Catalyst Blog

January is National Mentoring Month in the United States, an initiative geared for individuals, schools, and businesses to foster relationships between mentors and mentees and increase the number of mentors nationwide. When young people are mentored, they are less likely to drop out of school, use illegal drugs, or abuse alcohol. And in the workplace, mentoring is vital for employee development and advancement so that employees gain skills, feedback, and knowledge about important unwritten workplace rules that are often left for employees to decipher on their own.

In today’s Take 5, we look at the impact of workplace mentorship and its high-powered variant, sponsorship:

- Mentorship benefits pay. Catalyst found that pipeline women who had active mentors in 2008 had achieved 27 percent higher salary growth than pipeline women without mentors.

- Formal mentorship programs are common worldwide. 59 percent of the companies surveyed in the 2010 World Economic Forum report on corporate practices said they offer internally led mentoring and networking programs and 28 percent said they had women-specific programs.

- While formal programs are important, most women and men find their mentors independently. Mentoring: Necessary But Insufficient for Advancement reported that 67 percent of high potential women and men found their mentors on their own.

- Men and women are mentored at equal rates, but men’s mentors are more senior. 62 percent of men had a mentor at the CEO or senior executive level, versus only 52 percent of women with mentors at senior levels. We found that men’s mentors are more senior even after controlling for the level of the mentee.

- High-level mentors are well positioned to act as sponsors—leaders who advocate for their protégés and ensure they’re visible when opportunities arise. Sponsorship can make all the difference: women who had mentors at the top got promoted at the same rate as men who had high-level mentors.

Want to find out more? Check out previous Catalyzing coverage of mentorship and sponsorship, and visit the official website for National Mentoring Month, where you can find out 10 things to do this month to foster mentorship—right now.

Do women lack ambition? Not on your life.

Women want to succeed, yet even when they do “all the right things” Catalyst has found that they earn less and progress more slowly than men. The fact that some women adjust their career advancement strategies after crashing into institutional barriers is a rational response to inhospitable workplaces. It is not an example of a lack of ambition.

Catalyst has been studying women’s ambition for nearly a decade. Our 2004 report, Women and Men in U.S. Corporate Leadership, surveyed nearly 1000 senior-level employees who shared similar backgrounds and characteristics. We found that women aspired to be CEO in equal proportions as men. But the women—to a much greater extent than men—ran up against barriers, namely exclusion from informal networks, stereotyping, and a lack of role models. Likewise, our report, Leaders in a Global Economy, found that women and men have similar work values. The problem is this: men find workplaces more aligned with their values, women don’t.

What’s changed since 2004? Not much—women remain ambitious, but barriers still block their paths. And with few exceptions, women’s leadership is stalled in corporate America.

The Myth of the Ideal Worker, the latest report in our series on high potential employees, examined the career advancement strategies of thousands of MBA graduates from top schools around the world and the impact of these strategies on their careers. Women and men were equally represented in the two most proactive groups, indicating that ambition ran high among both genders. But being proactive paid off more in promotions and pay for the men.

In Pipeline’s Broken Promise, we found that among MBA grads who aspired to be CEO or senior executives, women progressed more slowly than men. And parenthood, industry, and previous experience didn’t explain the gender gap. The leadership and pay gaps balloon over time, suggesting that the problem lies with the system, not the women.

So what is the problem? Cascading Gender Biases, Compounding Effects revealed how gender biases are unintentionally embedded in talent management systems—biases that exclude those who don’t fit the male leadership model. Addressing these biases and rooting them out at the source are better ways to tackle inequality than blaming the women. Smart organizations are proactively addressing the barriers women face and are reaping the rewards.

Our research has pointed to one more powerful solution: sponsorship. Sponsors advocate for you from behind closed doors and ensure you’re visible when opportunities arise. The problem is that many women are over-mentored and under-sponsored. Some companies are recognizing this and are instituting formal sponsorship programs for women. At the same time, individuals are taking the lead on this front without waiting for a formal program to kick in by actively seeking sponsorship and being a sponsor to others, especially talented women who deserve it. This is one proven way to help narrow gender gaps.

The misguided assumption that women are less ambitious than men puts companies at risk of inadvertently underutilizing talented women and overlooking, or outright dismissing them, for key roles. This is a real loss for companies. Organizations need to step up and clear a path for women’s success.

Women are ambitious. But systemic barriers in the workplace mean that ambition, even when coupled with talent, isn’t always enough.

