Mentorship vs Sponsorship for Women

Mentor and sponsor compared

Why women are often mentored but not sponsored

In a widely cited Harvard Business Review article, Herminia Ibarra, Nancy Carter and Christine Silva argued that high-potential women tend to be over-mentored and under-sponsored compared with men, and that this helps explain why mentoring programmes alone have not closed the promotion gap.

Part of the reason is familiarity. People find it easier to advocate for colleagues whose work and style they know well, so where most senior leaders are men, women can be left out without anyone intending it. In the Gulf, where many women are still among the first in their roles, there may simply be fewer senior women available to act as sponsors.

How to turn a mentor into a sponsor

1. 01

   Choose mentors with influence

   Look at who sits on the committees and in the talent reviews that decide your next move. Build a relationship with at least one of them.

2. 02

   Make your goal explicit

   Tell them clearly which role or level you want next. People cannot advocate for an ambition they have not heard.

3. 03

   Give them evidence

   Share concise updates on results they can quote. A sponsor needs facts to defend you in a meeting.

4. 04

   Ask for a specific action

   For example: "Would you be willing to suggest me for the regional project?" A clear request is easier to agree to than a general wish for support.

5. 05

   Deliver and report back

   When they open a door, perform well and tell them how it went. This protects their reputation and strengthens the relationship.

Mistakes that stop sponsorship from forming

• ✦Waiting to be noticed instead of telling senior people what you want.
• ✦Building relationships only with people at your own level or below.
• ✦Asking someone to sponsor you before they have seen your work.
• ✦Treating sponsorship as a favour rather than a two-way relationship in which you also deliver.
• ✦Relying on a single sponsor who may move on or leave the organisation.

Sponsorship works best inside a wider support network

Most leaders benefit from several kinds of support at once: mentors for advice, sponsors for advocacy, peers for honest reflection and a coach for thinking without an agenda. The guide on building a personal board of advisors shows how to put that network together.

A coach is different from both a mentor and a sponsor. A coach does not give you their own career path as a template or argue for you in meetings; a coach helps you think clearly and act deliberately. The guide on executive coaching vs mentoring explains that difference in more detail.

Example: a strong manager with plenty of mentors

Imagine a marketing manager at a telecom company in the Gulf who has three mentors, all of them supportive. She has been told she is ready for a director role for two years, but each opening goes to someone else.

Looking at her network, she notices that none of her mentors sits on the leadership team that decides promotions. She asks one senior director she has worked with to keep her in mind for the next opening, and sends him a short summary of her results each quarter. When a role comes up, he raises her name in the discussion. Her mentors gave her confidence; her sponsor gave her a seat at the table.

When coaching helps

Coaching helps when asking for sponsorship feels uncomfortable, when you are unsure what you want next, or when you keep doing excellent work that nobody senior seems to see. It gives you space to clarify your ambition and practise the conversations that build advocacy.

My coaching for women moving into senior leadership often includes mapping your sponsors and planning how to approach them. I coach in person in Manama and online, in Arabic or English.