July 4, 2024 • 52 mins
Are you ready to take your career to new heights? Join experienced Executive Coach Farah for an insightful session on how to make yourself "sponsorable". In this engaging session, Farah will share her insights for positioning yourself as a high-potential employee deserving of sponsorship from critical leaders. You'll learn how to: Develop a powerful personal brand that commands attention Build strategic relationships with key stakeholders Demonstrate your value and impact through measurable results Communicate your aspirations and career goals effectively Cultivate the mindset and behaviors of a sponsorable professional Don't miss this opportunity to gain invaluable insights from Farah's extensive experience coaching top executives. Secure your spot today and unlock the path to career advancement through strategic sponsorship. What do we mean by sponsorship? How is it different from mentorship? What does the mindset and behaviors of a sponsorable professional look like? How do you develop a personal brand that gets noticed by leadership? How do you determine who your key stakeholders are? How do you build strategic relationships with them? How do you demonstrate value and impact? How do you communicate your aspirations and career goals effectively? Topic critical importance to her - people don’t realize the conversations that are had about them when they aren’t in the room - endeavors led to want to be a partner in journey with individual - created the first programs for sponsorship at PWC - sponsorable - responsibility to yourself - no one is going to do it for you (women and people of color) -Live on the website for 90 days -Copy of the recording -invite with link
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Episode Transcript
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(00:03):
Welcome to Idemics Performance and Wellness,where world leading coaches and scientists explain how
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(00:24):
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(00:46):
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(01:07):
Thanks for listening and see you nexttime. Welcome everybody. So we're about
five minutes after the top of thehour, so I'm going to go ahead
and kick off our very exciting webinarthat we have today with Coach Farah.
Today's webinar, Well, first ofall, I'm Jamie Cosmar. I work
(01:30):
for IDMS as head of Client Experience, and I will be in conversation today
with Coach Farah, who I justcan't say enough wonderful things about. She's
going to be speaking with us todayabout how to make yourself sponsorable at work,
boost your professional image to get sponsored. Just a note about IDMX coaching.
(01:52):
We work with leaders and companies toachieve professional personal goals with the help
of qualified expert coaches. Check usout and learn more at THEIDMX dot com.
So I'm super excited to have CoachFarah with us here today speaking about
this topic that I often think aboutwhen we first she first proposed this.
(02:16):
You know, this is something Idefinitely could have benefited from very early on
in my career, and I thinkit's, you know, a topic that
everyone could use a refresher on regularly, just to make sure that it stays
at the top of mind. Butbefore we begin and get into the topic.
I'm just going to give a briefintroduction. So Coach Farah is an
(02:40):
experienced executive coach and she's a multifacetedpeople development professional. She specializes in partnering
with Fortune five hundred leaders as apeople operations business partner and an executive coach,
helping them and their executive leaders andsenior teams to develop talent management strategies
that prioritize attracting, retaining, developing, and promoting critical talent in ways directly
(03:05):
tied to game changing business objectives.In addition to her work though with businesses
and this is this is what youknow I think is so amazing about Coach
Farah. It's like she not onlyhas the organizational experience, but she brings
as well the people level experience.And for the last fifteen years, she's
helped grow and develop thousands of professionalswith her own trademarked frameworks and tools designed
(03:30):
to help people understand themselves deeper andshow up authentically and with intention. She
of course, holds several certifications,including a professional Coaching certification and one from
the Hudson Institute of Coaching. Inaddition to holding an MBA and she come
(03:51):
she, as I mentioned at thevery beginning, multifaceted. She's not only
a coach, she's a consultant,a speaker, oftentimes in a keynote way,
facilitator, and actually one of thethings that I learned about her that
she and I haven't had the chanceto discuss that she's a fellow poloton enthusiast
and a traveler. So while I'mvery tempted to ask you who your favorite
(04:15):
instructors are, I think that weshould we should probably start delving into our
topic today. So Coach Farah isgoing to help us understand what you can
do to position yourself as a highpotential employee. Deserting of sponsorship by key
leaders a topic that she told meis of critical importance to her because people
(04:40):
just don't realize the conversations that arehad about them when they aren't in the
room. And I'll be the firstto admit I fall into that category.
I have never in my life thoughtabout that people were talking to me and
what are and what are they saying? And more importantly, what do I
want them to be saying? Andshe believed that individuals have a responsibility to
(05:01):
themselves to self advocate because nobody isgoing to do it for them. So
without further ado, please join mein welcoming Coach Farah. Thanks so much,
Jamie. I think I'm going tohave you join me in all of
my future panels and speaking events andzooms all that, so I appreciate the
(05:23):
intro. I'm so excited to behere with everyone this morning. This topic
is one that actually is really importantto me personally as I'm someone who's benefited
a great deal from sponsorship. I'mloving the peloton love too, and I
think this is something that just investingthe time together on can be so powerful.
So my hope is that I'll sharesome insights, some experience my conversation
(05:46):
with Jamie here today. I welcomeany and all questions, and more importantly,
I hope this sparks continued conversation foryou after this conversation, maybe even
with someone that is already sponsor you, with peers who you want to continue
the conversation with. There's no shortageof areas to focus on as it relates
to sponsorship. So thank you.And it's so good to see familiar faces
(06:10):
as well. Hi, Jasmine anda few others that I'm seeing joint,
so very excited, right, thankyou, coach Farah. So let's you
know. I love to start,you know, any sort of podcast or
webinary by laying out definitions and anunderstanding of what we're talking about today.
(06:30):
And it seems very basic, butI tend to think it puts us all
on the same page, so there'sno confusion, you know. And I
my first question is a very basicone. What exactly do we mean by
sponsorship and in particular, how doesit differ from, for example, mentorship?
Awesome? Thank you. So whenI think of sponsorship, what I
think of is the engagement of aleader with someone as the process of leveraging
(06:59):
their time and their credibility to makesure that you equipped enabled and empowered to
succeed. That's general enough, inmy opinion, definition such that you can
apply it wherever you are, whateverindustry, whatever profession, whatever time or
phase of your life and career you'reengaged in. So shorter than that,
(07:24):
more simpler, it's just working withsomeone who has time, credibility and power
to help you achieve specific goals.Great, thank you for clarifying that definition
of sponsorship. And how does thatdiffer like, what is the difference with
a mentor? Like? What doesa mentor help us do? It's the
(07:45):
power aspect, right, So mentorshipanybody can mentor you. And I believe
in the power of mentorship. Andwhen I say anybody, I just I
think all of us have the opportunityto learn from anyway. It doesn't require
seniority, it doesn't require title.Mentorship just requires experience and expertise. So
(08:05):
I have mentors who are more juniorthan me, more less quote unquote experience
than me from a professional standpoint,but have expertise and an area of focus
that I'm interested in. And itruns the gamut of different areas of engagement
in your life. So you know, your peloton coaches can be your mentors.
(08:26):
There's not that direct relationship that youbetter believe. Tinday is my mentor,
right, she doesn't know it yet. We'll get to her when we
can and let her know. Butit's a different area of life in which
one has an expertise that I canleverage. You know, when I think
of more junior folks who I've workedwith former direct reports, They've mentored me
(08:46):
in areas in which I'm learning.So my previous company, I was new
at a particular time. One ofmy direct reports had been with a company
for sixteen years at that time.I'm her manager, I'm more senior than
her, I'm more experience than her, but she mentored me in my onboarding
phase to learn the ways of thecompany. I find myself in another corporate
(09:07):
transition as we speak. There arepeople here are more junior than me by
title, but they're experts in thecompany, in the areas of work that
we're executing against in different facets.They're mentoring me. And so I think
the critical piece to understand is thatmentoring can come from anyone and everyone with
(09:28):
more experience, more expertise in aparticular area of interest or focus for you.
But it's a sponsor that really comesin with power to lead to some
form of change for you, mostusually in the form of progression, exposure,
and elevation. Amazing. Thank youfor distinguishing that and that power pieces.
(09:50):
I think a very important point whenwe think about, you know,
having sponsors versus mentors, and thatwe need both absolutely and we need both.
So talk about what does the mindsetand behaviors of a sponsorable professional look
(10:11):
like? So you know, howwould you describe an ideal sponsorable professional The
ideal sponsorable professionalist one who's just really, really open to learning. That sounds
so basic, but I always prioritizepracticality here because I want you to be
able to apply this as we leavethis conversation today. So operate with the
(10:35):
mindset of a learner. You're opento learning from others who have time,
credibility, and power to help you. It's not about showing up as someone
who fully understands anything and everything inyour domain. It's really coming in as
a learner. The second piece ofthat is someone who is invested in their
(10:58):
own continuous group. You cannot expecta sponsor to be someone who just downloads
everything to you without you having tomake some investments. I'm just always really
candid and transparent. So I'm justgoing to call out something that Jamie highlighted
in my intro. I've never lookedat it this way, but you did
say, you know, multiple certifications, right, multiple areas of continued learning.
