Episode 107: Stop Collecting Mentors

You’ve got five mentors. Zero sponsors. And that’s why you’re stuck. Maya and Marcus break down the research: sponsees get promoted at 5x the rate of the merely mentored, sponsored employees earn up to 11.6% more. Mentors talk to you; sponsors talk about you in rooms you’re not in. Three moves: do excellent work in front of powerful people, make your ambitions legible, and sponsor someone else first. Denise’s story — the senior manager whose COO sponsored her into a director role after a turnaround project.