Growth and career advancement is the outcome of many things we do to get ahead. A focus on continuously learning and improvement is essential. Coaching, mentorship, and sponsorship each play a specific and important role in enabling growth. Whether growth for the purpose of learning and development or for the purpose of preparing for career advancement. These resources are critically important. Here's why you would leverage these resources as part of an individual development plan.

Coaching - Need to build a certain skill or competency? Establish a coaching relationship with someone that is experienced in the area you want to learn. Ask them to coach you through the development of a skill or competency you're seeking to acquire. The individual you're partnering with, as coach, can be your manager-- Essentially, anyone that you know is experienced in the specific area of your interest. In the relationship you can expect to meet frequently (set an ongoing meeting cadence so to build on learning and track progress) to successfully achieve your learning goal.

Mentorship - Want access to an experienced resource that can provide you information, point you in the right direction, serve as a sounding board, provide advice etc.? Then you're seeking a mentor relationship. In this relationship you would meet as needed.

Sponsorship - Want more exposure in a particular area of your company? Need someone to represent your career aspirations/work interests? A Sponsor can help. This would be a senior leader (a decision maker) within your company. A Sponsor often serves as a "career focused" mentor. It's someone that gets to know your career aspirations, your contributions to business goals, your focus within your development plan, and you as top talent for the company. This person represents you when you're not in the room, is an advocate and sponsors you for next level work opportunities.

As you can gather, each of these resources plays an important role in your growth and career advancement. Take time to create a plan and take charge by leveraging these resources- You will be happy you did!

To learn more on how to establish these development enablers personally or across your workplace, contact us. LeadHumano is happy to explore the possibilities and partner with you.