9 Ways to Help Your Protégée Land Better Assignments

Woman shaking hands with a man as another man looks onHow are you promoting her to your coworkers?

By Ida O. Abbott
Sponsoring Women: What Men Need to Know

Promoting your protégée to others is an important part of sponsorship.

MORE ON SPONSORING WOMEN FOR LEADERSHIP: Steer Your Protégée to Opportunities | Sponsorship Best Practices, Early and Ongoing | 3 Ways to Wreck a Woman’s Career | 4 Reasons Women Say No to Leadership | Fix Gender Bias at Your Firm | Sponsor or Mentor?
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Here are nine concrete steps:
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Steer Your Protégée to Opportunities

Stylized industrial 3D number 88 ways to guide her.

By Ida O. Abbott
Sponsoring Women: What Men Need to Know

Once you have identified a woman to sponsor and determined that you click, you may be wondering how to get started.

MORE ON SPONSORING WOMEN FOR LEADERSHIP: Sponsorship Best Practices, Early and Ongoing | The Political Cost of Sponsorship | Don’t Let Gossip Interfere | 4 Ways to Help Women Seek Power | 4 Reasons Women Say No to Leadership | Women Fight ‘Kids First’ Perception | Women Judged on Performance, Men on Potential | Fix Gender Bias at Your Firm | 3 Changes for Men to Make | 3 Ways Women Benefit When Seen as Leaders | Sponsor or Mentor? | 4 Firm Benefits of Sponsoring Women as Leaders | Being the Best Means Including Women
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Here are some concrete steps to take:
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Sponsorship Best Practices, Early and Ongoing

Younger businesswoman and older businessman smiling and talking in office hallway17 ways both parties can make it work.

By Ida O. Abbott
Sponsoring Women: What Men Need to Know

When you sponsor a woman, there are many steps that you can take to ensure that the relationship is productive and achieves its objectives.

MORE ON SPONSORING WOMEN FOR LEADERSHIP: The Political Cost of Sponsorship | 4 Keys to Pairing Sponsors, Protégées | 4 Ways to Help Women Seek Power | Women Judged on Performance, Men on Potential | 3 Ways Women Benefit When Seen as Leaders | Being the Best Means Including Women
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Here are some tips for getting off to a strong start and following through effectively, especially by focusing on career opportunities and promoting your protégée to others.
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The Political Cost of Sponsorship

Woman and Man Working with CalculatorYou may be wondering if you can afford it.

By Ida O. Abbott
Sponsoring Women: What Men Need to Know

Most sponsorship occurs informally, without any structured or programmatic context. Informal sponsor-protégée relationships usually start in one of three ways.

MORE ON SPONSORING WOMEN FOR LEADERSHIP: 4 Keys to Pairing Sponsors, Protégées | 3 Ways to Wreck a Woman’s Career | 4 Reasons Women Say No to Leadership | Fix Gender Bias at Your Firm | Sponsor or Mentor?
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The most common way is when a senior manager or partner

  • identifies someone as a star performer,
  • believes that she has what it takes to succeed and
  • wants to make that success happen.

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Four Keys for CPA Firms Pairing Sponsors with Protégées

business man and woman reading news in magazineLet the help go both ways.

By Ida O. Abbott
Sponsoring Women: What Men Need to Know

Most leaders engage in sponsorship and have been sponsored themselves, so the nature of a sponsor-protégée relationship should be familiar.

MORE ON SPONSORING WOMEN FOR LEADERSHIP: 3 Ways to Wreck a Woman’s Career | Don’t Let Gossip Interfere | Women Fight ‘Kids First’ Perception | 3 Changes for Men to Make | 4 Firm Benefits of Sponsoring Women as Leaders

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Generally speaking, you sponsor women just as you do men. You may have to make a little more effort up front. And you might need to adapt to the impact of motherhood and other sex-related differences. But the strategies and tactics that sponsors use to help women move ahead are not much different than those for men.
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3 Ways to Wreck a Woman’s Career

Metallic rusty wrecking ball on chain shattering an old brick wallBeware misunderstandings about work relationships.

By Ida O. Abbott
Sponsoring Women: What Men Need to Know

We know that even when a relationship between a woman and a man is strictly business-focused, others may not see it that way. Here are three thorny issues to watch for and quell.

MORE ON SPONSORING WOMEN FOR LEADERSHIP: Don’t Let Gossip Interfere | 4 Ways to Help Women Seek Power | Women Judged on Performance, Men on Potential | 3 Ways Women Benefit When Seen as Leaders | Sponsor or Mentor? | 4 Firm Benefits of Sponsoring Women as Leaders | Being the Best Means Including Women

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1. Gossip and rumors

Relationships in the workplace are frequently the subject of rumors, and close relationships between senior men and junior women are tasty fodder for the gossip mill. Because sponsorship between a man and woman is not as common as sponsorship between two men, it is more noticeable and subjects the man and woman to greater scrutiny.
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Don’t Let Gossip Interfere

Three coworkers whispering about another passing byKeep things professional and there’ll be no reason to worry.

By Ida O. Abbott
Sponsoring Women: What Men Need to Know

A close work relationship between a man and a woman can generate sexual tensions in one or both of them.

MORE ON SPONSORING WOMEN FOR LEADERSHIP: 4 Ways to Help Women Seek Power | 4 Reasons Women Say No to Leadership | Fix Gender Bias at Your Firm | Sponsor or Mentor? | 4 Firm Benefits of Sponsoring Women as Leaders | Being the Best Means Including Women

When the man is older and powerful and the woman is young and ambitious, the potential for complications is even greater.
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4 Ways to Help Women Seek Power

Business team including young womanAnd why some women resist using networks.

By Ida O. Abbott
Sponsoring Women: What Men Need to Know

Women tend to have a limited appreciation of how their networks can help them get ahead professionally. Developing strong business networks is critical for career advancement. Because a leader operates through others, her value and effectiveness are largely tied to the power of her network.

MORE ON SPONSORING WOMEN FOR LEADERSHIP: 3 Ways Women Benefit When Seen as Leaders | 4 Firm Benefits of Sponsoring Women as Leaders

Yet women are reluctant to cultivate potential sponsors through their networks, while men willingly use patronage and networks to open doors and provide opportunities that cannot be accessed through normal channels. Men attribute their promotions to personal connections as a matter of pride, not embarrassment, because it means that influential people see them as leaders and reward them accordingly. As a result, men benefit from the political processes that go on all around them while women lose out.
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