“You have in you the power to change this world for the better,” said CCH Champion Michael Bach, Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, KPMG. “Be it a small change, or a large one, I challenge you to do something to effect that change.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

You don’t have to work at Catalyst to be a catalyst for change. As we turn the page on 2011, I call on you—a Catalyst supporter—to make an impact in 2012. Catalyzing offers one clear path:

Seek sponsorship and sponsor others, especially talented women. Do something about sexist media. Support political candidates who support you. And if you don’t think you have meaningful institutional support or clout to make an impact, think again. Here are tips on how to rock the boat without falling out and make change in an unsupportive environment.

Catalyst has strived to make workplaces more equal for the past 50 years. And along the way, we’ve learned that champions come in many forms. What unites them? A champion is committed to change—and acts on that commitment.

Happy New Year—may 2012 be a year of real action, for the benefit of all.

Change has flatlined—women are no further toward achieving top ranks in business than they were last year, or even six years ago. Yet equality can’t wait.

Our latest census of women atop the Fortune 500 shows continued stagnation. Men hold a staggering 83.9% of corporate board seats, 85.1% of Executive Officer positions, and 92.5% of top earner positions. While I applaud the hundreds of companies that have achieved real results, others haven’t gotten the message that valuing talented women is not a “nice-to-do,” but a “smart-to-do.” We found that 56 companies in the Fortune 500 had zero women directors and that 136 Fortune 500 companies had zero women executive officers.

These new numbers are deeply disappointing. Some companies are still sitting on their hands. It’s time to commit to action, and the best time to jumpstart this change is now.

Here’s why.

Today’s tough economic times present an opportunity. Our latest report in our Bottom Line series tracked profits at leading companies through 2008—one year into the global recession. We found that companies with three or more women board directors in four of five years outperformed companies with zero women on their boards by on average 84% return on sales, 60% return on invested capital and 46% return on equity. Given the clear correlation, it’s no wonder that Goldman Sachs recently found that closing gender gaps would yield a 9% bump to U.S. GDP!

And it’s not just about the money. Companies with more women board directors are linked to more women corporate officers five years later, and correlated with increased corporate philanthropy. In short, it pays to have women as a key part of the leadership team.

So let’s get to work and root out sexist stereotypes that impact talent management systems. Set targets with accountability, especially around proven solutions like sponsorship. And dump the myths about women’s capabilities and ambitions—our research shows that they are wrong.

When US corporations finally take their place as leaders on gender parity and advancing women in business, the benefits will spread across the globe for women, men, families, employers, communities, and societies. Defy assumptions and lead with real action.

Enough lip service. It’s what companies do that really counts.

What does the word “sponsorship” mean to you? For Catalyst’s Sarah Dinolfo, Director, Research, at first it meant very little. But this changed as she uncovered the power influential sponsors had on her own career. In this post—the third in series by co- authors of Sponsoring Women to Success—Sarah draws on personal experience to suggest ways to attract a sponsor, and how to pay it forward.

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If you had mentioned the concept of sponsorship to me very early in my career, I would have looked at you with a blank stare.  I simply had no idea what sponsorship was in my first five years of work.  Yet later on, I realized that I had experienced it directly, and, as luck would have it, I recently conducted a study on the very topic! Catalyst’s report, Sponsoring Women to Success, cemented my views about the power of sponsorship. Here’s what I learned:

Though I was not always aware of it at the time, I’ve had several influential sponsors who have actively worked on my behalf to advance my career – from those maneuvering behind the scenes to help me land my first job placement, to others opening doors to the numerous opportunities and leadership roles I’ve had since.

I can also see now that there are several things I did to contribute to my sponsors’ willingness to go to bat for me.  These include:

- Showing initiative and delivering consistently solid performances, and demonstrating a willingness to learn and be challenged.

- Taking constructive feedback and adapting my approach accordingly.

- Being open to every experience that came my way, and taking on assignments or roles that brought me out of my comfort zone and allowed me to develop new skills.

- Demonstrating commitment in the face of challenges.

- Treating all of my colleagues with respect and courtesy.

These behaviors may seem simple, but to be honest, if you don’t demonstrate outstanding performance, collegiality, and the ability and willingness to act on advice, sponsors may pass you over for someone who better fits the bill.

I could not have made it to where I am now without my sponsors, and my willingness to walk through the doors they helped open for me.  So what should I, and others who have benefited from sponsorship, do next? Pay it forward and sponsor someone! Here’s how:

Look broadly and look deeply. Look for high performers who might get passed over by others.  Look down within the organization for those talented folks who could really benefit from your sponsorship and accelerate their careers with opportunities.  And look often—keep checking to see if there are people you can sponsor, because sponsorship is not a “once and done”!

