The Tie that Binds – DEI, Sponsorship Programs, and Succession Plans

If you’ve listened to or followed me over the last few years, you have likely heard me say that succession planning must be part of your organization’s DEI efforts. However, what I have noticed in organizations’ quests to create more inclusive workplaces, many of these companies have not tied succession planning to those efforts.

Yet, here we are amid the great resignation, with 63% of employees citing ‘no opportunities for advancement’ as one of the top reasons they are leaving. Over the last few years, organizations – large and small – have created or invested in mentorship programs to increase the “leadership potential” (which is still problematic and another post for another day) of underrepresented employees. One of the goals of these programs is to show these employees that they care and are invested in their professional development and growth. But here we are. I never quite understood why companies invest millions of dollars in professional development programs yet fail to intentionally create opportunities for that investment to manifest within the organization.

Could these disconnected processes be part of the reasoning behind the Great Resignation?

Instead of creating a mentorship program, create a sponsorship program intimately tied to succession planning. In June of 2021, Rosalind Chow wrote an HBR piece entitled, Don’t Just Mentor Women and People of Color. Sponsor Them. In this piece, she wrote:

“Sponsorship can be understood as a form of intermediated impression management, where sponsors act as brand managers and publicists for their protégés. This work involves the management of others’ views on the sponsored employee. Thus, the relationship at the heart of sponsorship is not between protégés and sponsors, as is often thought, but between sponsors and an audience — the people they mean to sway to the side of their protégés.

Whereas mentorship focuses on help that a mentor can provide directly, such as guidance, advice, feedback on skills, and coaching, sponsorship entails externally facing support, such as advocacy, visibility, promotion, and connections. Seeing sponsorship as a three-way relationship between sponsors, protégés, and an audience clarifies the difference between it and mentorship.”

I’ve often looked at it this way –

Mentors benefit from knowing they are helping someone and can do so behind the scenes. They can provide guidance and emotional support to those they are working with. A sponsor will speak about those employees even when they are not in the room and is willing to put their reputations on the line to advocate. It’s being an active participant in challenging the status quo, a much risker position.

So when you think about holding on to underrepresented talent, go beyond identifying who they are and increasing their ‘leadership potential’. Begin working those high potential employees into the succession planning process. Identify gaps in experience and exposure and start finding ways to sponsor them for stretch assignments that will benefit their professional development goals and increase their chances of staying a bit longer.