The Power of A Sponsor To Leapfrog in Your Career (and get ahead!)

Welcome to Driving Impact. Hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, Driving Impact Collective, the top 5% method. This is Katheline Jean-Pierre. Your podcast host. And today I'm so duper duper excited to talk about an important career topic. People talk about it, but I don't know if people are taking it as seriously as it should, giving it center stage. But before I jump in about this very important topic, I'm just going to pull a Stephen Bartlett moment. And for those who don't know Stephen Bartlett, He's the host of The Diary of a CEO, and I love how he just jumps in during an episode and he's like, hey, while there's all these downloads and people are looking and watching the episodes, not a lot of you are following. So here's mine. Last— in the last 30 days, we had 89,000 downloads. Explosion. Yes, I know, but less than 5% of you are following. And listen, I really want to be able to bring you the best guests, the best insight, more of my mind power, more of the senior people, executives in the world, and the top 5% achievers. But we need to give them some follow numbers. So if you're listening on Spotify, click follow. If you're listening on Apple, click follow. Wherever you're listening, Follow Driving Impact, the Top 5% Method. Now it's going to help us get sponsors. It's going to help us grow. It's going to help us with a proof of concept and stand out. And then it's going to warm my heart. So thank you. Now, back to the topic that I told you was extremely, extremely important. Mentors give advice, sponsors accelerate careers. And that's what we want. We want acceleration. We want to be able to learn from the best. We want to leapfrog. I love to quote this author, Sylvia Anne Hewitt. She's the author of the book called Executive Presence 2.0: The Missing Link Between Merit and Success. Here's what she says. Lots of people are terrific at what they do, but they hit a plateau mid-career for the same reason. It isn't a question of competence at your job. It's a question of getting people to give you the chance to prove you're capable of more. Learning the subtle tricks that add up to executive presence is often how people get that chance. And it's not as complicated as it seems. What is important for us is that a lot of people hit a plateau, and especially now with all the layoffs in tech and the rise of AI, there's a lot of fear. So how do you get your chance? I want to talk about— mentorship is great, but I definitely want to talk about sponsorship because mentors give advice, sponsors accelerate careers. They really take it upon themselves to talk about you at the promotion table or to talk about you when you're not in the room. And I love stats. I love my stats. So here are 9 stats that prove that sponsorship matters. And these stats are coming from Gallup, from Harvard Business Review, from the Center for Talent Innovation, from Coqual, and some more. Stat number 1: sponsorship increases promotion odds by 38%. Wow. You want to get promoted? Make sure you get sponsors. I would get more than one. Number 2, 60% of top professionals credit a sponsor for their success. That's very telling. Stats number 3, sponsored employees are 23% more likely to get promoted. Okay. Promotion and sponsorship. Seems like it's way harder to get promoted if you don't have sponsors. Number 4, 85% of sponsored employees feel engaged. You want to get more excited about your job? Get sponsors. So some of those sponsors are going to reveal what's happening behind the curtain when you're not in the room. And this insider knowledge is going to help you be more strategic in your career. Stat number 5, sponsored employees are 62% more satisfied with their growth. Stat number 6: 70% of execs with sponsors got a raise last year versus 57% without. Stat number 7: 68% of sponsored employees are satisfied with their career versus 45%. It's almost like 70% of people with a sponsor are just more satisfied with their progress. And I'm a testament of that. I've had places, roles, jobs where I had sponsors, and I had other places when I didn't. And I remember at LinkedIn when they— I was put on the top performers list for directors and managing directors, and I got to meet the chief operating officer, Dan Shapiro. And my conversation with him, it was 1 hour, but it was so powerful. That was not necessarily sponsorship, But then it became sponsorship when I was asking critical questions, introduced me to the right people, and I got connected right away. Stat number 8: 95% of high-performing minority professionals say sponsorship was crucial to their advancement. Yeah. Stat number 9: women with sponsors are 27% more likely to request stretch assignments. And what I'm reading through this stat is that you gain the confidence and the inner knowing that you can do it. So you're going to stretch yourself more. And if you're a manager listening to that, it's important because if you can create a sponsorship program in your company or ensure that women and minorities are sponsored, then you're going to generate way more employee satisfaction, happiness, growth, and transformation in your company. And this is not, we're not talking about AI, we're talking about human beings. So these stats again are coming from Gallup, KUKWAL, the Center for Talent Innovation, Harvard Business Review, and more. So sponsorship is not a nice-to-have, it's a career catalyst. And I would say it's a must-have. If you're in a company, you don't have a sponsor, and I don't want to tell you, figure it out. I'm launching a career academy where we're going to be coaching you. And if the category where you want to be coached is finding a sponsor and networking with mentors, then this academy is going to be for you. So sign up to my newsletter at drivingimpact.kit.com, such that you can be fully aware of what are different pathways. To find a sponsor that's going to help you elevate your career, leapfrog, learn from the best, and really accelerate your trajectory with clarity, not that foggy confusion that nobody likes. And before you go, give us a follow. Yes, I love you too. Welcome to Driving Impact.