(11:22):
That's a personal commitment I've made tomyself. But when I think of
the sponsors who've partnered with me inmy career journey, these are folks who
saw that I was invested in specificareas of growth and could call that out
as they advocate for me. Sonot only are you a learner, but
you're someone who invests in your continuedlearning and growth. And then I would
(11:43):
just say again, with that learningmindset, that investment in learning, that
you stay curious. It's easy tofall into what I will call a trap
of trying to be the expert atall times. That's what we're most rewarded
for. But there's power and curiosityand showing up with a curious approach to
(12:07):
your work. People want to teach, Sponsors want to employ engagement by sharing
knowledge sharing information sharing perspective. Operatingwith that mindset of curiosity in the day
to day also goes a very longway. The last piece I will say
is really proactively managing your sponsorship relationship. Sponsors. I mentioned they have time
(12:33):
as one of the critical components beinga really good sponsor. But the folks
who I sponsor, I know thatif they don't hear from me unintentionally for
quite a bit of time, I'mgoing to hear from them. And it
is an intentional approach to setting timeconsistently and a good use of that time.
And so I think that's another thingthat's critical here is that you're proactively
(12:56):
managing that relationship. Usually with isbeing those who are more senior, more
experienced, and who operate with power, corporate power. They need a little
help, We need a little bitof help and managing all the relationships that
we have. And I think itgoes a long way to know that,
oh, I've forgotten to reach outto so and so, I wonder how
(13:18):
he or she is doing right now, and then I'll get that email for
me. My closest sponsor is Iget text. You know, it just
helps manage that relationship such that theyfit. They don't feel like I've forgotten
about them. They know they cancome to me and we're proactively partnering together.
Amazing. Thank you so much.So. Curiosity learning, being open
(13:39):
to learning, staying curious, andbeing proactive is what I'm hearing. I
can't help myself. I've got afollow on question that I just have to
ask. In particular. You know, it can be really I think intimidating
or hard to reach out to peoplewho are senior to you and that they're
(14:00):
super busy and checking in so youknow, if it's appropriate. I would
love a little maybe anecdotal information aboutlike you know, what do your text
say, or like how do youcheck in with somebody who is senior to
you and you know who's super busy? How do you do that? So
this is such a critical question becauseI think one of the first things to
(14:22):
think about as you're positioning yourself tobe more sponsorable. I would ask you
to think first, if we thinkof corporate or organizational sponsorship is what kind
of organization are you in? Youreally have to think about this is sponsorship
or conversations about sponsors typical? Isit the norm? Is it part of
the culture? I would hope thatit is, and that you can just
(14:46):
lean into that. It does makeit easier. If it is not,
that's more challenging because you do haveto take a prescriptive approach. I'm going
to start with the cultures in whichthis is as a topic of norm,
right, I think the first thingis see what work you have that is
(15:09):
already tied to the person whom youreally want to have as your sponsor.
I caution everyone, do not goaround kind of like that book are you
my Mother? Asking people can yoube my sponsor? Are you my sponsor?
It should really feel natural and somethingthat flows out of the work,
because it shouldn't be a relationship thatis forced. And I know that's really
(15:31):
hard because what we do first iswe think, oh, I want so
and so to be my sponsor,right, and you go chasing the person
instead of what you should really bedoing is focusing on being excellent in your
work such that people see that you'rea learner. People see that you're invested
in your learning, You show upin the work with a curious mindset,
(15:54):
et cetera, et cetera, etcetera. All the things that I mentioned,
And so I'm going to give theendidote of when I first benefited from
the power of sponsorship. I wasworking at Price Whie house Coopers. I
was a director at the time,and Maria Motz was a partner in the
organization. And Maria, she hadjust come into a new role and I
(16:15):
happened to be presenting on a particulararea of work from my area of focus,
which was the Northeast region, andI got to showcase my work,
I got to meet with her.She ended up partnering with me in my
career journey. Very fortunate, youknow, grateful. It doesn't always happen
(16:37):
that seamlessly, but that it wasthrough the work. The person who also
served as my sponsor was my directmanager at the time. He noticed I
excelled in my work. That's nota bride, that's not a pat on
the back. It is this iscritical. You have to be excellent in
the work that you do. Andso these two individuals I noticed how I
(17:00):
operate and continue to just leverage thatarea of focus for us to build our
relationship from that rapport was built fromthat rapport responsibility, So excellence in the
work rapport they took on the responsibilityof sponsoring me. And these individuals I
(17:23):
still have relationships with to this day. Last week Maria announced her retirement and
I get to celebrate with her.Those relationships are still there. And the
other individual is very neuros at Pricewhen I was Scoopers. When he retired,
that relationship was one that I gotto celebrate with him. So that
is kind of a model of whensponsorship is part of the culture. When
(17:47):
it is not part of the culture, you do have to approach it a
little bit more prescriptively, but againto not go around saying, well,
you'd be my sponsor. What Iwould do is focus first, and this
is what I do with clients,my coaching clients, especially those who are
in transition or starting a new role. Keep an eye on the stakeholders of
your work. Focus on who isat the table when you're having to present.
(18:12):
Who do you need to make sureknows what your work involves, how
that work is landing. Those areyour stakeholders. Then determine, based on
the goals that you already have whereyou want to go and progress in your
career, who you could really leanon and benefit from a sponsorship relationship with
(18:34):
focus on making sure they here seeand know what value you're adding. Slowly
but surely, you'll start to engagewith them naturally through the work. Again,
rapport will be built, and overtime there will be a responsibility that
they feel is part of their job, which is what it's should be.
(19:00):
And then over time that partnership inyour progression and your development is there.
And so two organizational types, ifyou will, one in which sponsorship is
part of the culture, one inwhich it may not be. Both focused
on work as kind of the entrypoint of making sure you're being viewed as
(19:22):
sponsorable, let it flow, itwill happen, rapport relationship, and then
your partnership on meeting your goals amazing. So you know, one of our
questions was actually, and I thinkyou already answered it, was determining who
our key stakeholders are. And it'sabout paying attention to who's in the room.
Yes, you're presenting and engaging withthem around sort of more again,
(19:52):
not going around and saying will yoube my sponsor, but around sort of
organic conversations. Right, So maybeyou're sort of seating a little bit of
the you know, reason to interactor or maybe it gets back to that
point that you're saying about being proactive, right, absolutely notice, and then
you're saying, Okay, I'm goingto proactively make sure that I they're in
(20:14):
my touch point. I'm going tofind a reason to speak with them.
The other thing I think is reallyimportant about what you're saying, and I
just I want to highlight it becausein the age of Amazon, I feel
like we think that everything should beinstantaneous. This idea that I meet somebody,
I speak with them on zoom onceor I'm you know, in a
(20:36):
room with them once and then that'sit, like they should want to sponsor
me, they should want you know, and which gives this type of exercise
a very transactional nature. But whatI hear you saying is this is not
transactional. I mean, obviously thereis a shared goal at the end,
but it has to be developed,and it has to be developed of time.
(21:00):
So I'm curious, you know,if we had to put a timeline
on this, could we do that? And how long would you say that
probably would take. I'm going toanswer that question, but I do want
to go back to one piece becauseI think it's critical to understand it is
not instantaneous, and that phase ofrapport and relationship is where you really really
(21:27):
want to focus. Right when you'rebuilding rapport with someone, you're kind of
setting the seeds for relationship building.You're setting the foundation of trust. Because
remember early on in the definition ofsponsorship, there's this piece about credibility that
the sponsor has to have. Andso if part of that is my credibility,
(21:52):
I need to have rapport with youto know that I can trust that
if I'm expending my credibility that it'sworth it. That that's just kind of
the breast tacks of part of buildingthat right, and that comes from rapport
building. Once that report is built, then relationship happens, and it's so
much more seamless. And so Ijust I wanted to pull that threat a
(22:15):
little bit more to make sure thatthat's fully understood. With that understanding,
I think I love the acknowledgment ofthis kind of Amazon approach to just living
nowaday where we nowadays, where wefeel like everything has to be instantaneous.
I'm not gonna lie to you,there's no timeframe, we can't that you
(22:37):
can't put that on there, becausewell, let me take that back.
You actually can, and you willsell yourself yourself short because you are focusing
on transaction more than you are focusingon relationship. Yes, there's an endgame
here, and you're trying to benefitfrom this relationship, but remember you're benefiting
(23:00):
from a relationship one of the bestthings. And I'll point to Marie again.
