There are certain points in a career where a manager or leader can truly offer support to help boost an employee’s performance through mentorship or sponsorship. These milestones often arrive after an individual has transitioned to a higher-level position or started managing a new team. It's around then that a new leader sees workers increatingly turn to them for guidance.

But not every request to be a mentor/sponsor needs to turn into a long-term relationship, nor is everyone going to ask for help, leaving some of the most deserving without support.  

Sonia Kang, a professor of organizational behaviour and HR management at the University of Toronto Mississauga with a cross-appointment to the Rotman School of Management, is well-versed in what a manager or leader might owe their team – and others – when it comes to mentorship and sponsorship. Here is her advice.

Don’t feel you need to say yes to everyone

First, a manager or leader should not feel compelled to support everyone who asks for mentorship or sponsorship, says Dr. Kang. (While a manager is a type of mentor – providing feedback and guidance related to a specific role, they might also be asked to be a more formal mentor, offering career-spanning advice.) It is key to consider how many people they’re already supporting and be realistic about how much further they can stretch themselves. It’s also important to consider whether to act as a mentor, providing guidance and support, or a sponsor, which involves actively advocating for an employee to further their career. Both roles, however, involve sustained commitment.

“It's a significant time investment. You need to have regular meetings. You need to provide very specific, mindful feedback,” says Kang. “If you don't have the time to engage fully, it's actually worse off for the person because then they're missing out on an opportunity to find someone else who actually does have the time.”

If a manager or leader finds themselves being approached by more people than they can support, one way to still help without engaging in a long-term relationship is to point an individual towards someone else who can commit to them.

People of colour, especially women of colour, face an increased demand for mentorship and sponsorship, typically because there aren’t a lot of others like them at the upper levels of a company, says Kang. Organizations can help offset those demands by providing compensation to those individuals in some way for the time spent supporting other employees above their regular responsibilities, she says.

A manager or leader also needs to be honest about their expertise, both with themselves and with an employee. There are times when they simply might not be the best person to provide support, Kang says. It’s also possible for an employee to have multiple mentors, and leaders should acknowledge and even encourage that in the right situations.

“You don't need to be the person's one and only mentor,” says Kang. “Just be specific about what you can provide expertise on, and then for other things that they need advice on, they can seek out others to help.”

Do be proactive

Leaders should proactively reach out to offer support to employees they consider high-potential because some of those people will never ask for help, says Kang.

“People who are super extroverted, outgoing, confident - those are the people who are going to come to you and say, ‘I want you to help me,’” says Kang. “If you are someone from a historically marginalized group, an underrepresented group, you often don't feel like you can do that.”

Organizations could formalize such proactive outreach as well, says Kang, suggesting senior leaders discuss who is mentoring whom, and which deserving employees might benefit from more support.

“It's a great, simple, effective idea,” says Kang. “More corporations should coordinate their mentorship activities.”

Don’t worry too much about playing favourites, but try to be fair

It’s natural for certain personalities to connect more than others, says Kang, which means mentors or sponsors simply might have stronger bonds with certain individuals over others. What’s important is to be fair by applying the same standards to each relationship.

“If you are able to be as clear as possible and apply the same standards across the different people that you're mentoring, you can be really transparent about your approach to mentorship,” says Kang. 

One way to help mitigate playing favourites is to share a mentee with another leader, says Kang.

“Two or three mentees can share a group of two or three mentors, and then you alternate so that they're getting advice from multiple sources,” she says. “Hopefully, if you don't connect as well with one person, you have one or two others to form a strong bond with.”

Do hold yourself accountable

Being a mentor or a sponsor isn’t a role that switches off after your monthly check-in, says Kang. It’s important to follow up on how advice is implemented, whether tips worked in the employee’s favour, and how that person is performing.

“You need to be accountable. Ask, ‘How did that work out? Did that help you? What can we try differently,’” says Kang. “Even asking them, ‘Is this mentorship style working for you?’”

Being a strong mentor or sponsor also benefits leaders, says Kang. It gives them a chance to build their own legacy and they can learn a lot too.

“You're going to feel more engaged in what you're doing, you're going to find more meaning in your work,” says Kang. “You're providing guidance, sure, but your mentee also has a lot of knowledge to share with you.”