Mentorship and Sponsorship: Core Tools for Talent Growth

We’ve all heard the saying, “It’s not just what you know, it’s who you know.” In today’s workplace, career growth often depends on who champions you when you’re not in the room. Organizations must acknowledge this reality and leverage the powers of mentorship and sponsorship in activating high-performing talent.

Employees who have a mentor or sponsor are significantly more likely to feel strongly motivated to overcome career challenges (54%) compared to those who do not (35%), according to SHRM’s Price of Success: Navigating the Trade-Offs That Shape Career Growth report.  

Recognizing this impact, a recent SHRM Linkage webinar brought together Brad Johnson and David Smith, co-founders of Workplace Allies, with SHRM Linkage CEO Tamla Oates-Forney to explore why mentors and sponsors are transformative forces.

Mentorship vs. Sponsorship Is More Than Semantics 

The first step is understanding the difference between mentorship and sponsorship. Smith explained that mentorship typically involves offering guidance, support, and knowledge-sharing to help someone navigate their career. “Sponsorship, on the other hand, is explicit advocacy,” he said. “Sponsors are the ones who say your name in rooms you’re not in and actively push for your advancement.” 

While having both mentors and sponsors is ideal, it’s important to understand how these roles serve talent and leaders differently throughout their careers. Mentors provide insight and guidance, while sponsors create opportunities and advocate for advancement: “Mentorship may help someone imagine their future. Sponsorship helps make it real,” Johnson said. Recognizing this distinction empowers employees to seek the right kind of support. 

Barriers to Access

Despite the benefits, access to mentorship and sponsorship remains uneven. “Women receive less mentoring overall,” Johnson said. “When they do receive mentorship, the quality often isn’t as strong. Sponsorship is even more lacking.” 

When layering race onto gender, the disparities deepen. Black employees also receive less sponsorship compared to white and Asian/Pacific Islander (API) employees, with only 45% of Black employees reporting that someone at work shares their accomplishments with others, compared to 60% of white employees and 50% of API employees, according to SHRM’s Feb. 2023 EN Insights Forum.

This lack of sponsorship has real consequences. Without active advocacy, women struggle to advance, and their representation declines at higher levels of management, according to SHRM’s Women in the U.S. Labor Force report. Racial disparities tell a similar story. Black employees with sponsorship are identified as having high potential at twice the rate of those without sponsorship, with the top driver being recommendations for important work or positions, according to SHRM’s Feb. 2023 EN Insights Forum.  

Sponsorship helps close these gaps by going beyond advice; the sponsor leverages their own reputation and influence to champion another’s potential, opening doors to key opportunities.

Mentorship as Mutual Growth 

Beyond access, the quality and reciprocity of mentoring relationships also matters. Smith emphasized that traditional views often frame mentorship as a one-way street, but the best relationships are mutually beneficial.

Smith explained that when senior leaders mentor people from different genders, backgrounds, or experiences, the benefits flow both ways. These relationships expand leaders’ networks, strengthen their empathy, and enhance their ability to lead effectively. Their personal growth often extends beyond the workplace, too: “they become better partners, better parents,” said Smith. 

Oates-Forney reinforced the idea of reciprocity with her own experience, explaining that her mentorship journey evolved once it became a true two-way exchange. “I was giving as much as I was getting. That’s when mentorship truly becomes sustainable and transformative.”

How-To Guide: Build a Successful Mentorship Program

The Power of Sponsorship: Stories That Shape Careers

Johnson shared his story of how a mentor-turned-sponsor shaped his career trajectory: “My Navy supervisor, Betsy, discerned who I really was before I even admitted it to myself. She told me, ‘I think you’re an academic,’ and then she opened doors for me to become one. That kind of belief and action changes everything.” 

Oates-Forney shared a similar experience that propelled her into a global leadership role: “I wouldn’t have become GE’s HR leader in Africa without a sponsor speaking my name in a room where I wasn’t present. She vouched for me, said I could do hard things, and that opened an opportunity that transformed my career and my life.”

Such examples underscore why sponsorship must be intentional. As Johnson put it, “Mentorship can co-create your future. Sponsorship co-signs it.” Stories like this show why companies need to formalize sponsorship pathways, not leave them to chance. 

Webinar: Transforming Organizations with Mentorship and Sponsorship

Practical Steps for Employees 

Here are tips from Johnson on how employees can successfully approach and sustain mentoring and sponsorship relationships:

• Make a specific, manageable ask: Instead of requesting long-term mentorship upfront, start small and targeted. Johnson advised against the vague approach of asking, “Will you mentor me?” Instead, he recommended making a contextualized ask, such as requesting a short coffee meeting to learn about a specific experience, because people are far more likely to say yes to something concrete and limited. 
• Follow through to build trust: Demonstrate commitment by acting on advice and reporting back on your progress. “Show that you’re responsive. That builds trust and deepens the relationship,” Johnson said.
• Offer value in return: Strengthen the relationship by contributing to your mentor’s work or goals. Ask what they’re working on and how you can help. “When you contribute to their goals, you become more than a mentee — you become a valued partner,” Johnson said. 

Practical Steps for Leaders

Here are tips from Smith and Oates-Forney on how leaders can mentor and sponsor with intention, ensuring their support has lasting impact: 

• Understand aspirations and strengths: Take time to learn what your team members want to achieve and what they excel at. “Start by getting to know your people,” Smith said. “Ask about their aspirations. Learn their strengths. Then advocate for them in ways that align with their goals, not yours.”
• Engage in hands-on collaboration: Work directly with those you mentor or sponsor to gain firsthand insight into their capabilities. This makes your advocacy more credible and impactful.
•  Treat sponsorship as a responsibility: View elevating others as part of your role, not as a favor. “You have an obligation to lift others as you climb,” Oates-Forney said.

Development Solution: Purposeful Leadership

From Individual Acts to Organizational Impact

Only one-third of the workforce is engaged in their jobs, according to a 2024 Gallup survey.  And highly engaged employees are 73% less likely to consider quitting, according to SHRM’s The Case for Employee Experience report. These findings highlight the stakes of employee engagement — and the powerful role mentorship can play in improving it. 

Mentorship and sponsorship help employees feel valued, supported, and recognized — key drivers of commitment and retention.

“At SHRM Linkage, we believe in advancing and empowering all talent. Mentorship and sponsorship are how we do it. They transform not just careers, but entire organizations.” Tamla Oates-Forney, CEO, SHRM Linkage 

Johnson reinforced this point: “If you prepare people to lead inclusively — interpersonally, publicly, and structurally  — you win. You attract top talent, you keep them, and you unleash their full potential.”