When I was actually leaving Price WaterhouseCoopers, she sensed that I was
worried that I was going to losethis relationship, and she said the most
beautiful thing to me a sponsor cansay. When I and she did use
the sort. When I agreed tosponsor you, I was not sponsoring Farwer
(23:23):
Bernier, the price Waterhouse Cooper's employee. I was agreeing to sponsor Farwer Bernier,
and I will sponsor you forever,and she has. And so if
you think about what that means interms of I can call Marie at any
time, I can email her anytime I know that I will, she
(23:44):
will hear me, we can connect. Then that means in the beginning,
it was not transactional. There wasno period of time set to show my
work and then build report and thenhopefully the relationship will come start out because
I just wanted to engage with thisindividual who was clearly engaged or committed to
engaging with me. And over timethis relationship has built so strongly that not
(24:11):
only do I know that I cantap into her, that relationship is there
such that I feel a responsibility tocontinue paying it forward. When you think
about the comprehensiveness of that, Ihope that you will be more comfortable understanding
that this may take a longer periodof time because the benefits are significantly longer,
(24:32):
and that it may take a shorterperiod of time depending on the type
of organization you're in, but itis not a thirty day process or a
ninety day engagement. It does taketime, but trust that the investment of
that time has yield for your lifemore than your career. Yeah. Yeah,
(24:55):
that's a beautiful story actually about yourpersonal experience with your sponsor from the
early part of your career. Thankyou for sharing that with us. You
know. It does leave me tothis other question though, I'm thinking in
my head, like, how doyou know when to give up? Like
you're you're working on developing a rapportwith someone and it's you know, is
(25:18):
there is at a certain point whereit's just like, Okay, this person
is not there's something just not working. I really appreciate that question because kindidly
I've never thought of that. Youknow, when do you give up as
a sponsory. My reaction to thatis, you'll know from the very beginning.
(25:42):
Again, this relationship is one ofcare, is one in which someone
is really prioritizing you. You'll knowthat from the very beginning. You know,
again, if we go back toit starts with excelling in your work.
(26:06):
When you're showing up in your domainexpertise and you're doing a good job,
right you'll see who's acknowledging you,who's empowering you even in that phase,
who's encouraging you, who's asking formore, who's already kind of in
(26:27):
my previous employee we would say pluswanting. You know, in this context
it's actually you know, as Jamiehighlighted in my intro, it's acknowledging your
work, how you approach things,how you demonstrate your strengths. You will
know early on. But if you'rea persistent person, of which I am
(26:47):
too, so I could see,you know, just continuing to give it
a shot. If it doesn't feelright, be comfortable letting it go.
Be comfortable letting it go, whichis hard, especially if this is someone
who super super senior, who youfeel like you really need their sponsorship.
Be comfortable letting it go, andtrust that someone else is already showing up
(27:11):
that you probably don't even see.Trust that there are other options. And
if you're feeling from the beginning there'sjust it's not clicking with this person,
because again it is a relationship,don't be afraid to just deep dive with
someone else, lean into who's leaningin with you, and then you'll find
(27:32):
that person. Maybe your entry pointto this maybe more senior individual who you
just couldn't get to and that's okay, that's okay, Yeah, yeah,
I love that. Like effectively,there's a bit of trust you've got on
this when you'll know when it's timeand there is no time frame, there
is no you know, it's it'sbeing intuitive about it. I'm I want
(28:02):
to take a sort of step back, and I know you've talked about this
a little bit, but like howdo you you develop a personal brand that
gets noticed by leadership? Right?So that's like probably the very beginning,
Like how do you make sure thatthat beginning phase you are putting yourself out
there and the right people are noticingyou? Yeah, I have a really
(28:23):
annoying response to this. Are youhappy with your brand? You know you've
got to start internal? Not you, Jamie, Sorry, but I mean
by this is the question you haveto ask yourself, right, you know
the and I guess this question alot. How do you put your brand
out there? Well, before youstart, you know, going out and
(28:44):
putting your brand out there, whatdo you feel about your brand? How
do you feel about who you areand how you show up? This is
why anyone who partners with me inthe coaching experience, we always start internal
first. We have to make sureyou know who you are, You know
what your strengths are, be reallycomfortable with what you do not know what
(29:08):
your strengths are not. I amvery comfortable with acknowledging where I do not
have strengths or where it is actuallyworth this, worthless for me to learn
something because it's just not my summerwillows. And you got to get to
that point first before you stop branding, because the best brands, the strongest
(29:30):
individual brands, are those that haveclarity around who I am. Who I
am not what I bring to thetable, what I do not bring the
table to the table where I mayhave an opportunity to learn and develop and
I want to and where I donot. Right, you just have to
(29:51):
have such a conviction of self andunderstanding of self before you start quotes putting
your brand out there, because ifyou start external first, you're going to
have a real reckoning with self thatsometimes more often than not, actually lends
with wait a minute, I don'teven know who I am, and I
(30:15):
don't mean that super existentially, Ijust mean that generally speaking, right,
such that maybe I need to pauseand think about what am I putting out
there, and so that's the firstpiece. I always like to just make
things practical again. So what Iwill say is for me, that journey
started a long long time ago.So I am very comfortable saying that anyone
(30:37):
who partners with Fara Bernier in anyform or fashion is always going to experience
someone who's engaging, someone who iswho is committed to empowering, and as
a result, in every experience someonehas with me, there's going to be
some level of elevating both for me, for that individual, for our work,
how we've work together. Those aremy three e's that was developed years
(31:02):
ago as a result of taking thattime to understand myself first. Again,
not a brag, not a padon the back. It's just this has
worked for me, and I offeredto you as just how to think about
this. Once that's there and youfeel really strong about that, then it's
(31:22):
about putting it in a format that'sfor easy recall for yourself such that when
things get really challenging, you canprioritize the most critical piece about branding,
and that is consistency. So forme, everyone knows come hell or high
water. No matter how great thingsare, no matter how challenging things are,
(31:47):
you're going to experience two things FarahBernier and her leadership model of engage
in power elevate And second, Ialways operate as a reflection of my name.
My name means joy. And again, even in the most difficult situations,
you're going to get that. Itdoesn't mean that it's happy, go
lucky every single time. There arereal crisises in which I've had to partner
(32:13):
with leaders. You know, it'sit is real things get difficult. But
joy for Parah in that moment mightbe just making sure I call out the
silver lining, making sure that westart with our wins before we go to
the challenges. But that again tobeing very self aware of who I am,
(32:34):
how I operate, and committing toconsistency no matter what. Am I
muted or are you muted? I'msorry about that technical difficulty. I was.
(32:59):
I was because there was some noiseforgive me no worry, and then
I couldn't you that was beautiful.Thank you for sharing that. I I
just you know, I mean.The thing that resonates really deeply with us
here at idem next is this ideathat Look, there's a lot of noise
in the world and very rarely Imean you know now too with social media,
(33:20):
it's like I'm on fire, right, You're always getting these external messages
and symbols of external ideas of whatwe should want and what success looks like.
And the beauty of a coaching relationshipand working with a coach like you
is taking that time for yourself tofigure out and get clear on these pieces
(33:42):
so you can be clear about whoyou are and what your personal brand is.
Actually, we say yeah, andthat's that's what's very very valuable about
working with coaches like you, isis that that piece, because that's very
hard. I feel like it's it'sbecome much harder to obtain in today's environment
to know who it is and whatyou want. Moving along to our next
(34:07):
question, how do you demonstrate yourvalue and impact to your stakeholders? So
it's it's interesting, you know,I'm currently in a corporate transition right now,
shifted from my previous employer now withthe new employer. This is week
(34:29):
two, and so I'm just I'mgoing to share candidly with you how I
focus on this, so you getinside peak a little bit. First,
and foremost, focus on your lowhanging fruit early on. Right, what's
what's I don't want to say easy, but what's seamless for you to land?
(34:49):
You know, right from the beginning, whether it be a new job,
a new project, anything, whatwhat's some low hanging fruit that you
can come in and show, Oh, I can do this, I got
this. But more importantly, Ican leverage people to help me with this
because people want to help. Anddon't be that person who thinks you got
to do it alone. That I'vedone that in the past. It only
(35:15):
gets you so far. It canwork, but it only gets you so
far. So look for low hangingfruit first. Once you get that low
hanging fruit land Again, this goesback. You got to be excellent at
what you do. There's no gettingaround that. That's pre requisite to being
sponsorable. And then you got toremind people, you know, I do
(35:37):
think generally speaking as women, itis very hard for us. And I've
done it here, by the way, multiple times I've said, not patting
myself on the back, not bragging, but we should be more comfortable do
it. I really wasn't. That'swhy I said it, just speak clearer.
But we can be more comfortable highlightingour winds. And that's why I
(35:58):
call it that instead of specifically yourimpact or accomplishments. I have found that
working with my coaches, especially generallyspeaking, again most women, people of
color, it's easy to call themwins versus accomplishment accomplishments. It's easier for
us to start to internalize that,and then we can more comfortably say no,
(36:22):
I accomplish that. So I justoffer that too. And then once
you start acknowledging the wins for yourself, make sure you're celebrating with other people,
right, you know, I feellike I've really lucked out, even
in this moment with the person I'mreporting into. She's phenomenal, remarkable and
(36:45):
already landing a few things. Today'sday seven, by the way, already
landing a few things. It's veryeasy to celebrate with her, and she's
celebrating with me, and she's celebratingme, and so I would offer that,
you know, focus less on thetactical, transactional. How do I
(37:08):
lay out my impact my accomplishments.This is a real mindset shift. Look
for a low hanging fruit, evennow, even if you're not new to
your job, even if you're notnew to your company, just think about
what are some opportunities, challenges orproblems that for you could be pretty seamless
to win. Right now, acknowledgethose wins that are probably wins for your
(37:34):
team, for you and your manager. Just make it a collective thing and
then call it out and celebrate together. From there, then, when it's
time to do the transactional thing ofyou know, your mid year, your
end of year review, it's easierfor you to lay those out because you
will remember, oh right, Idid celebrate that with so and so,
(37:58):
Oh right, we did have thatmeeting about X, Y and Z,
and commented how quickly we were ableto do YadA, YadA, YadA,
And I lad that I did that. And so I would implore of you
again with this mindset of making yourselfsponsorable, focus less and less right now
on the solo efforts and prioritize,generally speaking, more of a communal approach
(38:27):
to your work, because that's whatpeople will see and want to tap into
as a sponsor. And so again, high level, but hopefully that's helpful.
