A pioneering professor of organizational behavior turns the concept of networking on its head, arguing that we must move beyond the standard mentorship model to embrace sponsorship, where we use our social networks and political capital on behalf of others.
“Chow revolutionizes our understanding of how careers advance” (Daniel H. Pink, #1 New York Times best-selling author of Drive), taking readers on a transformative journey beyond the standard model of mentorship to embracing sponsorship.
Named a Best Book of the Year by Fast Company and Behavioral Scientist
The way we currently network and engage in mentorship isn’t working. Given the ever-evolving nature of the workplace, transactional networking and company-enforced mentorship programs simply don’t help make our professional relationships more authentic or our workplaces more equitable. What we need instead is sponsorship.
What’s the difference between mentorship and sponsorship? Mentorship involves helping a mentee change their behavior, while sponsorship involves changing how other people see a protégé. Sponsorship is as important, if not more so, than mentorship in determining who gets ahead, making it a more effective way to promote social equality and inclusion in the workplace.
In The Doors You Can Open, organizational expert Rosalind Chow shows readers that they likely already engage in sponsorship in their personal and professional networks—and how they can channel those skills to build more authentic professional relationships. We all have more agency and deeper networks to act as sponsors than we might think, and sponsoring others can lead to mutually beneficial lifelong connections rather than merely transactional interactions. Given the ever-evolving nature of the workplace, intentional and equitable sponsorship is more important now than ever for overturning traditional social hierarchies.
Based on decades of original research, The Doors You Can Open makes a bold case for completely changing the way we network. Reading it will change how we see and use our relationships in the service of creating stronger workplaces for all.
