In today´s episode of 'Professional Success Podcast', Sheila talks about the need to have a 'Career Sponsor' and how they help in advancing career in the current modern and competitive work environment.

Episode Highlights:

• Sheila Boysen says that if you want to advance in your career, sometimes having a mentor alone is not enough.
• She talks about a few things that she thinks really helps to get the sponsorship.
• Sheila points out that once you achieve something noteworthy make your achievements visible to leaders in a tactful and professional way.
• The host reminds that there are multiple sources of support that you want to work on building throughout your career including a Mentor and a Sponsor.

3 Key Points:

Mentors help in skilling-up, whereas Sponsors help in moving-up in a career. So having the support of a sponsor is like having a safety net, allowing you to confidently take risks like asking for a stretch assignment or a promotion.

1. You can't expect a sponsor to put their reputation on the line, when they don't know the quality of your work. She suggests looking for a special project working directly for the potential sponsor that you've identified, maybe a special task force or committee that they serve on.
2. You want to have some level of clarity about your career goals; there's little chance that a sponsor is going to know what opportunities match for you really well, if you don't know.

Tweetable Quotes:

• "If your career is moving forward, chances are there might already be a sponsor, behind the scenes pulling the strings on your behalf."- Sheila Boysen – Rotelli
• "Know who the good sponsors are; now this can be tricky……" - Sheila Boysen – Rotelli
• "This takes some career planning, but tremendously important to make sure you have this lined-up in order to align yourself really strongly with the sponsor." - Sheila Boysen – Rotelli

Resources Mentioned:

• Sheila Boysen-Rotelli: Website Podcast