In today´s episode of 'Professional Success Podcast', Sheila talks about the need to have a 'Career Sponsor' and how they help in advancing career in the current modern and competitive work environment.
Episode Highlights:
- Sheila Boysen says that if you want to advance in your career, sometimes having a mentor alone is not enough.
- She talks about a few things that she thinks really helps to get the sponsorship.
- Sheila points out that once you achieve something noteworthy make your achievements visible to leaders in a tactful and professional way.
- The host reminds that there are multiple sources of support that you want to work on building throughout your career including a Mentor and a Sponsor.
3 Key Points:
Mentors help in skilling-up, whereas Sponsors help in moving-up in a career. So having the support of a sponsor is like having a safety net, allowing you to confidently take risks like asking for a stretch assignment or a promotion.
- You can't expect a sponsor to put their reputation on the line, when they don't know the quality of your work. She suggests looking for a special project working directly for the potential sponsor that you've identified, maybe a special task force or committee that they serve on.
- You want to have some level of clarity about your career goals; there's little chance that a sponsor is going to know what opportunities match for you really well, if you don't know.
Tweetable Quotes:
- "If your career is moving forward, chances are there might already be a sponsor, behind the scenes pulling the strings on your behalf."- Sheila Boysen – Rotelli
- "Know who the good sponsors are; now this can be tricky……" - Sheila Boysen – Rotelli
- "This takes some career planning, but tremendously important to make sure you have this lined-up in order to align yourself really strongly with the sponsor." - Sheila Boysen – Rotelli
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