You’ve risen through the ranks and proven yourself, and now other employees are turning to you for guidance. How can you set yourself up for success as you step into the role of a mentor or sponsor? It turns out, the secret is in the details.

Sonia Kang, a professor of organizational behaviour and human resource management at the University of Toronto Mississauga with a cross-appointment to the Rotman School of Management, is an expert on workplace dynamics. Here is her take on five ways managers and leaders can become better mentors or sponsors.

Consider if mentorship or sponsorship is the right fit

A good first step is to determine which of two distinct roles - mentorship or sponsorship – is right for you.

A mentor gives advice, for example, on someone’s presentation or job application, whereas a sponsor will actively advocate for that individual to help advance their career.

“Sponsorship differs from mentorship because sponsorship goes beyond giving advice,” Kang says.

A sponsor would nominate the person they are supporting for a high-visibility project, recommend them for promotions and ensure they connect with the right people. A mentor offers guidance and support and may develop a more personal relationship with their mentee.

Kang says that there are several important factors to keep in mind if you’re considering becoming a mentor or sponsor, including career stage, time commitment, and how much overlap there is between your personality and goals and those of your would-be mentee.

Mentorship might be a better fit to support an employee who is earlier in their career while sponsorship could be the right move to help someone who is more established. A manager or leader also needs to consider their own level of influence and any potential risks that might come from sponsoring someone who may not succeed.

“You're putting your reputation on the line. If you are advocating for someone, you’re taking on the risk that they might end up not doing well,” says Kang.

Those considerations are particularly important for leaders from underrepresented backgrounds, Kang says. “Women and people of colour are more likely to be penalized for mistakes. Organizations need to fix that, but until they do, that’s an extra consideration if you’re thinking about sponsoring someone,” she says.

Give good and effective feedback

One of the most important attributes of a good mentor or sponsor is the ability to give specific and actionable feedback, says Kang. The feedback needs to promptly follow a key moment such as a meeting or a pitch.

“You need to be there to give targeted feedback; focus on very concrete areas for improvement and strengths to build on,” she says. “You need to avoid generic feedback, because it’s effectively pointless.”

Instead of telling a mentee they did a great job during a meeting, deliver that praise in combination with a tip for how to make their performance even stronger, such as suggesting they use an evidence-based argument to support their point, or that they prepare discussion questions for the group to keep the conversation on topic, Kang says.

Be accountable and available

A mentor or a sponsor should have regular meetings to check in with those they are supporting. And those meetings should be structured.

“Check on their progress and talk about what's going on - challenges, successes, goal adjustment,” Kang says.

Consistency in those meetings is important because that helps build trust and maintains momentum.

The sessions could be a 30-minute check-in at the end of every month, for example, with a mentor or sponsor asking an individual to come prepared to discuss progress on certain goals and specific requests for additional support.

“It’s best to keep it really focused and hold yourself accountable as well,” Kang says.

If a mentor or sponsor is too laid back, or hands-off, that can lead the employee to feel uncertain or abandoned, says Kang.

Actively help with networking and provide meaningful opportunities

Both mentors and sponsors can help with networking, but active advocacy falls more into the sponsorship realm.

“This is about visibility. You want people to know who the mentee is, to help them to build relationships,” Kang says. “It's going out of your way to introduce this mentee to people in your network who are influential.”

While a mentor might give you some great tips for how to network and who to network with, a sponsor would make a conscious effort to introduce the person they are supporting to someone who could give them valuable insight into a project, or someone who is in a high-level position the mentee might aspire to, Kang says.

The support goes beyond just the introduction – both sponsors and mentors could go over discussion points with the person they’re supporting before an important one-on-one and help them prepare targeted questions.

A sponsor also needs to create opportunities for those they are supporting. That could look like recommending them for a high-profile project or asking them to lead a client presentation to showcase their skills to senior managers.

Set clear expectations and specific goals

A good mentor or sponsor needs to make sure that they’re aligned with the person they are supporting in terms of what a successful outcome of their relationship should look like, says Kang.

That means clear communication to ensure a leader knows what a mentee wants to focus on, what they need help with, and where they want to head in their career.

It could be as simple as a mentee specifying that they need help with a challenging project, want to hone their presentation skills, or that they’re working towards a particular leadership role. If such steps aren’t taken, the connection may falter.

“Then you're just having coffee with this person once a month but nothing's happening,” says Kang.

A manager or leader must also be careful not to project their own goals or career trajectory onto their mentee, says Kang.

“You don't want to just give advice based on what happened to you, you need to tailor it to what your mentee wants,” she says. “And you do that by asking questions to understand what their specific needs are.”

If you enjoyed this article and aren't already a subscribe consider signing up for our bi-weekly newsletter, which delivers fresh thought-leadership and research straight to your inbox every other week.