The Honeycomb Works

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Our approach to sponsorship

Muireann Bird

Sponsorship v. Mentorship

When it comes to leveling up your career, two powerful resources often pop up: sponsorship and mentorship. While both play crucial roles in an individuals' professional journey it is important to understand they're not the same. In fact, they're quite different.

It’s important that everyone involved understands what the relationship is, and what’s expected of them. A useful way to distinguish between the two is that a mentor’s primary focus is to help a mentee with their growth and development and a sponsor’s primary focus is to have a positive impact on other peoples’ view of their sponsee.

Structured, intentional and monitored

Sponsorship often happens informally in organisations. It becomes a useful element of DEI initiatives when the opportunity for sponsorship is provided to everyone whom it can benefit. It’s important that matches are not made solely based on instinct and chemistry, these decisions are likely to be impacted by affinity bias and could serve to replicate inequality within an organisation if those with power choose to sponsor only people who are like them or that they connect with. Some thoughts and questions to bear in mind when structuring sponsorship:

  • What can each person add to the relationship? Think of it as matching people based on the skills, access or experience one person has and the skills, access or experience another could benefit from.

  • Is there a way for both parties to report anything that isn’t working or is inappropriate? Sponsorship creates a relationship which has an inherent power imbalance so it’s a good idea to make sure there’s a clear way to report any problems. 

  • There is a balance between having a sponsor with similar experiences and asking underrepresented people to do all the work. There are many benefits to matching underrepresented people with sponsors who are very similar to them. But there is also a risk that this will only exacerbate existing inequalities if an organisation doesn’t have diverse people in positions of power and influence. This is a tricky balance and something which we would recommend is considered in each individual context, in consultation with the people involved.

  • Research suggests building relationships with people who are different to you is an effective way to reduce your own bias through perspective-taking and intergroup contact theory. Whilst this could be a positive side effect, we believe the focus should always be primarily on supporting the sponsee’s career development.

  • Make it a valued, embedded part of organisational culture. Adding expectations around sponsorship to performance reviews makes a very clear statement that sponsorship is important. Similarly, senior people in organisations sharing their own experiences of sponsorship in their careers is an important way to minimise any suggestion that this is extra help given to people due to their lack of ability. (In fact, research shows that underrepresented people are more likely to be overqualified in their positions than those in the majority group, see this report for evidence of this when considering race in the UK).

Not a fix-all

It’s important to say that sponsorship is an individual-focused solution to a more structural, systemic problem. Sponsorship shouldn’t be seen as the only way for underrepresented people to progress and grow within an organisation.

  • Sponsorship should only exist alongside clear, inclusive progression pathways and career development options. Otherwise, the success of individuals rests solely on their sponsor’s willingness to push for them.

  • It’s important to ensure it’s not about ‘fixing others’ eg. matching women with men so they can learn ‘traditionally masculine approaches’. 

  • Much of the literature cites developing leadership skills as a benefit for the sponsor. We think that sponsors should be chosen on the basis of already having adequate leadership skills and that this shouldn’t be a substitute for active, inclusive leadership training. There is tentative research suggesting that mid-level managers make more effective sponsors than those higher up, perhaps because they have more real-time influence over other employees’ careers. 

Clear understanding of the actions sponsors can take

There is a lack of understanding around what good sponsorship looks like and what sponsors can actually do for their sponsee. We recommend undertaking research with people who would like a sponsor to identify what they think are the most useful behaviours and actions their sponsor could take and making these expectations clear to potential sponsors. The Honeycomb platform is one way to provide this clear guidance around which behaviours lead to successful sponsor relationships, and crucially allows both parties insight into their own performance, highlighting precisely what they need to do to improve. In the absence of a research period speaking to potential sponsees, there is some useful information here.

Effective sponsorship can be hugely beneficial

There is a wealth of research to suggest sponsorship can have a really positive impact on workplace experience - and on retention, an area which is becoming increasingly important. Sponsors can gain a lot from getting involved in these relationships. While it's good to talk about these benefits to get people interested and motivate them, remember: the main goal here is the growth and development of the sponsee.

Some useful links and further reading: