How to Sponsor Diversity in the Leadership Ranks: A Regional Accounting Firm Uses a Traditional Tool to Mix Up Its Traditionally White, Male Leadership Ranks

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The results of a firmwide survey three years ago were a wake-up call for the board of directors and executive management at Home LLP, a Ridgeland, Miss. -based accounting firm with offices across the Southeast and Texas: The way the firm had long retained and developed leadership talent wasn't working. Women and minorities among Home's more than 500 employees didn't have the same chances of being promoted because they had less information on how to succeed than their white, male colleagues, the survey results suggested. Women and minorities also had a weaker sense of belonging to the firm, and they were less likely to be able to identify a sponsor in the firm who cared deeply about their career development. The survey was designed to pinpoint unintentional bias. Its findings alarmed members of Home's board and executive management, who consider diverse leadership critical for future growth, succession planning, exceptional client service, and talent recruitment. "For us to be relevant in the future, we have to have a very diverse leadership team, and we cannot continue to show up with half the talent and expect to compete in today's marketplace, especially when our clients are changing, their demographics are changing, their diversity is changing," said Joey Havens, CPA, CGMA, executive partner at Home. A BETTER WAY TO DEVELOP LEADERSHIP Mentorships and sponsorships are traditional go-to tools for accounting firms to develop leadership talent. Sponsorships are more involved than mentorships--sponsors must be willing to spend political capital, while mentors typically stop at giving advice. Sponsorships have long been used by senior leaders in accounting to promote proteges and help them meet the right people and move up in the firm. However, sponsorships can be an obstacle to diversity when leaders associate with and promote mostly people who remind them of themselves. To tackle unconscious bias, Home established a sponsorship program that adds transparency to the advocacy and broadens the likelihood of opening advancement opportunities to seasoned professionals who come from different socioeconomic or cultural backgrounds. The program recommends do's and don'ts to sponsors and proteges to ensure success. For example, sponsors are encouraged to schedule uninterrupted blocks of time with proteges, practice active listening techniques, and advocate for proteges in situations where they cannot do so for themselves. Proteges are encouraged to openly discuss areas where they feel they need support from a sponsor, ask critical questions, and work with sponsors to increase their interaction, visibility, and peer-level connection with management and partners in their practice area. As a result of the new approach, "we've seen team members step up in leadership positions who might not have," Havens said. "We see relationships across geographical boundaries from New York to Texas where the sponsor and the protege are meeting and working together, and they're not even in the same line of business. …