That's very helpful. And I lovethat you're sharing as you're live and
your experience of transitioning into a newrole and what you're thinking about, right,
(38:49):
I mean, you're you're an expert. But that being said, right,
it doesn't mean we're not all workin progress. I mean I can
definitely and I'm sure others on thiswebinar today can relate to the fact that,
like, I hate talking about myaccomplishments. It just it feels And
I don't know if it's something withlike the way I've been raised or what
it is, but it just feelswrong to me. So I can definitely
(39:13):
relate to that. You know howwhen we talk about and I think your
advice about like make it a communaleffort, make it a celebration. What
does that look like? Though?Like, you know, is it just
like we're having a meeting and we'rehaving a chat about it, like a
debrief? Is it? You know, We're we're toasting our our coffees and
(39:35):
our glasses. You know how,How how do we think about like how
that's executed. I there's so manydifferent options. That's my pause. What
I will say, first and foremost, think of the culture in which you're
operating. Right, I've had thegood fortune and I do count it such
as working in very different organizations acrossthe board, and so I don't think
(39:58):
it needs to be as formal asa coffee toast. But if that's the
culture, lean into that, right, you know something, It is more
natural for me than I think Ieven realized except for the past few years.
I think COVID our adult time outtwenty twenty until I mean still now
(40:22):
to a degree, but working fromhome or hybrid environments, I just got
really intentional about thinking people or whatthey were contributing to, for how we
were partnering, how we were working, what we were able to accomplish.
(40:42):
And so you know, no matterwhat your job is, no matter what
you're doing, there's some hefty worldthings that are happening that impact our day
to day and how we're approaching ourwork, and less and less can any
of us really do anything alone.And so I think celebrating with other individuals
(41:06):
is first personally for you acknowledging who'son team Milena, A team Jacqueline,
team Karina. I'm just looking atnames across the board, right like who
are your ace players on your team? And who can you think in a
public forum if you will, forwhat the team is accomplishing with you,
(41:30):
whether they be your peers, directorreports, and those more senior than you,
they don't get thank yous quite abit, so I think they would
appreciate that. And when the opportunitycomes up in team meetings, you know
acknowledge you know, X was reallychallenging. But I so appreciate Anastasia and
(41:52):
Jasmine and Tracy joining me in thisjourney to land. X Y and Z
thank you so much. I can'tbelieve we did that and be you know,
again culturally appropriate. There's some situationswhich like clap all around or previous
company I was in, use usethe it was Google meeds, so you
(42:12):
know, use the emojis there,I'm learning zoom, I will get there,
use the reactions here, find littleways that don't have to be over
the top to acknowledge with others,these these wins, these accomplishments, and
again it goes back to sponsorship.Other people will observe how you do this,
(42:37):
and they will want to invest inthat mode of operating, I e.
You, so that that's not lost, that gets elevated, that gets
empowered. I really love that ideathat it's really just about taking a moment
to acknowledge, and it doesn't haveto be this like again, chinchin,
(42:57):
we're celebrating, but really just acknowledgingand giving it words effectively or emojis,
but taking that moment to and andthat is really a process of reflection as
well, right, making space fora reflection on what happened and what went
(43:22):
well than just moving on to thenext thing, which you know, we
all get so busy, so Ithink again there's not always a lot of
space in life or in work forthat reflection. Piece. One one final
question and then if we have timewe can open it up for any questions.
(43:44):
Was you know, how do youcommunicate your aspirations and your career goals
effectively? So let's say you've builtthe rapport right, you are developing the
relationship, so in theory it's beeasier to start communicating about this. But
then if you're somebody like me,I will admit, you know, this
(44:07):
is a conversation that would be hardfor me. So so how how do
you talk about this stuff? So? Well, first I'd like to share
some signposts that will make it easierfor you and are good indicators for you
that you have a sponsor. Sofirst, and foremost you will probably be
asked before you have to ask.And I just I remember the first time
(44:30):
I was asked, and that wasvery neros and you said, so what
do you what do you want todo? What are you interested in?
And I was very open, whichis great, but not very specific at
the time. Right, So thisgoes back to be prepared. If you're
really investing in getting this relationship,this sponsorship relationship and yielding the best and
(44:54):
most out of it, be preparedfor that question, what is it that
you want? How can I helpyou? Where do you want to be
in the next three to five years? Be prepared for those questions. And
that usually happens once you've passed reportbuilding and are in that relationship building.
(45:15):
This is when you start having coffeeor even launch your dinner with your sponsor
and it gets to be more relationalthan just focusing on excellence in your check.
You've done that building a rapport check, You've done that. You are
in the relationship building phase. Peopleare asking you. If you are being
(45:37):
asked, know that person probably morethan likely is sponsoring you, trying to
sponsor you. I e begin toadvocate and champion for you. It is
more than mentorship at that phase.If that yet has not happened, or
you just have a sponsor who's that'snot their approach. Sorry for the notification
noise. Start to ask them questionsabout how they got to where they are,
(46:02):
Start to really operate with curiosity withthem, ask for insight into their
path, and then offer up youknow what really resonates with me about what
you've shared about your path? Yourexperience is X, Y and Z.
Either add in I would like toABC, or I'm thinking about the same
(46:27):
path, the same area of expertise, and where you are, how would
you suggest I get there? Itjust starts to get more natural. I
pause in understanding that this may justsound like it's theoretical, it's not applicable,
it's so high level. But sponsorshipI can't stress enough it really is
(46:52):
about the relationship. It's not mechanical. If it is mechanical, it's transactional
and it doesn't last to I justoffer up all of this from a perspective
of really think longer, long game, think relational. Especially if this is
about progression for you, it getsto be more about relationship the farther up
(47:17):
you go than it is about anytransaction, any specific ask for a yield,
and so it gets easier. Ifyou prioritize excellence in the work,
you get noticed. You get noticedby someone who then you get to build
rapport with That rapport is built ashift into relationship. In that relationship,
(47:39):
you will be asked, hey,what are you thinking about? What do
you want to do? If you'renot asked, it's okay, offer it
up, be prepared and go forth. It does flow. That's great And
I can't help by myself, butmention you know, when we think about
the preparation piece, I just wantto go back to something you said about
(48:01):
how you work with your clients tohelp them get clarity about who they are,
uh and what they want. AndI think that when you work with
a coach and you have that,those conversations are easy for you, right
because you prepare. That's working witha coach is a is a great way
to prepare yourself for those future conversationswith you know, potential potential sponsors.
(48:25):
I think, great, well,I'm going to open up. I think
we have time for like one questionmaybe too, if that's okay, somebody
asks I joined a bit late,but did we define sponsor. Is this
just a person who will support yourdesire for something like company to pay for
continuing education? And maybe it's it'sworth repeating what a sponsor actually does and
(48:58):
and and sort of how it differsfrom a mentor. I do want to
call out here and it's and forgiveme, it's Rebecca. I want to
call out the Is it just askingfor something like continuing This is where it's
about. That's transactional. That maybe your boss, that may be your
(49:20):
mentor. You can ask about that. And so when in early on you
can go back. I think thisis recorded so it can be posted,
you'll hear. In short, thedefinition of a sponsor is someone who is
using their credibility time to champion advocatefor you. And the difference is that
they have power to do so foryour progression, for your elevation, asking
(49:43):
for something like continuing ed, yes, they can support it. I probably
actually want to go to a sponsorwith that. There's probably internal processes that
you can leverage that's transactional in myopinion. And so if it's something that
yields just to on generalize and clickof a button, that's mentor, that's
(50:06):
manager. Maybe even your HR teama sponsor, where do you need them
to use their time, power,credibility to advocate for you. That's the
difference that I would look at hereand then as we if we just add
on to that sort of how thesponsor. What is the difference of the
sponsor versus the mentor? Again,Oh, sorry, I thought you were
(50:32):
going to say it. So it'sthat power dynamic. The sponsor is somebody
who really has power the mentor or. A mentor can come from any source.
