Canadian Government Executive - Volume 26 - Issue 01

January/February 2020 // Canadian Government Executive / 25 passion and ambition – as well as your support, example and empowerment – to spur them forward. “If you can inspire a protégé with a vision of what you can achieve together, he or she will be more committed and better prepared to go the extra mile for you,” she notes. As well, look inward at your own moti- vations and drive to consider what might inspire others. • Instruct to fill skill gaps: The protégé is being groomed for greater heights. Work with them as you move towards sponsor- ship to develop the knowledge and soft skills they will need. She stresses the protégé must do the work. “A great early assign- ment for potential protégés is to identify three skills gaps and the steps they intend to take to close those gaps. Offer feedback on their plan and perhaps one piece of targeted coaching, but make clear they must own their own development,” she says. To succeed, you must offer unvarnished feedback in this relation- ship, and that will mean getting the protégé to give the “green light” to such honest assessments. • Inspect your prospects: Keep an eye on your prospects before moving to sponsorship to make sure they’re continuing to de- liver performance and maintain trustworthiness. Pay close at- tention to values and attitudes. You won’t necessarily pick right each time and need to know when to cut your losses. Listen to others about how they assess the protégé (who after all is repre- senting you). What do colleagues, superiors, and outside parties you deal with think? • Instigate a deal: Having inspired, instructed and inspected, now ask if they want to go the next step to sponsorship. Be explicit. Specify in some detail the two-way flow of benefits you foresee. Keep in mind your organizational culture. In traditional ones, you may need to move slowly as sponsorship can arouse sus- picions. But even then, be clear with the protégé about what is expected. • Invest in three ways: You now need to be “all in.” Investment one is to endorse in noisy ways, being very obvious. Investment two is to advocate behind closed doors to help the person get ahead, be it a rotation that will offer new skills, a promotion, or a pay hike. Investment three is to provide air support so your protégé can take risks. Hewlett warns that her data found many sponsors fall short in three ways. The inclusion gap is the need for protégés who are different from you, since the protégé can add the most value if they can provide something you lack. But she found only 23 per web http://canadiangovernmentexecutive.ca/author/harveys/ cent of sponsors look for a protégé who has attributes they do not have. Over three quarters of sponsors – 77 per cent – look for a mini-me. The second common mistake is a failure to thoroughly inspect a protégé for trustworthiness before getting behind the individ- ual. Sponsors focus primarily on performance. “But performance should really be table stakes. Surely your organization has many young top performers! What you should be concerned about when evaluating a potential protégé is loyalty to you and the or- ganization,” she writes. The most common reason sponsors gave for ending the relationship – it arose in 73 per cent of cases – was a protégé’s dishonesty. The third issue is an investment gap, keeping the relationship short-term rather than being long term. In 38 per cent of situa- tions, she found the sponsorship ending after two years or less. But you should want this person at your side – and be at their side – for a long period. Sponsorship is not mentorship. It’s a bigger investment, a bigger risk. But it has a bigger payoff – for you, as well as the person you take under your wing. H arvey S chachter is a writer, specializing in management and business issues. He writes three weekly columns for the Globe and Mail and The Leader’s Bookshelf column for Canadian Government Executive, and a regular column and features for Kingston Life magazine. Harvey was editor of the 2004 book Memos to the Prime Minister: What Canada Can Be in the 21st Century. He was the ghostwriter on The Three Pillars of Pub- lic Management by Ole Ingstrup and Paul Crookall, and editor of Getting Clients, Keeping Clients by Dan Richards. The Leader’s Bookshelf “Sponsorship’s reciprocity sets it apart not only from mentorship; it also sets it apart from standard corporate leadership development. Sponsors aren’t just grooming somebody to rise higher. They certainly are looking to fill organiza- tional needs, but they’re also taking a bet that their own careers can benefit if they invest in a promising individual’s talent, skill sets and trustworthiness.”