character building, it may take everything you have to go to work with a good attitude and a willingness to give it your best
• For the praying people, ask God to make it absolutely clear what your next step is to be

Before I finish for the night, I want to take up this idea that if you are so good at doing what you are doing they can't risk anyone else doing it. This is a nice salve to the ego but I don't think we should rest on it, to mix all of my metaphors. Think about it, how did you get to learn what you know, the company took a risk on you when you took the job, they will have to do the same thing with someone else. If this is really the case and you are the single point of failure and there is no one else, put in your 2012 plans to train a replacement or at least someone that could do what you do when and if your future Sponsor suggests you for your next role.

Until next time...