Mentorship and Sponsorship
Mentorship and sponsorship, when one uses personal capital to promote a protégé, can prove crucial to individuals’ careers, and can help make workplaces more diverse and inclusive. These relationships can help individuals achieve power, influence, promotions, and increased compensation. You'll assess the qualities of being a mentor, mentee, sponsor, or protégé and the structure and effectiveness of mentorship programs.
You'll learn what equitable and inclusive mentorship and sponsorship look like, abiding by harassment and discrimination laws, maintaining ethical relationships, being an equitable mentor, mentee, and sponsor, and encouraging a culture of mentorship and sponsorship.
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Supporting equity
Reverse Mentoring: What Is It and Why It Is Beneficial - Lisa Quast - Forbes (2011)
Discusses the mutually beneficial relationship of mentoring, including the advantages of mentoring relationships with people who are different from you.
Learn more about Reverse Mentoring >
Sponsoring Women to Success - Catalyst - Heather Foust-Cummings, Sarah Dinolfo, and Jennifer Kohler (2011)
Study of executives and high performers outlines the benefits and characteristics of sponsorship from the standpoint of the sponsor, protégé, and organization.
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Why You Need a Sponsor - Not a Mentor - To Fast-Track your Career - Jenna Goudreau - Business Insider (2013)
Explains the difference between mentorship and sponsorship and the importance of having a sponsor for career advancement. Lists tips for finding sponsors and being your own advocate.
Learn more about Why You Need a Sponsor - Not a Mentor >
Guides for success
Making Mentoring Work - Sarah Dinolfo and Julie S. Nugent - Catalyst (2010)
Guide to what makes an effective mentoring program and how a formalized program can address barriers to mentorship for women and people of color.
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Tools
Creating Successful Mentoring Programs - A Catalyst Guide (2002)
Step-by-step guidance for developing a formal mentoring program. Appropriate for larger firms and for AIA chapters and components to help design mentoring programs useful for smaller firms, sole practitioners, and architecture professionals working in other fields.
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Women's Leadership Edge
Wide array of tools to help organizations support, advance, and retain women, with parallels in engineering and law.
Image credits
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