Lanna Hill: No matter who we are, it helps to have someone in our corner

We’ve all heard plenty about the role of mentors in life, in business, and in achieving success — whatever that may look like to the individual.

If you’re lucky, you’ve had a few along your personal and professional journey.

I count myself very fortunate to have had quite a few along the way, although the label “mentor” hasn’t always been one I’ve used when I think about the pivotal people who have seen things in me I hadn’t seen in myself, or taught me some of my most valuable lessons.

Perhaps it’s because these people should be thought of more as sponsors, rather than mentors.

However, there’s a critical difference between the two and I would argue finding the right sponsors is the secret sauce in advancing many of the workplace issues facing Australians today, especially as it applies to equal opportunity across age, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation or even marital status.

While there are a range of definitions, typically, a mentor is something with more experience or knowledge in a specific area, industry or skill set, providing guidance and support to someone less experienced.

Conversely, a sponsor is someone of a level of influence or authority who can create opportunities: to open doors, elevate your position and expose you to situations or networks that you may not otherwise have access to.

These are often the people who push you forward for a project or promotion you may not feel ready for or that may help you navigate your career advancement in ways that you may not have the context or exposure to be able to do yourself.

While this can also be portrayed as “jobs for mates”, especially as it applies at the executive level, the positive side of this coin can truly transform individuals at any stage of their career journey.

While I’ve always been someone with significant career aspirations, as I don’t have a degree in law or accounting, I thought a board role would be a goal I would never tick off the list.

In sharing this story recently with a younger, female peer with a similar skill set and background to mine, I was delighted to hear she had been exposed to the goings-on of the C-suite in her twenties; and, in turn, empowered to believe that she, too, could occupy senior leadership and board positions throughout her career, if she so chose.

Yet in my experience, stories like these aren’t common enough.

Maybe one of the reasons is because at the heart of our society, and in turn, our organisations, we are arguably still fearful of the transfer of power.

Be it generational power, political power or financial power, these common fears at a senior leadership level in our governments and businesses are well documented and feed into knowledge hiding, self-serving behaviour and, at worst, corruption.

And while there’s not a single, straightforward answer when it comes to prevention — knowledge sharing, sponsorship and advocacy are incredibly powerful in ensuring that opportunity and power are more equally accessed and distributed.

Advocacy, in particular, is a key component in this fight for equal opportunity, and it’s a responsibility we all share through courageously using our voices, and our own individual and professional capital to drive positive change in our workplaces, and in our society.

Lanna Hill is a strategist, speaker and founder of Leverage Media