Who Are You Championing and Sponsoring?

Published in

The Startup

6 min readAug 22, 2020

I have been reflecting on the topic of Championing (also known as sponsoring) and the impact this has on others.

This topic is one that can make a significant difference for our teams. By providing opportunities and making others visible, this brings empowerment, positive effects on mental health and achievement in personal growth. If everyone was given the chance to reach their goals, think about the impact that would have on individuals and the team environment.

What does Championing mean?

Someone asked me the other day, “I never understood what “champion” as a verb meant? Empower? Or something more?”

This is a great question, championing someone is quite different to mentoring or coaching someone.

Championing is vouching for someone, for example putting their name forward for opportunities and making them visible amongst others. Whereas mentoring and coaching is providing advice and growing someone’s skills.

When someone is championed this has profound effects, such as empowerment, visibility and the opportunity to progress in their goals.

The Reality

In my career, I have observed individuals who have potential, but not actively given opportunities. This can range from various reasons — for example needing confidence, being quiet, not being “aggressive”, to being overlooked.

Example:

In one environment, I noticed certain individuals being vocal about opportunities they wanted and displayed extraverted behaviours — for example high confidence for skills they had yet to acquire.

I also noticed the quiet achievers who were seen as team players, quietly and diligently taking ownership of tasks (even glue work) and putting more care into their work.

I also witnessed toxic behaviour, where one vocal individual scrutinised other people’s work in public, in an effort to be viewed as superior.

I also witnessed opportunities were given to the same individuals over and over again. Surely the are other people in the team who were also deserving of opportunities!

Championing Others

This is when magic happens. This is when you witness empowerment, confidence, engagement and growth.

This is where you are cheering along the sidelines and seeing the impact of sponsorship.

Here is an example

A developer in the team voiced that she wanted to grow to be the lead of an area. She had a few issues to overcome, being seen as “technical enough”, being seen as a “leader” and given the space to explore the opportunity.

She was someone the team depended on, someone who cared about customer experience, passionate about quality, someone who would go the extra mile, and a great holistic thinker. Sounds like a dream team member right?

However, she needed a clear path and the right opportunities to be seen (by leaders and by others in the team).

We worked together on identifying the gaps and the opportunities where she could show her strengths to others. Sounds quite logical right? However no-one was actively sponsoring her so she felt at a loss as to how to achieve her goals.

Some of these opportunities included

Building presence and technical credibility — she had her code to back her skills, but she also needed to communicate and share her knowledge with others. With a bit of coaching and nudging, she shared knowledge through presentations and running technical workshops. She was a natural communicator, but was initially hesitant and doubted her abilities. All she needed was a gentle nudge and belief in her abilities.
Leadership skills — she was given time to research and guide the approach for different technical challenges. By giving her the space to lead some initiatives, she was being gradually seen as a go-to person.
Mentoring others — this was a great way to communicate what she knew, help others and grow her leadership and communication skills. She started with mentoring one junior engineer and grew to being a go-to for others.
Building community — this involved leading a group on a technical area. At this point, the area needed a leader, someone who could engage the team and drive the strategy and direction.

On the sidelines, I championed her to others (to other leaders and the wider team), praising her great work and initiatives, giving her encouragement and driving conversations regarding her career path.

After some time, more people took notice and gravitated towards her as a go-to person. Senior leadership were commenting on her growth and leadership skills.

When the next round of promotions came along, I put name into the ring and drew upon examples of her performance. She got the promotion.

How You Can Champion Yourself

Remember the example at the beginning? The example of the different groups of people — those who were visible vs the group who were quieter?

In this scenario, I asked the quieter group what they wanted, for example what goals were they aiming for. I was worried they would miss out on opportunities. They found it difficult to articulate what they wanted and were not as bold as others to ask for opportunities.

It can often be difficult for quieter individuals to be seen, so unless there is someone actively sponsoring them, they will miss out on opportunities.

You do not need to resort to being a “show-off”, you can achieve being sponsored in a logical and more natural way. The key is to make it clearer for people to sponsor you.

Some tips here:

Identify what you want —do you want to build new skills? do you want more challenging work? do you want to grow an interest area?
Do your best work and ask for support— dedicate time to building your skills and also ask for the support that you need. Being sponsored means someone will vouch for you, however you need to show you can be counted on. Use the resources and support to help you achieve your best work.
Build relationships with others — find someone who has an interest in the same area or an expert in the area. We may not always have a sponsor keeping an eye over us, so look around and identify who a potential sponsor could be. Start by sharing knowledge and building rapport.
Identify a potential project/opportunity — tell people what you want. Observe what potential projects and problems need solving. Ask to be a part of these initiatives.

Example

Of the quieter individuals, one of them was passionate about building Design Systems. She had a combination of a few things — supportive team and people around her who cared about her path.

What she did — she vocalised her interest in Design Systems. She volunteered to help with different initiatives with the Design System.

How she was supported — mentoring, praising her work (to the team and leadership), gentle push to lead the Design System and people offering support for the Design System. She was not a senior engineer at the time, however she had the support of people who believed in her abilities.

The side effects observed — she had more confidence, she was known for quality work, she became more vocal in team meetings, more confident in her opinions and momentum picked up over initiatives she took on.

Reflection

Of my own experience, when I worked in environments without a Champion, I felt invisible and unappreciated. This affected my mental health and I felt the extra mile I was putting in was unacknowledged.

In contrast to environments where I had Champions, I felt empowered and instilled with confidence because someone believed in my abilities and this made me more energised to strive for bigger opportunities. This was when I grew the most.

I encourage you to look around your environment. Who are the individuals who are are not being sponsored? Who are the people that are missing out?

As a leader and peer, we should encourage and provide opportunities for others to grow and reach their full potential.