Elvis Was My Mentor
“I am not a teacher, but an awakener.” ― Robert Frost
In the summer of 1997, I left my job at a foundation in Chicago and moved to Washington, D.C. to pursue my childhood dream of a career in politics. I was three years out of college, young, idealistic, and naive enough to set my sights on a job in the Clinton White House.
Fortunately, I had a secret weapon. Elvis.
While in Chicago, I had the privilege of working with Elvis Jacob Stahr, Jr. When we met, the former Rhodes Scholar was living in Washington, D.C., where he was serving as president emeritus of the National Audubon Society, and governor emeritus of the Sigma Chi Foundation.
When Dr. Stahr asked me why I wanted to go into politics, I had no idea that he had served as the Secretary of the Army during the Kennedy Administration. Much later I would learn that Dr. Stahr sat with the President in National Security Council meetings during some of the tensest moments of the Kennedy Presidency: the Berlin crisis, the Bay of Pigs, and the Federal deployment of the Alabama National Guard to integrate the state university.
I explained to Dr. Stahr that my dream of a career in public service was cemented through stories about JFK my mother told me while I was growing up in San Francisco. In 1960, much to my grandfather’s dismay, my Mom had become the first person in our family to vote for a Democrat when she had cast her ballot for JFK. A few months later, by a stroke of luck, she had found herself in Washington attending one of the President’s inaugural balls.
Shortly before I moved to D.C., I asked Dr. Stahr if he would be my mentor.
Elvis said no.
Well, he didn’t exactly say no. Dr. Stahr told me he would be happy to mentor me, but he explained what I really needed was a to build a relationship and earn the trust of someone on the inside—an executive sponsor—who could recognize my potential, and might ultimately take a bet on me.
Sylvia Ann Hewlett, in her new book “Forget a Mentor, Find a Sponsor: The New Way to Fast-Track Your Career,” writes “mentors can build your self-esteem and provide a sounding board, but they’re not your ticket to the top. If you’re interested in fast-tracking your career, what you need is a sponsor—a senior-level champion who believes in your potential and is willing to advocate for that next raise or promotion.”
I followed Dr. Stahr’s advice—echoed in Hewlett’s book— and three things happened:
- I volunteered on the 1996 Clinton campaign and earned the trust of someone who recommended me for a White House internship.
- As a White House intern, I built a relationship with an executive sponsor who believed in my potential and was willing to take a risk on me.
- When my internship ended, my executive sponsor rewarded my hard work and strong performance with a job in the West Wing office of the Director of White House Communications.
According to the Center for Talent Innovation, “sponsorship can be a game changer. Our research (The Sponsor Effect, Harvard Business Review Research Report, December 2010) shows that men and women who have powerful advocates tend to get the stretch assignments and ask for the raises that translate into career mobility. Sponsors lever qualified women and people of color out of the marzipan layer into top leadership roles, while protégés confer on their advocates a host of benefits, extending their capacity to deliver and burnishing their brand in the C-suite.”
Ultimately, hard work and a great LinkedIn network aren’t enough. You need others to recognize your potential and help you up, and that means having sponsors who believe in you.
Elvis J. Stahr, Jr., scholar, war veteran, attorney, and public servant, died on November 11, 1998 after a battle with cancer. He was 82.
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