Sponsor someone different from you.  Seek out those talented individuals who are not well represented at the top, and sponsor them to help achieve more of a balance.

And finally, encourage others to sponsor!  Whether it’s those who report to you, those you report to, or those you’ve sponsored, make sure they pay it forward to create a culture of sponsorship.

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Sarah Dinolfo directs research that examines and addresses barriers to women’s advancement, allowing organizations to more fully leverage employee talent. Drawing on her research and consulting experience with Fortune 500 companies in several industries, Sarah works with organizations to build diversity awareness and create more effective systems that can level the workplace playing field. She received her M.A. in Industrial-Organizational Psychology from Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville and graduated cum laude with a B.A. in Psychology from the State University of New York, Geneseo.

Following the release of Sponsoring Women to Success, I invited all three co-authors to share some of their most interesting—and important—findings about sponsorship. In August, we heard from Heather Foust-Cummings, who discussed how sponsorship offers a unique “triple win.” Today, Jennifer Kohler outlines four things all women can do starting today to get a sponsor and encourages leaders to do their part too—to become talent scouts who look beyond the “usual suspects.”

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It’s a well-known fact: many employees wait to get noticed, keeping their heads down and just working hard. Don’t do it—there’s a good chance you’ll be stuck in that posture for years.

As our Sponsoring Women to Success report and accompanying tool demonstrate, advancement can take more than just hard work. Sponsorship can be a powerful career accelerator that combines the active advocacy of a leader with the “rising stock” of a high performer. In short, sponsorship can take your career to the next level.

Our research points to four things you can start doing today to give yourself the best chance of earning sponsorship:

- Consistently exceed expectations.

- Ask for and act on feedback.

- Make yourself visible.

- Develop a reputation as a respected, flexible colleague.

When you do secure a sponsor, forget entitlement—the sponsor only opened the door. It’s up to you to walk through and make your mark. And let’s be clear: sponsorship is not about favoritism. Protégés earn their sponsorship and have to prove their worth every day thereafter.

For senior leaders committed to building a pipeline of talent, it’s about noticing a top performer with future potential and providing the kind of pivotal opportunity that can take her from “stellar individual contributor” to “influential leader.” This kind of talent scouting generates nothing but positive outcomes for the organization, not to mention a reputation as a key cultivator of talent.

So if you’re a senior leader, look broadly, look deeply, and look often. Pay attention to talent all around you—not just those already “on the list.” Anyone should be eligible. As one male sponsor we interviewed put it: “If I’m rewarding performance and showcasing performance and recognizing value contributions, then everyone has a shot at my sponsorship.”

Taking calculated chances on high performers happens every day, but all too often our research shows that sponsorship typically works in favor of men. This results in a future crop of leaders who precisely mirror those who came before—and we know this isn’t good for women or for business.

To the high performers: own your success and get noticed.  And to the senior leaders: get focused on the talent all around you. More female sponsorship can mean more career acceleration for talented women—because they earned it.

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Jennifer Kohler, Director, Advisory Services, consults with companies and firms in the areas of diversity and inclusion, with an emphasis on the advancement of women. She is a frequent speaker and has facilitated workshops on a range of subjects, including unwritten rules, work-life effectiveness, and mentoring and sponsorship. Prior to coming to Catalyst, Ms. Kohler received her M.A. in Social-Organizational Psychology from Columbia University, where she conducted research on work and family issues, later published in the Sloan Work and Family Research Network encyclopedia, and her B.A. from Cornell University, summa cum laude.

In Sponsoring Women to Success, Catalyst interviewed nearly 100 executives and high-potential leaders from across the globe about what sponsorship is—and isn’t. In this cross-post from Catalyst CanCon, Deborah Gillis highlights six important take-aways from these stellar sponsors and high-performing protégés.

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#1: Sponsorship impacts the broader organization

Sponsors begin to develop a different perspective on the organization and what it needs to grow and thrive:

[Sponsorship] keeps me thinking about my own development, and it keeps me thinking about what I’m trying to achieve at [my company] from an employee perspective—like what kind of people do I believe [we] need to have to continue to grow, the right cultures, differences of opinion, different styles—it’s all healthy at any organization. Not everybody needs to be cookie-cutter. It’s made me more conscious of that and how important that is.

—Woman Sponsor

#2: Sponsorship makes employees more loyal

Organizations benefit from the loyalty and commitment that sponsors and protégés bring to the team.

