How to Ask Someone to Be Your Sponsor

Having a sponsor — someone who can use their influence to push your career forward — is invaluable. But how exactly they do this, and what your role is in making it happen, isn’t always clear-cut. Who should we be seeking to sponsor us? Should sponsors be candid with their proteges about what they’re doing on their behalf?

We pose these questions and others to Rosalind Chow, a researcher who studies sponsorship. She clarifies some of the ambiguity and talks about what should be transparent and what should stay unspoken. Then we hear how one of these relationships works between two lawyers, as well as between Nicole and Amy B.

Our HBR reading list:

• “Sponsors Need to Stop Acting Like Mentors,” by Julia Taylor Kennedy and Pooja Jain-Link
• “A Lack of Sponsorship Is Keeping Women from Advancing into Leadership,” by Herminia Ibarra
• “What Men Can Do to Be Better Mentors and Sponsors to Women,” by Rania H. Anderson and David G. Smith
• “Want to Be a Better Manager? Get a Protégé,” by Sylvia Ann Hewlett

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Email us: womenatwork@hbr.org

Join us for a live episode taping in Boston on Tuesday, Nov. 12. The event is free, but you need to register to get in.

Our theme music is Matt Hill’s “City In Motion,” provided by Audio Network.