It's anyone who has expertise, experiencein an area more than you,
which is totally fine. They canbe more junior than you, but you're
trying to learn from them. Somentoring can come from any anyone who has
(50:54):
insight or expertise that you need toleverage or want to leverage. They don't
always have power to get you fromA to B. Yeah. Great,
Uh, I think that's all thequestions that we have. So I would
(51:15):
love to thank Coach Farah for sharingher insight with us today. I know
that I have benefited greatly from thisconversation, probably a decade too late,
never too and I want to thankour audience for being with us here today
and if you would like to workwith Coach Farah, you will be receiving
(51:37):
a follow up email where you canbook an intro session with her, or
you can go to theidmx dot comand uh find her profile there and work
with her as well. So thankyou so much everyone for joining us today.
Thanks so much, Jamie, Thankyou everyone, Thanks for listening.
(52:00):
Please subscribe wherever you listen and leaveus a review. Find your ideal coach
at www dot viidmix dot com.Special thanks to our producer Martin Maluski and
singer songwriter Doug Allen.
Welcome to Idemics Performance and Wellness,where world leading coaches and scientists explain how
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(00:24):
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(00:46):
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(01:07):
Thanks for listening and see you nexttime. Welcome everybody. So we're about
five minutes after the top of thehour, so I'm going to go ahead
and kick off our very exciting webinarthat we have today with Coach Farah.
Today's webinar, Well, first ofall, I'm Jamie Cosmar. I work
(01:30):
for IDMS as head of Client Experience, and I will be in conversation today
with Coach Farah, who I justcan't say enough wonderful things about. She's
going to be speaking with us todayabout how to make yourself sponsorable at work,
boost your professional image to get sponsored. Just a note about IDMX coaching.
(01:52):
We work with leaders and companies toachieve professional personal goals with the help
of qualified expert coaches. Check usout and learn more at THEIDMX dot com.
So I'm super excited to have CoachFarah with us here today speaking about
this topic that I often think aboutwhen we first she first proposed this.
(02:16):
You know, this is something Idefinitely could have benefited from very early on
in my career, and I thinkit's, you know, a topic that
everyone could use a refresher on regularly, just to make sure that it stays
at the top of mind. Butbefore we begin and get into the topic.
I'm just going to give a briefintroduction. So Coach Farah is an
(02:40):
experienced executive coach and she's a multifacetedpeople development professional. She specializes in partnering
with Fortune five hundred leaders as apeople operations business partner and an executive coach,
helping them and their executive leaders andsenior teams to develop talent management strategies
that prioritize attracting, retaining, developing, and promoting critical talent in ways directly
(03:05):
tied to game changing business objectives.In addition to her work though with businesses
and this is this is what youknow I think is so amazing about Coach
Farah. It's like she not onlyhas the organizational experience, but she brings
as well the people level experience.And for the last fifteen years, she's
helped grow and develop thousands of professionalswith her own trademarked frameworks and tools designed
(03:30):
to help people understand themselves deeper andshow up authentically and with intention. She
of course, holds several certifications,including a professional Coaching certification and one from
the Hudson Institute of Coaching. Inaddition to holding an MBA and she come
(03:51):
she, as I mentioned at thevery beginning, multifaceted. She's not only
a coach, she's a consultant,a speaker, oftentimes in a keynote way,
facilitator, and actually one of thethings that I learned about her that
she and I haven't had the chanceto discuss that she's a fellow poloton enthusiast
and a traveler. So while I'mvery tempted to ask you who your favorite
(04:15):
instructors are, I think that weshould we should probably start delving into our
topic today. So Coach Farah isgoing to help us understand what you can
do to position yourself as a highpotential employee. Deserting of sponsorship by key
leaders a topic that she told meis of critical importance to her because people
(04:40):
just don't realize the conversations that arehad about them when they aren't in the
room. And I'll be the firstto admit I fall into that category.
I have never in my life thoughtabout that people were talking to me and
what are and what are they saying? And more importantly, what do I
want them to be saying? Andshe believed that individuals have a responsibility to
(05:01):
themselves to self advocate because nobody isgoing to do it for them. So
without further ado, please join mein welcoming Coach Farah. Thanks so much,
Jamie. I think I'm going tohave you join me in all of
my future panels and speaking events andzooms all that, so I appreciate the
(05:23):
intro. I'm so excited to behere with everyone this morning. This topic
is one that actually is really importantto me personally as I'm someone who's benefited
a great deal from sponsorship. I'mloving the peloton love too, and I
think this is something that just investingthe time together on can be so powerful.
So my hope is that I'll sharesome insights, some experience my conversation
(05:46):
with Jamie here today. I welcomeany and all questions, and more importantly,
I hope this sparks continued conversation foryou after this conversation, maybe even
with someone that is already sponsor you, with peers who you want to continue
the conversation with. There's no shortageof areas to focus on as it relates
to sponsorship. So thank you.And it's so good to see familiar faces
(06:10):
as well. Hi, Jasmine anda few others that I'm seeing joint,
so very excited, right, thankyou, coach Farah. So let's you
know. I love to start,you know, any sort of podcast or
webinary by laying out definitions and anunderstanding of what we're talking about today.
(06:30):
And it seems very basic, butI tend to think it puts us all
on the same page, so there'sno confusion, you know. And I
my first question is a very basicone. What exactly do we mean by
sponsorship and in particular, how doesit differ from, for example, mentorship?
Awesome? Thank you. So whenI think of sponsorship, what I
think of is the engagement of aleader with someone as the process of leveraging
(06:59):
their time and their credibility to makesure that you equipped enabled and empowered to
succeed. That's general enough, inmy opinion, definition such that you can
apply it wherever you are, whateverindustry, whatever profession, whatever time or
phase of your life and career you'reengaged in. So shorter than that,
(07:24):
more simpler, it's just working withsomeone who has time, credibility and power
to help you achieve specific goals.Great, thank you for clarifying that definition
of sponsorship. And how does thatdiffer like, what is the difference with
a mentor? Like? What doesa mentor help us do? It's the
(07:45):
power aspect, right, So mentorshipanybody can mentor you. And I believe
in the power of mentorship. Andwhen I say anybody, I just I
think all of us have the opportunityto learn from anyway. It doesn't require
seniority, it doesn't require title.Mentorship just requires experience and expertise. So
(08:05):
I have mentors who are more juniorthan me, more less quote unquote experience
than me from a professional standpoint,but have expertise and an area of focus
that I'm interested in. And itruns the gamut of different areas of engagement
in your life. So you know, your peloton coaches can be your mentors.
(08:26):
There's not that direct relationship that youbetter believe. Tinday is my mentor,
right, she doesn't know it yet. We'll get to her when we
can and let her know. Butit's a different area of life in which
one has an expertise that I canleverage. You know, when I think
of more junior folks who I've workedwith former direct reports, They've mentored me
(08:46):
in areas in which I'm learning.So my previous company, I was new
at a particular time. One ofmy direct reports had been with a company
for sixteen years at that time.I'm her manager, I'm more senior than
her, I'm more experience than her, but she mentored me in my onboarding
phase to learn the ways of thecompany. I find myself in another corporate
(09:07):
transition as we speak. There arepeople here are more junior than me by
title, but they're experts in thecompany, in the areas of work that
we're executing against in different facets.They're mentoring me. And so I think
the critical piece to understand is thatmentoring can come from anyone and everyone with
(09:28):
more experience, more expertise in aparticular area of interest or focus for you.
But it's a sponsor that really comesin with power to lead to some
form of change for you, mostusually in the form of progression, exposure,
and elevation. Amazing. Thank youfor distinguishing that and that power pieces.
(09:50):
I think a very important point whenwe think about, you know,
having sponsors versus mentors, and thatwe need both absolutely and we need both.
So talk about what does the mindsetand behaviors of a sponsorable professional look
(10:11):
like? So you know, howwould you describe an ideal sponsorable professional The
ideal sponsorable professionalist one who's just really, really open to learning. That sounds
so basic, but I always prioritizepracticality here because I want you to be
able to apply this as we leavethis conversation today. So operate with the
(10:35):
mindset of a learner. You're opento learning from others who have time,
credibility, and power to help you. It's not about showing up as someone
who fully understands anything and everything inyour domain. It's really coming in as
a learner. The second piece ofthat is someone who is invested in their
(10:58):
own continuous group. You cannot expecta sponsor to be someone who just downloads
everything to you without you having tomake some investments. I'm just always really
candid and transparent. So I'm justgoing to call out something that Jamie highlighted
in my intro. I've never lookedat it this way, but you did
say, you know, multiple certifications, right, multiple areas of continued learning.
(11:22):
That's a personal commitment I've made tomyself. But when I think of
the sponsors who've partnered with me inmy career journey, these are folks who
saw that I was invested in specificareas of growth and could call that out
as they advocate for me. Sonot only are you a learner, but
you're someone who invests in your continuedlearning and growth. And then I would
(11:43):
just say again, with that learningmindset, that investment in learning, that
you stay curious. It's easy tofall into what I will call a trap
of trying to be the expert atall times. That's what we're most rewarded
for. But there's power and curiosityand showing up with a curious approach to
(12:07):
your work. People want to teach, Sponsors want to employ engagement by sharing
knowledge sharing information sharing perspective. Operatingwith that mindset of curiosity in the day
to day also goes a very longway. The last piece I will say
is really proactively managing your sponsorship relationship. Sponsors. I mentioned they have time
(12:33):
as one of the critical components beinga really good sponsor. But the folks
who I sponsor, I know thatif they don't hear from me unintentionally for
quite a bit of time, I'mgoing to hear from them. And it
is an intentional approach to setting timeconsistently and a good use of that time.
