Sponsorship for Better Balance

In the spirit of this year’s International Women’s Day theme “Balance for Better” we would like to invite supporters to join in London for an informal roundtable to explore this theme, in particular through an exploration of sponsorship as a strategy for better balance.

Building up your strategic network, whether informal or formal, can be one of the biggest game-changers in your career. Catalyst research shows that while mentoring is important, even necessary, it’s not enough. We found that women had more mentors than men, but men’s mentors were more senior and had more influence within their organisations – men had in essence SPONSORS. And the level of one’s mentor is what predicted advancement.

Some questions we will explore include:

• What exactly is sponsorship and how do you find one?
• What are the pitfalls and opportunities of sponsorship?
• What are the advantages of an informal or formal program? And is a formal program even necessary?
• How do we position ourselves to being both mentored and sponsored within an organisation?

Please join us for an informal dialogue to discuss this further.

Thank you in advance to our generous hosts, AlixPartners.

Speakers:

• Allyson Zimmermann, Executive Director, Catalyst Europe
• John Whalen, Director, Catalyst Europe