Why you need a network of Champions to succeed!
By: Susan Manning
Tags: Leadership Development, Coaching, Careers, HR, Promotion

It’s no secret that women are under-represented in the workplace. In fact, it’s a well-known and documented phenomenon: Women only hold about 27% of executive positions at Fortune 500 companies.

But what’s not often talked about is why so few women make it to the top levels of their careers, or how things can change for future generations. Sally Helgesen explains this brilliantly in her book ‘The 12 Habits That Hold Women Back’. Stating, that females often don’t cultivate enough professional support from co-workers, mentors, senior managers and team members, treating them instead as friends for having wonderful conversations with.

Women must advocate for themselves if they want to move their careers forward. But to succeed, they can’t go it alone.

One of her points — that we need mentors and champions support in order to succeed — has stuck with me long after finishing her book. I’ve seen this play out time and again and there are countless cases where both formal and informal mentors have been instrumental in helping a team member move into a higher position.

Why?

The first reason is that they can provide support and guidance including telling them what areas they need to develop and improve Mentors are often in the valuable position of being able to point out what is the blind spot of the mentees and giving them valuable feedback.

The success of this feedback is also dependent on you hearing and adapting your behavior. Which in turn will make you prepared and ready for future leadership roles.

Another point Helgesen makes is about the need for support in gathering feedback on your skills and performance and who best to give us this than our stakeholders and co-workers. There are some really good reasons for this, too! For example, if we are relying solely on our Manager’s perspective of us, what do we do if they have a different idea, values, or approach than the ones we do?

Absolutely, there may be times when their opinion is spot-on, but how many opportunities for growth might slip through the cracks because nobody else has stepped in to provide you with the input?

When it comes time for promotion, you will need the skills that are developed through a robust and trusting network of mentors who bounce ideas off one another and are open in their sharing of successes and failures.

Perhaps most importantly the more Champions you have on board with the idea of promotion you, the higher chance there is that they will be willing to recommend you. If a hiring manager knows that other people would like to see you promoted, even without them being told who their choice should be, they’re much more likely to do so as well!

Many HR Professionals that I work with have similar thoughts to the ones below:

If I do a good job, people will notice. If I do just a little more, work a little harder, it will happen. I don’t need a mentor.

I want to earn that promotion myself; it feels like cheating or pulling rank if I have a senior decision-maker on my side.

I don’t have time for anything else to do.

If you are guilty of similar thoughts I challenge you to rethink about why you are putting all the responsibility on yourself to advance your career or succeed in your new role. Without access to the people who can set you up for the experiences you need, support you through the inevitable challenges. Your career success is likely to stall, leading to short-term frustration and long-term consequence.

So when I say “support from your network,” what I really mean is support from everyone around you: your managers, team members, peers, even your vendors and clients.

As Sally Helgesen writes: “The power lies not in standing alone but in building networks.”

Susan Manning is an International Executive HR Coach for HR Professionals who want to succeed in their current role and be seen as a trusted advisor so they can progress in their HR Career. She has developed a free HR Career Assessment Wheel which you can access here that will give you an overview of your life and career. https://susanmanning.ie/hr-coaching-program/