Lift learning hub
Sponsors
Session 1 & 2 – Your sponsorship impact: identity, self-awareness, adaptability and growth
Workshop overview
Our first two workshops invite you to explore your sponsorship identity and impact referring to the 4 levels of sponsorship: mentoring, connecting, amplifying and advocating.
We explore these levels as adaptive challenges requiring adaptive leadership. As distinct from technical challenges, adaptive challenges can’t be solved by acquiring new skills and knowledge. We need to evolve at the level of mindset and identity. This is the inner game of leadership that mediates the outer game.
To train your inner game and support your adaptive leadership journey, we’ll unpack three core elements:
- Your personality - how you show up, your incredible strengths and how they are overplayed to reveal your growth edge
- Your perspective - broadening your perspective by understanding how your ego, mindset and identity shapes your view and drives your behaviour
- Your practice - developing new sponsorship habits to achieve your adaptive challenge
Program overview
Worksheets / workbooks
- Your sponsorship impact (word version)
- Your sponsorship impact (PDF)
- Baselining your sponsorship impact worksheet (word version)
- Baselining your sponsorship impact worksheet (PDF)
- Stages of adult development
- Drama cards
- Presence cards
- Practice cards
- Immunity to Change X-Ray
Articles
- Adaptive challenges: The real reason people won't change
- What's the difference between a mentor and a sponsor?
- Want More Diverse Senior Leadership? Sponsor Junior Talent.
- The right way to find a career sponsor
- Mentoring someone with imposter syndrome
- What stage of adult development are you at?
- How to reach higher stages of adult development
- You can increase your mental complexity
- Why is change so hard?
Podcasts
- Jim Dethmer: Leading from above the line
- Jim Collins: Relationships v transactions
- Kris Cordle: Releasing the ego
- Caroline Webb: How to have a good day during a global pandemic
Animations
Session 3 – Enablers
Workshop overview
Enablers detect and address the often invisible barriers to people reaching their potential. These barriers can be structural and cultural (think office politics), and sometimes self-imposed via blind spots, limiting mindsets and beliefs. Providing constructive feedback on these barriers to either the talent it’s affecting and/or the person that’s creating the barrier is an essential skill of enablers, and a skill most leaders need to develop.
Come to this session ready to discuss the politics you observe at VFMC and workshop a feedback conversation.
Session 4 – Connectors
Workshop overview
In this session we’re digging deep on the role of connectors. Connectors build a deep understanding of talent needs, interests and aspirations and provide warm introductions to beneficial groups and contacts. Understanding the limits of our own expertise and knowledge, and the capability of others in our network, is key.
Before this session you will have practiced some connector moves and will bring your experience to the discussion.
Session 5 – Amplifiers and Advocates
Workshop overview
Amplifiers provide opportunities and platforms where talent can demonstrate their ability, and then back up their position or argument in public forums, when required. Discernment is key; if we amplify everything we hear nothing.
Additionally, being an advocate is the highest impact and highest risk level of sponsorship. It requires you using your reputational capital to advocate for someone’s promotion. That involves identifying the promotion potential in others and being attune to promotion opportunities before you can effectively push for their advancement.
In this session we’ll discuss what success you’ve had or challenges you’ve faced in amplifying your sponsees and others, as well as looking at barriers to effective advocacy and the ways you can advocate for your sponsee and others.
Let’s stay connected.
