PDF Summary:Forget a Mentor, Find a Sponsor, by Sylvia Ann Hewlett

Career advancement often depends less on what you know and more on who advocates for you. In Forget a Mentor, Find a Sponsor, Sylvia Ann Hewlett argues that sponsorship—not mentorship—is the key to professional success. While mentors offer advice, sponsors use their power and influence to open doors, advocate for promotions, and provide opportunities that propel your career forward.

Hewlett explains the core elements of sponsorship, including what makes someone worthy of sponsorship and what sponsors provide in return. She also offers strategies for finding and cultivating sponsors, maintaining multiple sponsorship relationships to protect against workplace instability, and navigating potential pitfalls like the perception of impropriety. This guide examines how sponsorship creates a mutually beneficial exchange that advances both parties' careers.

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Acquiring and Using Sponsorship: Strategies and Outcomes

To gain sponsorship, Hewlett advises identifying and targeting those who can sponsor you. The best sponsors are individuals with the influence to help you get where you want to go. They may not be people you like, admire, or want to imitate; however, they possess the influence to open doors for you. These sponsors can be within or outside your organization and hold sway in the community you wish to enter.

(Shortform note: While Hewlett suggests targeting influential people you don’t like or admire, this approach may not be effective in all work environments. In Give and Take, Adam Grant explains that in highly interdependent workplaces, people are adept at identifying “takers”—those who use relationships for personal gain. If you’re perceived as a taker, colleagues may withhold support and block your advancement.)

Hewlett also emphasizes how crucial it is to understand what you can offer in return for sponsorship. A sponsorship arrangement is mutual. You need to offer something in return for the support you receive, such as a unique skill, a valuable connection, or a fresh perspective that benefits the person sponsoring you. You should also be a high performer and a loyal supporter, going above and beyond in your work, being trustworthy, and backing up your sponsor. Additionally, offer something unique that the leader values but might lack themselves, such as cultural knowledge, technical expertise, or interpersonal abilities.

Social Capital Theory and Sponsorship

The idea that a sponsorship arrangement is mutual and contingent on what you can offer in return is consistent with social capital theory, which suggests that relationships are built on the exchange of resources. In this context, a unique skill, a valuable connection, or a fresh perspective are all resources that you can offer in exchange for the support and guidance of a sponsor. Nan Lin, a prominent social capital theorist, argues that individuals invest resources into relationships with the expectation of receiving returns, which aligns with the idea that you need to offer something valuable to your sponsor.

In the following sub-sections, we’ll look at how to cultivate sponsorship and the advantages it can provide.

Cultivating Sponsorship: Acquisition & Maintenance

To protect yourself from job insecurity, Hewlett suggests cultivating multiple sponsors. Workplace instability is common, and a sponsor might not always be able to protect you. They might be too busy, or they may lose their job. Even if they leave the company, their advocacy won’t be useful unless you follow them to their new company. To safeguard yourself, you need multiple sponsors. In a large company, you should have three sponsors: two in your company (one from your department and one from a different one) and one outside the company. The sponsors should operate independently, so if one loses their job, the others won’t be affected.

(Shortform note: While having three sponsors may be ideal in some situations, it may not be the best approach in others. For example, in boundaryless careers, where professionals move between organizations and projects, it may be unrealistic to have three sponsors. In these cases, it may be more effective to focus on building a diverse network of relationships that can provide different types of support. Higgins and Kram argue that the quality and diversity of your developmental network is more important than the number of sponsors you have.)

To expand your sponsor base, take on more leadership roles. This will help you get noticed by powerful people outside your division. You can also boost your profile within the company by heading a network or an affinity group, leading an initiative or event, seeking mentorship, or requesting an introduction from your boss to their boss. To become more visible outside your company, serve on the board of a nonprofit organization, pursue a leadership position in your professional association or community, attend conferences, or establish your own advisory board.

(Shortform note: All of these steps expand your sponsor base by putting you in new networks. These networks are strategically important because they’re full of people who can help you advance. They also give you the opportunity to work with these people over time, which is important because it takes time for someone to decide to sponsor you. They need to see you in action and get to know you before they’ll be willing to put their reputation on the line for you.)

