Mentors, sponsors crucial to achieving work goals

GUIDING HAND: Marcia Cone, Women’s Fund Rhode Island CEO, left, meets with mentee Dina Adelsky, Jewish Community Day School director of institutional  advancement. / PBN PHOTO/NATALJA KENT
GUIDING HAND: Marcia Cone, Women’s Fund Rhode Island CEO, left, meets with mentee Dina Adelsky, Jewish Community Day School director of institutional advancement. / PBN PHOTO/NATALJA KENT

Parents, teachers, professors, first senior-level supervisor: Besides being the authority figures that represent the average professional’s life course through childhood, schooling, and an entrance into their career field, these people share another trait.
They all have the potential to be mentors and sponsors who, female business leaders say, are just as important in terms of developing a person’s strengths, recognizing how to overcome weaknesses and providing a support system.
“You cannot do it alone. [You need] mentors and sponsors. There are differences and you’ll get different things out of each,” said Christine Cunneen, owner and CEO of Hire Image LLC, a Johnston company that provides background screening, drug testing and employment-verification services. “[You need] to know when to build and leverage [them].”
Cunneen on March 14 moderated the “Mentors and Sponsors – What’s In It For Me” panel at the Bryant University Women’s Summit, an annual day of education sessions and networking meant to inspire women to advance professionally and personally.
The panel focused on clarifying, for entrepreneurs and employees, the process of identifying and building relationships with both mentors and sponsors, and then how to leverage those relationships to advance a personal brand and achieve success professionally and personally.
Doing all this starts with knowing the difference between a mentor, who can be thought of perhaps as a friend who is able to offer clear professional advice, and a sponsor, who is a professional connection invested in advancing an individual’s career.
Both relationships take skills and time to build.
“A mentor is someone you know well and trust. A sponsor takes responsibility and risk for you. A sponsor will sell you,” Cunneen said.
A sponsor, the panel agreed, is much harder to come by than a mentor. Identifying and establishing a trusted relationship with someone who would, for example, recommend you for a job or promotion takes hard work and often happens more organically than through an established plan.
Michelle Abel, a director in the Boston office of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, explained how she offered that an employee would be a perfect face for the company during a recent conference. But the employee’s regular work schedule was so hectic that he missed a couple of planning meetings and though everything worked out in the end and the employee excelled in the role, Abel had to do a little extra sponsoring work to help him keep the post.
“It happened naturally [because] I believed in him. [You need to] make sure sponsors can do those things,” Abel said. “A mentor is a cheerleader in a private relationship. A sponsor is a cheerleader, too, but other people are the audience. They are marketing for you.”
Abel offered that professionals need to think about the pursuit of sponsors with intent.
“Can they open doors, do other people listen [to them]? Who is going to do a good job representing you?” Abel said. “[You need] to constantly evaluate [that].”
It’s also important to evaluate what is desired from each relationship, advised Liveda Clements, director of central sourcing and supplier diversity at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts.
Clements said she has both informal and formal mentor and mentee relationships.
She is formally mentored by a high-powered executive.
“When I meet with him, I have an agenda. It’s obvious if [you] have goals set. Informal is more like a friend,” Clements said. “It’s important to understand the mentor relationship is mutually beneficial. Don’t feel like you’re a bother, but be cognizant of their time. You can definitely tell when someone is not prepared.”
Marcia Cone, CEO of the Women’s Fund of Rhode Island, also maintains several such relationships.
She formally mentors three professionals and informally about a dozen. For the formal relationships, she meets with them face-to-face for about an hour or two per month. She also spends time communicating with them once or twice per month via telephone or email.
“Then I have a handful of mentors. It depends on the topic, but I rely heavily on a group of women I would consider my kitchen cabinet or my circle, who I really [use] to explore and test out ideas or have them help me connect. I meet with them pretty regularly,” Cone said.
Though there is not a formal mentor program inside the Women’s Fund there is an atmosphere of encouraged professional growth where new employees are matched with seasoned staff members. The same is done at the organization’s board level. “We encourage the development of our employees and try to connect them with people in the community, especially women leaders, who can show them the ropes, connect them, guide them,” Cone said. “We are in a constant state of mentoring and sponsoring here.”
Things can be a bit more challenging within work environments that don’t have formal mentoring programs or otherwise actively encourage getting a mentor.
Wendy Pease, owner and executive director of Rapport International LLC, headquartered in Sudbury, Mass., has encountered that throughout much of her career.
First realizing the importance of mentoring while earning her MBA at Dartmouth and working only in groups, she’s carried that lesson with her since.
“You can’t do anything alone. I’ve had to go out and develop my own mentors and sponsors,” Pease said. “When I bought [my company] eight and a half years ago, I didn’t have a formal program. I have to be creative.”
Pease and the panel advised tapping into alumni networks, professional organizations, volunteer associations and any group that could lead to a beneficial connection.
In Rhode Island, the Providence office of the Center for Women and Enterprise has a corporate mentor program that matches female business owners with corporate members.
The Small Business Development Center at Johnson & Wales University is considering establishing a formal mentor program.
“Women and small businesses are [often] a little intimidated,” said Adrianna Dawson, state director at the center. “It’s their first time to the party and I don’t know that these folks necessarily feel empowered to ask questions, engage or simply raise their hand and identify an individual if they need a helping hand,” she said. “[They think] it might create a perception that they’re not ready.”
But mentors also at least were, and most likely still are, being mentored themselves.
Abel never considers a mentor-mentee relationship too small.
“You can be moved by someone who doesn’t [offer anything professionally in return],” she said. “Those relationships can still be rewarding. I think of it as pay it forward.” •

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