And so I think that's another thingthat's critical here is that you're proactively
(12:56):
managing that relationship. Usually with isbeing those who are more senior, more
experienced, and who operate with power, corporate power. They need a little
help, We need a little bitof help and managing all the relationships that
we have. And I think itgoes a long way to know that,
oh, I've forgotten to reach outto so and so, I wonder how
(13:18):
he or she is doing right now, and then I'll get that email for
me. My closest sponsor is Iget text. You know, it just
helps manage that relationship such that theyfit. They don't feel like I've forgotten
about them. They know they cancome to me and we're proactively partnering together.
Amazing. Thank you so much.So. Curiosity learning, being open
(13:39):
to learning, staying curious, andbeing proactive is what I'm hearing. I
can't help myself. I've got afollow on question that I just have to
ask. In particular. You know, it can be really I think intimidating
or hard to reach out to peoplewho are senior to you and that they're
(14:00):
super busy and checking in so youknow, if it's appropriate. I would
love a little maybe anecdotal information aboutlike you know, what do your text
say, or like how do youcheck in with somebody who is senior to
you and you know who's super busy? How do you do that? So
this is such a critical question becauseI think one of the first things to
(14:22):
think about as you're positioning yourself tobe more sponsorable. I would ask you
to think first, if we thinkof corporate or organizational sponsorship is what kind
of organization are you in? Youreally have to think about this is sponsorship
or conversations about sponsors typical? Isit the norm? Is it part of
the culture? I would hope thatit is, and that you can just
(14:46):
lean into that. It does makeit easier. If it is not,
that's more challenging because you do haveto take a prescriptive approach. I'm going
to start with the cultures in whichthis is as a topic of norm,
right, I think the first thingis see what work you have that is
(15:09):
already tied to the person whom youreally want to have as your sponsor.
I caution everyone, do not goaround kind of like that book are you
my Mother? Asking people can yoube my sponsor? Are you my sponsor?
It should really feel natural and somethingthat flows out of the work,
because it shouldn't be a relationship thatis forced. And I know that's really
(15:31):
hard because what we do first iswe think, oh, I want so
and so to be my sponsor,right, and you go chasing the person
instead of what you should really bedoing is focusing on being excellent in your
work such that people see that you'rea learner. People see that you're invested
in your learning, You show upin the work with a curious mindset,
(15:54):
et cetera, et cetera, etcetera. All the things that I mentioned,
And so I'm going to give theendidote of when I first benefited from
the power of sponsorship. I wasworking at Price Whie house Coopers. I
was a director at the time,and Maria Motz was a partner in the
organization. And Maria, she hadjust come into a new role and I
(16:15):
happened to be presenting on a particulararea of work from my area of focus,
which was the Northeast region, andI got to showcase my work,
I got to meet with her.She ended up partnering with me in my
career journey. Very fortunate, youknow, grateful. It doesn't always happen
(16:37):
that seamlessly, but that it wasthrough the work. The person who also
served as my sponsor was my directmanager at the time. He noticed I
excelled in my work. That's nota bride, that's not a pat on
the back. It is this iscritical. You have to be excellent in
the work that you do. Andso these two individuals I noticed how I
(17:00):
operate and continue to just leverage thatarea of focus for us to build our
relationship from that rapport was built fromthat rapport responsibility, So excellence in the
work rapport they took on the responsibilityof sponsoring me. And these individuals I
(17:23):
still have relationships with to this day. Last week Maria announced her retirement and
I get to celebrate with her.Those relationships are still there. And the
other individual is very neuros at Pricewhen I was Scoopers. When he retired,
that relationship was one that I gotto celebrate with him. So that
is kind of a model of whensponsorship is part of the culture. When
(17:47):
it is not part of the culture, you do have to approach it a
little bit more prescriptively, but againto not go around saying, well,
you'd be my sponsor. What Iwould do is focus first, and this
is what I do with clients,my coaching clients, especially those who are
in transition or starting a new role. Keep an eye on the stakeholders of
your work. Focus on who isat the table when you're having to present.
(18:12):
Who do you need to make sureknows what your work involves, how
that work is landing. Those areyour stakeholders. Then determine, based on
the goals that you already have whereyou want to go and progress in your
career, who you could really leanon and benefit from a sponsorship relationship with
(18:34):
focus on making sure they here seeand know what value you're adding. Slowly
but surely, you'll start to engagewith them naturally through the work. Again,
rapport will be built, and overtime there will be a responsibility that
they feel is part of their job, which is what it's should be.
(19:00):
And then over time that partnership inyour progression and your development is there.
And so two organizational types, ifyou will, one in which sponsorship is
part of the culture, one inwhich it may not be. Both focused
on work as kind of the entrypoint of making sure you're being viewed as
(19:22):
sponsorable, let it flow, itwill happen, rapport relationship, and then
your partnership on meeting your goals amazing. So you know, one of our
questions was actually, and I thinkyou already answered it, was determining who
our key stakeholders are. And it'sabout paying attention to who's in the room.
Yes, you're presenting and engaging withthem around sort of more again,
(19:52):
not going around and saying will yoube my sponsor, but around sort of
organic conversations. Right, So maybeyou're sort of seating a little bit of
the you know, reason to interactor or maybe it gets back to that
point that you're saying about being proactive, right, absolutely notice, and then
you're saying, Okay, I'm goingto proactively make sure that I they're in
(20:14):
my touch point. I'm going tofind a reason to speak with them.
The other thing I think is reallyimportant about what you're saying, and I
just I want to highlight it becausein the age of Amazon, I feel
like we think that everything should beinstantaneous. This idea that I meet somebody,
I speak with them on zoom onceor I'm you know, in a
(20:36):
room with them once and then that'sit, like they should want to sponsor
me, they should want you know, and which gives this type of exercise
a very transactional nature. But whatI hear you saying is this is not
transactional. I mean, obviously thereis a shared goal at the end,
but it has to be developed,and it has to be developed of time.
(21:00):
So I'm curious, you know,if we had to put a timeline
on this, could we do that? And how long would you say that
probably would take. I'm going toanswer that question, but I do want
to go back to one piece becauseI think it's critical to understand it is
not instantaneous, and that phase ofrapport and relationship is where you really really
(21:27):
want to focus. Right when you'rebuilding rapport with someone, you're kind of
setting the seeds for relationship building.You're setting the foundation of trust. Because
remember early on in the definition ofsponsorship, there's this piece about credibility that
the sponsor has to have. Andso if part of that is my credibility,
(21:52):
I need to have rapport with youto know that I can trust that
if I'm expending my credibility that it'sworth it. That that's just kind of
the breast tacks of part of buildingthat right, and that comes from rapport
building. Once that report is built, then relationship happens, and it's so
much more seamless. And so Ijust I wanted to pull that threat a
(22:15):
little bit more to make sure thatthat's fully understood. With that understanding,
I think I love the acknowledgment ofthis kind of Amazon approach to just living
nowaday where we nowadays, where wefeel like everything has to be instantaneous.
I'm not gonna lie to you,there's no timeframe, we can't that you
(22:37):
can't put that on there, becausewell, let me take that back.
You actually can, and you willsell yourself yourself short because you are focusing
on transaction more than you are focusingon relationship. Yes, there's an endgame
here, and you're trying to benefitfrom this relationship, but remember you're benefiting
(23:00):
from a relationship one of the bestthings. And I'll point to Marie again.
When I was actually leaving Price WaterhouseCoopers, she sensed that I was
worried that I was going to losethis relationship, and she said the most
beautiful thing to me a sponsor cansay. When I and she did use
the sort. When I agreed tosponsor you, I was not sponsoring Farwer
(23:23):
Bernier, the price Waterhouse Cooper's employee. I was agreeing to sponsor Farwer Bernier,
and I will sponsor you forever,and she has. And so if
you think about what that means interms of I can call Marie at any
time, I can email her anytime I know that I will, she
(23:44):
will hear me, we can connect. Then that means in the beginning,
it was not transactional. There wasno period of time set to show my
work and then build report and thenhopefully the relationship will come start out because
I just wanted to engage with thisindividual who was clearly engaged or committed to
engaging with me. And over timethis relationship has built so strongly that not
(24:11):
only do I know that I cantap into her, that relationship is there
such that I feel a responsibility tocontinue paying it forward. When you think
about the comprehensiveness of that, Ihope that you will be more comfortable understanding
that this may take a longer periodof time because the benefits are significantly longer,
(24:32):
and that it may take a shorterperiod of time depending on the type
of organization you're in, but itis not a thirty day process or a
ninety day engagement. It does taketime, but trust that the investment of
that time has yield for your lifemore than your career. Yeah. Yeah,
(24:55):
that's a beautiful story actually about yourpersonal experience with your sponsor from the
early part of your career. Thankyou for sharing that with us. You
know. It does leave me tothis other question though, I'm thinking in
my head, like, how doyou know when to give up? Like
you're you're working on developing a rapportwith someone and it's you know, is
(25:18):
there is at a certain point whereit's just like, Okay, this person
is not there's something just not working. I really appreciate that question because kindidly
I've never thought of that. Youknow, when do you give up as
a sponsory. My reaction to thatis, you'll know from the very beginning.