I would argue that our most successful partners or the people with the best potential are the people who are sponsors. And the reason it’s so is because it’s a reciprocal relationship. My sponsor, I would run through a brick wall for him because of what he does for me. That’s how you build a team.

—Woman Sponsor

#3: Not your father’s (or mother’s) sponsorship

The days when sponsors tended to choose protégés who looked like them (and everyone else in the senior group) are disappearing. And that’s leading to a culture shift.

“Who are the ones that you’re sponsoring?” I don’t think anyone’s ever asked me that question. Just the fact that I’m going to get asked the question, I better be thinking about [it so no one] says, “Yeah, but these three guys look just like you. How are you helping to change the culture and the structure of the organization if you’re only creating opportunities for people who look just like you?…Show me where you’re not just mentoring, you’re coaching. You’re actually sponsoring somebody that is out of the mold.”

–Man Sponsor

#4: Sponsorship is particularly impactful for women

Catalyst research demonstrates that women start their careers at lower pay than their male colleagues, and they don’t catch up…unless they have a sponsor at the senior ranks of the organization.

I do think that women need more sponsorship…because there’s a tendency for people to be less risk-taking with women or diverse candidates than they are with non-diverse. And so if the risk appears to be higher, then there needs to be more tipping of the scale. That tipping of the scale comes from sponsorship.

—Woman Sponsor

#5: Sponsorship opens doors for protégés

While sponsorship can open doors for high-performing individuals, simply providing someone with an opportunity does not guarantee success. It’s up to the person being sponsored to deliver once given the opportunity.

[Sponsors] just open the doors, right? It’s up to you then to walk through the door and show that you are capable of finding the path.

—Man Protégé

#6: Sponsorship is a core leadership competency for senior leaders

Many organizations expect their senior executives to be sponsors. Some are committed to formal sponsorship programs to ensure the relationships work and provide benefits to the organization.

Sponsorship of high-performance [individuals] in order for the company to do better—because that performance can have a greater impact on the next level—is my job as a leader….I get paid to develop, nurture, and grow a leader. That’s my job.

—Man Sponsor

Looking for real-life examples of sponsors? You need look no further than The Catalyst Canada Honours Champions. These three outstanding individuals understand the power of sponsorship to change lives and influence corporate culture.

Read their bios, then look around your own organization. Who are your sponsorship champions?

To mark the launch of Sponsoring Women to Success, I invited lead author, Heather Foust-Cummings, to discuss its key findings. In the coming weeks, we’ll also hear from Heather’s co-authors, Jennifer Kohler and Sarah Dinolfo. In today’s guest post, Heather cuts through the jargon and describes how sponsorship offers a unique “win/win/win” opportunity that benefits protégés, sponsors, and organizations.

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Sponsorship can be a squirrely concept, leaving many of us sensing U.S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart’s dilemma when he issued his 1964 opinion on pornography in Jacobellis v. Ohio: we may not be able to define it precisely, but we know it when we see it.

Catalyst’s latest research on sponsorship, Sponsoring Women to Success, tackles this ambiguity head-on and puts the clichés on the sidelines. We define sponsorship in clear terms: it is active support by someone with significant influence on decision-making processes or structures who advocates, protects, and fights for the career advancement of an individual.

Through in-depth interviews conducted with nearly 100 executives and high-potential leaders across the globe, we learned first and foremost that sponsorship represents a unique “triple-win.” Sponsorship benefits the protégé, the sponsor, and the organization.

High-potential protégés gain career advancement. This is especially important for women, who are often overlooked for plum assignments and big promotions.

Sponsors benefit, too. In our study, sponsors reported that they received access to information at different levels of the organization that enabled them to better understand the business and become more effective leaders. Leaders who play sponsorship roles also learned that talent in their organizations needs to be more diverse to support business growth. Beyond that, sponsors reported that they gained a deep sense of personal and professional satisfaction from helping others to become more successful.

Sponsorship also boasts direct and indirect benefits for organizations, producing more committed leaders. According to the leaders in our study, having a sponsor made them want to “pay it forward,” and increased their job satisfaction and intent to stay.

Likewise, sponsors argued that sponsorship was critical to team-building. As one woman told us, “I would argue that our most successful partners…are the people who are sponsors.  And the reason it’s so is because it’s a reciprocal relationship. I would run through a brick wall for [my sponsor] because of what he does for me.”

