Let’s say the quiet part out loud.

Coaching won’t get you promoted. Mentoring won’t put your name on the list. And hard work alone won’t break your orgnisation's structural inertia.

Only sponsorship does.

Here’s the distinction most leaders tend to avoid because it’s uncomfortable:

• Coaching develops capability

• Mentoring transfers knowledge

• Sponsorship transfers power

And power is what actually moves careers.

Now the part many people don’t want to hear:

👉 You cannot ask for a sponsor. If you do, you’ve already misunderstood the role entirely.

Sponsors find you. They watch how you operate, how fast you learn, how you behave under pressure - and then they decide whether you’re worth risking their reputation on.

My own lesson in sponsorship came early

In my early 20s, I was working at PwC. I gravitated toward an emerging internal technology practice run by a senior partner in Melbourne, Mike James.

This was the mid-90s. Personal computers were just taking off. The world was moving from DOS to Windows. I was young enough - and curious enough - to teach myself how it all worked.

Mike noticed. Not because I asked him to - because of what he saw.

He gave me significant responsibility far earlier than was sensible or safe. At one point, he asked me to lead a major technology transformation across New Zealand and Singapore.

I told him, honestly, that I didn’t think I was ready. His response changed my career:

“I’m deliberately throwing you in the deep end because I know you can swim. And I’ll be standing by the pool the whole time - in case you need a life raft. Somehow though, I doubt you will need me.”

That is sponsorship.

Not protection. Not comfort. Belief paired with risk.

That single decision created the foundation for my career trajectory at PwC. With Mike’s sponsorship, I became the youngest Senior Director the firm had seen at the time.

I didn’t earn that alone. Someone backed me. And I’ve carried that lesson ever since.

Throughout my career, I’ve intentionally looked for emerging talent to sponsor - often female, often vastly underestimated - and done for them what Mike did for me. That’s how you pay it forward.

So how do you know if someone is truly your sponsor?

They will:

• Put your name forward before you feel ready

• Advocate for you when you’re not in the room

• Give you stretch roles, not safe ones

• Attach their reputation to your success

• Tell you the hard truths because failure reflects on them too

If none of that is happening, you don’t have a sponsor - you have supporters.

And if you’re a senior leader reading this, ask yourself something uncomfortable:

Whose reputation are you currently willing to stake your own on?

Because careers aren’t defined by potential. They’re defined by who is willing to stand beside the pool and say “Jump. I’ve got you.”

If you’re a senior leader who believes sponsorship is a responsibility, not a privilege, this is the work I care most about. Through Growth Getters, I help leaders build the confidence, capability, and courage to step into bigger roles - and help organisations create more sponsors, not just mentors.

Feel free to reach out to me at dan@growthgetters.com.au for an initial confidential discussion.