TREN
Sponsors and senior leadership · Program launch · 30 min

From mentoring to sponsorship: a women leaders program

Women leadership candidates who are advocated for at the decision table, not just advised.

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Who is a sponsor?

"Someone who has power and will use it for you."

Herminia Ibarra's definition. Sponsorship is a spectrum, from private advice to public advocacy.

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Mentor and sponsor

Mentor Sponsor
Role Advice, feedback Advocacy, opportunity
Where? One-to-one with the mentee At the decision table, mentee absent
What they put in Their time Their reputation
Measure of success The mentee's growth The mentee's new role
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Over-mentored, under-sponsored

  • Women's mentors are less senior and less influential
  • Mentoring predicted promotion for men, not for women
  • In a follow-up study, men received 15% more promotions

Source: Ibarra, Carter and Silva, HBR 2010 (Catalyst data).

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Sponsorship's impact in numbers

Finding Source
Women are 46% more likely to lack a sponsor CTI (Hewlett)
Sponsored women ask for raises 27% more often CTI (Hewlett)
In the US, 81 women are promoted to manager for every 100 men McKinsey and LeanIn, 2024
Companies with sponsorship programs for women: 31% to 16% McKinsey and LeanIn, 2017–2024
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The picture in Türkiye

  • Women hold 21.5% of senior and middle management roles in Türkiye (TÜİK, 2024)
  • In 2012 the figure was 14.4%
  • A minority below 15% becomes hyper-visible (Kanter, 1977)

Calculate the ratio unit by unit, not as a company average.

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What does a sponsor actually do?

  • Visibility: brings her into senior leadership meetings
  • Stretch assignments: opens challenging, visible work
  • Advocacy: names her, with reasons, in talent reviews
  • Risk: puts their support on the record
  • Transition: coaches her for the new role

Source: Catalyst, 2011.

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Program design

Element Choice
Purpose Readiness for promotion and appointment
Cohort 8–15 women leadership candidates
Selection Talent data: ready in 1–2 years
Length 12–18 months, incl. first 100 days after promotion
Sponsor Outside the line, with a say in appointments

The direct manager is involved; every participant also has a mentor.

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An example of accountability

At IBM Europe, if a participant wasn't promoted within a year, it counted as the sponsor's failure.

Ibarra, Carter and Silva, 2010.

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Sponsor commitments

  1. Open at least two visible opportunities in 12 months
  2. Advocate openly in one talent review
  3. A 30-minute check-in every three months
  4. Back talent that doesn't look like them, too

Many companies halted programs because executives didn't want to advocate for people they didn't know (Ibarra, 2019).

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Traps

  • Token program: a cohort, but no opportunities
  • Overload: every role falls to the few women leaders
  • Picking look-alikes: sponsors back people like themselves
  • Double bind: decisiveness is judged differently in women
  • Unprepared appointment: a hard role with no support

Women leaders' sponsors are mostly men; widen the pool (Gröschl et al., 2025).

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What will we measure?

Indicator How
Promotion Rate vs. a comparison group
Readiness Number "ready" in the succession plan
Stretch assignments Visible assignments per participant
Retention Retention at months 12 and 24
Sponsor behavior Share of commitments kept

At Deutsche Bank, 45% of participants moved to new or expanded roles (Catalyst, 2011).

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Exercise: Your first 90 days (10 min)

  1. Write down one visible opportunity you can open
  2. Pick two people to introduce the participant to
  3. Choose the first meeting where you'll advocate for her

Bring your notes to the first check-in.

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Decisions for today

  • Cohort selection criteria and size
  • The sponsor pool and pairings
  • The written commitment
  • The measurement and reporting calendar

The purpose and selection criteria are announced transparently.

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Sources

  • Ibarra, Carter and Silva, HBR, 2010 — the promotion gap
  • Hewlett / CTI (TIME) — findings on sponsorship
  • Catalyst, 2011 — sponsor behaviors and accountability
  • McKinsey and LeanIn.Org, 2024 — Women in the Workplace
  • TÜİK and UN Women, 2025 — share of women managers in Türkiye
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Let's launch the first cohort together

Name your sponsors and sign the commitments this month.

mentor360.com.tr

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