Okay, one cliché—but you get the idea. Sponsorship is not just for protégés. In an effective sponsorship relationship, everyone wins.

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Heather Foust-Cummings, Ph.D., leads research projects on women in leadership and organizational change and effectiveness for Catalyst. Her current work examines the role of sponsors in influencing the advancement and retention of senior-level women. Prior to joining Catalyst, Dr. Foust-Cummings taught at Columbia University and Barnard College, and also conducted brand analyses for the Corporate Research Department at Young & Rubicam. She earned her M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Science (American Politics) as well as a Certificate in Women’s Studies from Emory University in Atlanta. She received a dual B.S. in Political Science and Secondary Education (Social Sciences) from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

Diverse women are double outsiders. Women of African, Asian, Hispanic, Middle Eastern and Native American descent make up about 36% of the U.S. female population, but as today’s Take 5 highlights, many are excluded from high-paying leadership positions in corporate America:

1) In 2008, African-American women earned 61 cents and Latinas earned 52 cents for every dollar a white non-Hispanic man earned.

2) Among full-time wage and salary workers in 2009, Latinas’ median weekly earnings were $509—the lowest of all racial, ethnic, and gender groups—while Asian women earned $779. White men, on average, earned $845 per week.

3) In 2010, there were only nine diverse women general counsels in the Fortune 500.

4) Today, 70.1% of F500 companies have no diverse women serving on their boards.

5) The number of diverse women in F500 leadership remains stagnant: In 2010, they held 3.0% of board seats in the Fortune 500, down from 3.1% in 2009.

Catalyst recently found that for diverse women, stereotyping, exclusion from influential networks, and difficulty gaining access to high-visibility assignments can impact access to trusting relationships with managers. Mentor and sponsor relationships—coupled with targeted diversity training and mechanisms to hold managers accountable for meeting diversity goals—can increase awareness and dismantle the challenges many diverse women face.

Last month, my colleagues Jan Combopiano, Vice President & Chief Knowledge Officer, and Michael J. Chamberlain, Senior Director, Brand Management & Events, hosted a webinar on our latest research on the importance of sponsorship. The event was a tremendous success, with more than 1,500 people from around the world logging in and participating in the conversation. In fact, Jan and Michael received more than 150 questions from participants—far too many to address within the one-hour session!

With this in mind, I’ve invited them to answer one of the most frequently asked questions related to this research: How can I secure sponsorship if I do not have direct access to influential people in my organization? Jan and Michael, take it away!

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An influential sponsor can make all the difference in your career, but how do you secure one? Even if you do not have direct access to influential people in your organization, you can still land a sponsor who will advocate for you from behind closed doors.

Here’s how.

First, be good at what you do. In fact, be awesome! Sponsorship is not about entitlement—you need to earn it. You need to be a top performer to inspire others to take you under their wings.

Once you are on top of your game, you need to get noticed. You might not work on the same floor—or even in the same time zone—as your company’s most influential leaders. But that’s OK. Impress the people around you—every colleague you have exposure too might have the connections you need. You might not have the top boss’ ear, but others might, and they can speak highly about you to the people that matter.

For added visibility, try to volunteer inside your organization. Or organize networking events outside the office. Attend conferences where you think influential coworkers might be and speak with them there. And, have an elevator speech prepared—make sure colleagues get to know who you are and what you want to do. Do you know anyone who works on the company newsletter? If so, volunteer to write an article, or try to get featured.

There is no silver bullet to finding a powerful sponsor—everyone’s path is different. The important thing is to do a great job, take risks, and be creative. Leaders are always on the lookout for the next crop of talent. Get their attention. Help them notice you.

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Jan Combopiano, Vice President & Chief Knowledge Officer, Catalyst, leads knowledge management efforts at Catalyst, leveraging resources and expertise to serve stakeholders, preserve the organization’s history, and maintain the knowledge infrastructure. As head of the Information Center, Ms. Combopiano oversees library functions, including research requests from Catalyst staff, member organizations, the media, and outside researchers. In her operations role for the Research Department, she shepherds Catalyst work from concept to historical preservation, including the content for the annual Catalyst Awards Conference.

Michael Chamberlain, Senior Director, Brand Management & Events, is responsible for the care and keeping of the Catalyst brand, with major responsibilities including assessing external perceptions of the brand by target audiences and creating consistent positioning across, and external to, Catalyst. Mr. Chamberlain also plans and oversees all events related to Catalyst Research launches, CEO Summits, member and non-member convening opportunities, and the annual Catalyst Awards  Conference and Dinner.