In the following sub-sections, we’ll explore ways to sustain your sponsorship relationships and leverage them.

Sustaining Sponsorship: Connection & Leverage

Hewlett explains that a close, trusting relationship is essential for sponsorship. To build trust, you and the person sponsoring you need to form a strong relationship, which requires regular one-on-one meetings. However, people might wrongly assume a sexual dynamic if a senior man meets with a female subordinate. This is one reason men are more likely to act as sponsors for men, continuing the boys' club mentality and preventing women from reaching high-level roles. This also explains why females view it as an unclean endeavor they'd prefer to avoid.

The Impact of #MeToo on Sponsorship

The #MeToo movement, which began in 2017, has changed the way people view close relationships between senior men and junior women. In an academic paper, researchers found that many employees now expect organizations to set clear standards for conduct and to monitor these relationships. This shift in expectations may make it easier for women to form close relationships with male sponsors, as there is now a greater emphasis on transparency and accountability. However, it also means that these relationships are no longer purely private, which could impact the level of trust and intimacy that can be developed.

Hewlett also notes that women often miss out on sponsorship opportunities due to the chance of sexual tension. When a senior man sponsors a less experienced woman, others may assume the relationship is sexual, which can damage the reputations of both parties. As a result, men are more reluctant to sponsor women, and women are more reluctant to seek out sponsors.

To avoid the appearance of a sexual relationship, hold gatherings with your sponsor in visible, public places, avoid flirting, and make it clear that you have a life outside of work.

How to Normalize Cross-Gender Sponsorship

In Athena Rising, W. Brad Johnson and David Smith argue that organizations should treat cross-gender mentoring and sponsorship as a normal and expected part of leadership. They recommend building formal, transparent programs with clear behavioral guidelines, training, and accountability. When companies explicitly define healthy professional boundaries, provide education on how to mentor across gender well, publicly recognize and reward men who invest in developing talented women, and evaluate leaders on how effectively they sponsor diverse junior colleagues, they replace a culture of rumor and fear with one of professionalism and inclusion.

The Sponsorship Advantage: Impact & Reciprocity

Hewlett believes sponsorship provides significant career advantages, including pay raises, promotions, and prominent assignments. Sponsors are senior leaders who have confidence in you and are ready to take risks on your behalf. They support your promotion and give you the backing to take risks.

Sponsorship is how visionary individuals achieve their objectives. Sponsors significantly affect how your career advances. They broaden your understanding of your capabilities, introduce you to more top executives, enhance your profile within the organization, offer you growth prospects, guide you on how you present yourself, link you with clients or customers, and provide you with sincere, constructive critiques about where you need to improve. They are willing to connect their reputations with yours and take risks on your behalf, making it safe for you to fail.

The Network Advantage of Sponsorship

Hewlett claims that sponsorship provides significant career advantages, including pay raises, promotions, and prominent assignments. But how does this happen? In Brokerage and Closure, Ronald S. Burt explains that people who occupy network positions rich in structural holes—bridging otherwise disconnected groups—command a disproportionate share of the rewards in an organization. This is because their relationships function as social capital that gives them earlier access to diverse information, greater control over how information flows, and stronger reputational endorsements from influential colleagues. These network advantages show up concretely in higher performance evaluations, faster promotion rates, and superior compensation even after accounting for individual ability and effort.

Hewlett adds that sponsors provide crucial feedback and advocacy, helping protégés succeed. They take risks for you, help you stay afloat with their support, and give "air cover." so you’re able to take chances. When a sponsor reviews your strengths and weaknesses, their intention is to guide you in a particular direction that will be strategically beneficial to both parties. Therefore, sponsors won't hold back from identifying uncomfortable weaknesses, such as deficiencies in skills, breakdowns in communication, or mistakes in appearance.

The Importance of Air Cover

Crucial feedback is more effective when it comes from someone who also provides air cover. When you receive criticism, your brain interprets it as a threat to your identity, which triggers a defensive response. This defensiveness can prevent you from accepting and acting on the feedback. However, when the feedback comes from someone who is visibly committed to your success, your brain is less likely to perceive it as a threat. This allows you to process the feedback as information rather than as a personal attack, making it easier to use the feedback to improve.