Community Credo

This community has come together with every individual’s motivation towards helping others. We will always cheer each other on, helping each other get better, and celebrating each other’s successes, even when they come before ours. We want to be the change we want to see in the world, and as the saying goes, ‘A rising tide lifts all boats’. We also fully understand that there is a wide range of areas, apart from sponsorship, that need change to build a truly equitable and inclusive world. However, to maximize our impact and making the farthest progress that we can, we must remain focused in our efforts. That means, we will have to say ‘no’ to other things so we can continue to say ‘Yes’ to increasing our impact in flipping the power to the people looking to advance in their careers by helping them identify and build sponsors who will ultimately use their influence to open doors for our members.

Treat others the way you want to be treated. This is the DNA of our community and how we interact with each other. We welcome and expect different opinions, perspectives, and ideas – critical to ensure our impact in outcomes – but we must be respectful in our disagreements and help each other understand our ‘why’. We will also need to be candid in what goals we want to achieve, and the hurdles that we are coming across, where we are feeling stuck. Being pragmatic and transparent about the issues is the only way we can continue to improve our toolkit, actions and other approaches that we cultivate to get sponsorship. Everyone will need to be open, which means we should also ensure that we are respecting the privacy and confidentiality of the blockers that people share. Our focus is not to publicize what specific individuals are facing but to problem-solve together to help them remove those obstacles in their career advancement. Encouraging each other to keep going and championing their success will be a celebration though!

The tools are only as good as the person using them. We can talk through various approaches and tools or frameworks that can help build sponsorship, but each of us must take ownership of the actions and follow through on them. This applies to everyone involved, whether as member, advisor, founder, collaborator or ally. This is a community driven by passion so we need everyone to jump in to help, where they can, so we can achieve our collective potential! But we also know that life happens – make sure you give yourself grace and hold space for yourself!

We are on an exciting journey, but this is unprecedented. The concept of sponsorship, and how it translates into our day-to-day, is yet to become part of mainstream dialogue. We will continue to learn and follow the research, data and the experiences of our members to modify our approach as needed. We will live growth mindset in every single action, which means keeping our focus on the desired outcome, even if it means changing the approach that we thought was a pretty perfect start.