The Importance of Social Capital in Mentorship

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Mentorship is more about the provision of time. But sponsorship, and I think, Amy, you mentioned this in your interview, is really about the providing of social capital. For mentorship, it's not clear to me that if the mentee succeeds or doesn't succeed, that the mentor is actually going to be impacted. If the protege does really well, that actually reflects well on the sponsor but if the protege fails, that also has negative ramifications. So the interconnection of the reputation becomes intertwined in a way that I don't think is true of just pure mentorship.

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.

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