(25:42):
Again, this relationship is one ofcare, is one in which someone
is really prioritizing you. You'll knowthat from the very beginning. You know,
again, if we go back toit starts with excelling in your work.
(26:06):
When you're showing up in your domainexpertise and you're doing a good job,
right you'll see who's acknowledging you,who's empowering you even in that phase,
who's encouraging you, who's asking formore, who's already kind of in
(26:27):
my previous employee we would say pluswanting. You know, in this context
it's actually you know, as Jamiehighlighted in my intro, it's acknowledging your
work, how you approach things,how you demonstrate your strengths. You will
know early on. But if you'rea persistent person, of which I am
(26:47):
too, so I could see,you know, just continuing to give it
a shot. If it doesn't feelright, be comfortable letting it go.
Be comfortable letting it go, whichis hard, especially if this is someone
who super super senior, who youfeel like you really need their sponsorship.
Be comfortable letting it go, andtrust that someone else is already showing up
(27:11):
that you probably don't even see.Trust that there are other options. And
if you're feeling from the beginning there'sjust it's not clicking with this person,
because again it is a relationship,don't be afraid to just deep dive with
someone else, lean into who's leaningin with you, and then you'll find
(27:32):
that person. Maybe your entry pointto this maybe more senior individual who you
just couldn't get to and that's okay, that's okay, Yeah, yeah,
I love that. Like effectively,there's a bit of trust you've got on
this when you'll know when it's timeand there is no time frame, there
is no you know, it's it'sbeing intuitive about it. I'm I want
(28:02):
to take a sort of step back, and I know you've talked about this
a little bit, but like howdo you you develop a personal brand that
gets noticed by leadership? Right?So that's like probably the very beginning,
Like how do you make sure thatthat beginning phase you are putting yourself out
there and the right people are noticingyou? Yeah, I have a really
(28:23):
annoying response to this. Are youhappy with your brand? You know you've
got to start internal? Not you, Jamie, Sorry, but I mean
by this is the question you haveto ask yourself, right, you know
the and I guess this question alot. How do you put your brand
out there? Well, before youstart, you know, going out and
(28:44):
putting your brand out there, whatdo you feel about your brand? How
do you feel about who you areand how you show up? This is
why anyone who partners with me inthe coaching experience, we always start internal
first. We have to make sureyou know who you are, You know
what your strengths are, be reallycomfortable with what you do not know what
(29:08):
your strengths are not. I amvery comfortable with acknowledging where I do not
have strengths or where it is actuallyworth this, worthless for me to learn
something because it's just not my summerwillows. And you got to get to
that point first before you stop branding, because the best brands, the strongest
(29:30):
individual brands, are those that haveclarity around who I am. Who I
am not what I bring to thetable, what I do not bring the
table to the table where I mayhave an opportunity to learn and develop and
I want to and where I donot. Right, you just have to
(29:51):
have such a conviction of self andunderstanding of self before you start quotes putting
your brand out there, because ifyou start external first, you're going to
have a real reckoning with self thatsometimes more often than not, actually lends
with wait a minute, I don'teven know who I am, and I
(30:15):
don't mean that super existentially, Ijust mean that generally speaking, right,
such that maybe I need to pauseand think about what am I putting out
there, and so that's the firstpiece. I always like to just make
things practical again. So what Iwill say is for me, that journey
started a long long time ago.So I am very comfortable saying that anyone
(30:37):
who partners with Fara Bernier in anyform or fashion is always going to experience
someone who's engaging, someone who iswho is committed to empowering, and as
a result, in every experience someonehas with me, there's going to be
some level of elevating both for me, for that individual, for our work,
how we've work together. Those aremy three e's that was developed years
(31:02):
ago as a result of taking thattime to understand myself first. Again,
not a brag, not a padon the back. It's just this has
worked for me, and I offeredto you as just how to think about
this. Once that's there and youfeel really strong about that, then it's
(31:22):
about putting it in a format that'sfor easy recall for yourself such that when
things get really challenging, you canprioritize the most critical piece about branding,
and that is consistency. So forme, everyone knows come hell or high
water. No matter how great thingsare, no matter how challenging things are,
(31:47):
you're going to experience two things FarahBernier and her leadership model of engage
in power elevate And second, Ialways operate as a reflection of my name.
My name means joy. And again, even in the most difficult situations,
you're going to get that. Itdoesn't mean that it's happy, go
lucky every single time. There arereal crisises in which I've had to partner
(32:13):
with leaders. You know, it'sit is real things get difficult. But
joy for Parah in that moment mightbe just making sure I call out the
silver lining, making sure that westart with our wins before we go to
the challenges. But that again tobeing very self aware of who I am,
(32:34):
how I operate, and committing toconsistency no matter what. Am I
muted or are you muted? I'msorry about that technical difficulty. I was.
(32:59):
I was because there was some noiseforgive me no worry, and then
I couldn't you that was beautiful.Thank you for sharing that. I I
just you know, I mean.The thing that resonates really deeply with us
here at idem next is this ideathat Look, there's a lot of noise
in the world and very rarely Imean you know now too with social media,
(33:20):
it's like I'm on fire, right, You're always getting these external messages
and symbols of external ideas of whatwe should want and what success looks like.
And the beauty of a coaching relationshipand working with a coach like you
is taking that time for yourself tofigure out and get clear on these pieces
(33:42):
so you can be clear about whoyou are and what your personal brand is.
Actually, we say yeah, andthat's that's what's very very valuable about
working with coaches like you, isis that that piece, because that's very
hard. I feel like it's it'sbecome much harder to obtain in today's environment
to know who it is and whatyou want. Moving along to our next
(34:07):
question, how do you demonstrate yourvalue and impact to your stakeholders? So
it's it's interesting, you know,I'm currently in a corporate transition right now,
shifted from my previous employer now withthe new employer. This is week
(34:29):
two, and so I'm just I'mgoing to share candidly with you how I
focus on this, so you getinside peak a little bit. First,
and foremost, focus on your lowhanging fruit early on. Right, what's
what's I don't want to say easy, but what's seamless for you to land?
(34:49):
You know, right from the beginning, whether it be a new job,
a new project, anything, whatwhat's some low hanging fruit that you
can come in and show, Oh, I can do this, I got
this. But more importantly, Ican leverage people to help me with this
because people want to help. Anddon't be that person who thinks you got
to do it alone. That I'vedone that in the past. It only
(35:15):
gets you so far. It canwork, but it only gets you so
far. So look for low hangingfruit first. Once you get that low
hanging fruit land Again, this goesback. You got to be excellent at
what you do. There's no gettingaround that. That's pre requisite to being
sponsorable. And then you got toremind people, you know, I do
(35:37):
think generally speaking as women, itis very hard for us. And I've
done it here, by the way, multiple times I've said, not patting
myself on the back, not bragging, but we should be more comfortable do
it. I really wasn't. That'swhy I said it, just speak clearer.
But we can be more comfortable highlightingour winds. And that's why I
(35:58):
call it that instead of specifically yourimpact or accomplishments. I have found that
working with my coaches, especially generallyspeaking, again most women, people of
color, it's easy to call themwins versus accomplishment accomplishments. It's easier for
us to start to internalize that,and then we can more comfortably say no,
(36:22):
I accomplish that. So I justoffer that too. And then once
you start acknowledging the wins for yourself, make sure you're celebrating with other people,
right, you know, I feellike I've really lucked out, even
in this moment with the person I'mreporting into. She's phenomenal, remarkable and
(36:45):
already landing a few things. Today'sday seven, by the way, already
landing a few things. It's veryeasy to celebrate with her, and she's
celebrating with me, and she's celebratingme, and so I would offer that,
you know, focus less on thetactical, transactional. How do I
(37:08):
lay out my impact my accomplishments.This is a real mindset shift. Look
for a low hanging fruit, evennow, even if you're not new to
your job, even if you're notnew to your company, just think about
what are some opportunities, challenges orproblems that for you could be pretty seamless
to win. Right now, acknowledgethose wins that are probably wins for your
(37:34):
team, for you and your manager. Just make it a collective thing and
then call it out and celebrate together. From there, then, when it's
time to do the transactional thing ofyou know, your mid year, your
end of year review, it's easierfor you to lay those out because you
will remember, oh right, Idid celebrate that with so and so,
(37:58):
Oh right, we did have thatmeeting about X, Y and Z,
and commented how quickly we were ableto do YadA, YadA, YadA,
And I lad that I did that. And so I would implore of you
again with this mindset of making yourselfsponsorable, focus less and less right now
on the solo efforts and prioritize,generally speaking, more of a communal approach
(38:27):
to your work, because that's whatpeople will see and want to tap into
as a sponsor. And so again, high level, but hopefully that's helpful.
That's very helpful. And I lovethat you're sharing as you're live and
your experience of transitioning into a newrole and what you're thinking about, right,
(38:49):
I mean, you're you're an expert. But that being said, right,
it doesn't mean we're not all workin progress. I mean I can
definitely and I'm sure others on thiswebinar today can relate to the fact that,
like, I hate talking about myaccomplishments. It just it feels And
I don't know if it's something withlike the way I've been raised or what
it is, but it just feelswrong to me. So I can definitely
(39:13):
relate to that. You know howwhen we talk about and I think your
advice about like make it a communaleffort, make it a celebration. What
does that look like? Though?Like, you know, is it just
like we're having a meeting and we'rehaving a chat about it, like a
debrief? Is it? You know, We're we're toasting our our coffees and
(39:35):
our glasses. You know how,How how do we think about like how
that's executed. I there's so manydifferent options. That's my pause. What
I will say, first and foremost, think of the culture in which you're
operating. Right, I've had thegood fortune and I do count it such
as working in very different organizations acrossthe board, and so I don't think
(39:58):
it needs to be as formal asa coffee toast. But if that's the
culture, lean into that, right, you know something, It is more
natural for me than I think Ieven realized except for the past few years.
I think COVID our adult time outtwenty twenty until I mean still now
(40:22):
to a degree, but working fromhome or hybrid environments, I just got
really intentional about thinking people or whatthey were contributing to, for how we
were partnering, how we were working, what we were able to accomplish.
(40:42):
And so you know, no matterwhat your job is, no matter what
you're doing, there's some hefty worldthings that are happening that impact our day
to day and how we're approaching ourwork, and less and less can any
of us really do anything alone.And so I think celebrating with other individuals
(41:06):
is first personally for you acknowledging who'son team Milena, A team Jacqueline,
team Karina. I'm just looking atnames across the board, right like who
are your ace players on your team? And who can you think in a
public forum if you will, forwhat the team is accomplishing with you,
(41:30):
whether they be your peers, directorreports, and those more senior than you,
they don't get thank yous quite abit, so I think they would
appreciate that. And when the opportunitycomes up in team meetings, you know
acknowledge you know, X was reallychallenging. But I so appreciate Anastasia and
(41:52):
Jasmine and Tracy joining me in thisjourney to land. X Y and Z
thank you so much. I can'tbelieve we did that and be you know,
again culturally appropriate. There's some situationswhich like clap all around or previous
company I was in, use usethe it was Google meeds, so you
(42:12):
know, use the emojis there,I'm learning zoom, I will get there,
use the reactions here, find littleways that don't have to be over
the top to acknowledge with others,these these wins, these accomplishments, and
again it goes back to sponsorship.Other people will observe how you do this,
(42:37):
and they will want to invest inthat mode of operating, I e.
You, so that that's not lost, that gets elevated, that gets
empowered. I really love that ideathat it's really just about taking a moment
to acknowledge, and it doesn't haveto be this like again, chinchin,
(42:57):
we're celebrating, but really just acknowledgingand giving it words effectively or emojis,
but taking that moment to and andthat is really a process of reflection as
well, right, making space fora reflection on what happened and what went
(43:22):
well than just moving on to thenext thing, which you know, we
all get so busy, so Ithink again there's not always a lot of
space in life or in work forthat reflection. Piece. One one final
question and then if we have timewe can open it up for any questions.
(43:44):
Was you know, how do youcommunicate your aspirations and your career goals
effectively? So let's say you've builtthe rapport right, you are developing the
relationship, so in theory it's beeasier to start communicating about this. But
then if you're somebody like me,I will admit, you know, this
(44:07):
is a conversation that would be hardfor me. So so how how do
you talk about this stuff? So? Well, first I'd like to share
some signposts that will make it easierfor you and are good indicators for you
that you have a sponsor. Sofirst, and foremost you will probably be
asked before you have to ask.And I just I remember the first time
(44:30):
I was asked, and that wasvery neros and you said, so what
do you what do you want todo? What are you interested in?
And I was very open, whichis great, but not very specific at
the time. Right, So thisgoes back to be prepared. If you're
really investing in getting this relationship,this sponsorship relationship and yielding the best and
(44:54):
most out of it, be preparedfor that question, what is it that
you want? How can I helpyou? Where do you want to be
in the next three to five years? Be prepared for those questions. And
that usually happens once you've passed reportbuilding and are in that relationship building.
(45:15):
This is when you start having coffeeor even launch your dinner with your sponsor
and it gets to be more relationalthan just focusing on excellence in your check.
You've done that building a rapport check, You've done that. You are
in the relationship building phase. Peopleare asking you. If you are being
(45:37):
asked, know that person probably morethan likely is sponsoring you, trying to
sponsor you. I e begin toadvocate and champion for you. It is
more than mentorship at that phase.If that yet has not happened, or
you just have a sponsor who's that'snot their approach. Sorry for the notification
noise. Start to ask them questionsabout how they got to where they are,
(46:02):
Start to really operate with curiosity withthem, ask for insight into their
path, and then offer up youknow what really resonates with me about what
you've shared about your path? Yourexperience is X, Y and Z.
Either add in I would like toABC, or I'm thinking about the same
(46:27):
path, the same area of expertise, and where you are, how would
you suggest I get there? Itjust starts to get more natural. I
pause in understanding that this may justsound like it's theoretical, it's not applicable,
it's so high level. But sponsorshipI can't stress enough it really is
(46:52):
about the relationship. It's not mechanical. If it is mechanical, it's transactional
and it doesn't last to I justoffer up all of this from a perspective
of really think longer, long game, think relational. Especially if this is
about progression for you, it getsto be more about relationship the farther up
(47:17):
you go than it is about anytransaction, any specific ask for a yield,
and so it gets easier. Ifyou prioritize excellence in the work,
you get noticed. You get noticedby someone who then you get to build
rapport with That rapport is built ashift into relationship. In that relationship,
(47:39):
you will be asked, hey,what are you thinking about? What do
you want to do? If you'renot asked, it's okay, offer it
up, be prepared and go forth. It does flow. That's great And
I can't help by myself, butmention you know, when we think about
the preparation piece, I just wantto go back to something you said about
(48:01):
how you work with your clients tohelp them get clarity about who they are,
uh and what they want. AndI think that when you work with
a coach and you have that,those conversations are easy for you, right
because you prepare. That's working witha coach is a is a great way
to prepare yourself for those future conversationswith you know, potential potential sponsors.
(48:25):
I think, great, well,I'm going to open up. I think
we have time for like one questionmaybe too, if that's okay, somebody
asks I joined a bit late,but did we define sponsor. Is this
just a person who will support yourdesire for something like company to pay for
continuing education? And maybe it's it'sworth repeating what a sponsor actually does and
(48:58):
and and sort of how it differsfrom a mentor. I do want to
call out here and it's and forgiveme, it's Rebecca. I want to
call out the Is it just askingfor something like continuing This is where it's
about. That's transactional. That maybe your boss, that may be your
(49:20):
mentor. You can ask about that. And so when in early on you
can go back. I think thisis recorded so it can be posted,
you'll hear. In short, thedefinition of a sponsor is someone who is
using their credibility time to champion advocatefor you. And the difference is that
they have power to do so foryour progression, for your elevation, asking
(49:43):
for something like continuing ed, yes, they can support it. I probably
actually want to go to a sponsorwith that. There's probably internal processes that
you can leverage that's transactional in myopinion. And so if it's something that
yields just to on generalize and clickof a button, that's mentor, that's
(50:06):
manager. Maybe even your HR teama sponsor, where do you need them
to use their time, power,credibility to advocate for you. That's the
difference that I would look at hereand then as we if we just add
on to that sort of how thesponsor. What is the difference of the
sponsor versus the mentor? Again,Oh, sorry, I thought you were
(50:32):
going to say it. So it'sthat power dynamic. The sponsor is somebody
who really has power the mentor or. A mentor can come from any source.
It's anyone who has expertise, experiencein an area more than you,
which is totally fine. They canbe more junior than you, but you're
trying to learn from them. Somentoring can come from any anyone who has
(50:54):
insight or expertise that you need toleverage or want to leverage. They don't
always have power to get you fromA to B. Yeah. Great,
Uh, I think that's all thequestions that we have. So I would
(51:15):
love to thank Coach Farah for sharingher insight with us today. I know
that I have benefited greatly from thisconversation, probably a decade too late,
never too and I want to thankour audience for being with us here today
and if you would like to workwith Coach Farah, you will be receiving
(51:37):
a follow up email where you canbook an intro session with her, or
you can go to theidmx dot comand uh find her profile there and work
with her as well. So thankyou so much everyone for joining us today.
Thanks so much, Jamie, Thankyou everyone, Thanks for listening.
(52:00):
Please subscribe wherever you listen and leaveus a review. Find your ideal coach
at www dot viidmix dot com.Special thanks to our producer Martin Maluski and
singer songwriter Doug Allen.
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