You lead a global P&L and are on the fast track for senior executive leadership. You are known for making hard trade-off decisions (you got through ‘08) and somehow find resources for new products, marketing spends, and distribution. When you are in your core space of your P&L, all is well. You are confident, have deep experience and intuition and decisions come easily.
But in this year’s strategy session, it became clear that while the core of your offerings is vital, there is a gap outside of your P&L’s core space. Eager to show that you are more than a one trick pony, you raised your hand to be the executive sponsor.
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This is the first article in a 3-part series where we take a deep dive on the three essential members of sustainable Growth Leadership teams in complex organizations: the Sponsor, the Growth Leader, and the HR Partner. If you missed the dynamics of the system article, you can find it here, and the second deep dive piece on HR Partner is here. The final piece is upcoming soon.
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Knowing that the statistics for inside startup efforts are not on your side, you’ve chosen one of your most seasoned leaders, and the two of you just held the kickoff session for the effort. All the right words were spoken, but you can’t help but have a gnawing concern that something is just not right.
If this was within the core, you’d know just what to do. This, however, calls for some “freestyle” work outside of your core process and activating groups you don’t normally work with – and it‘s honestly a bit daunting. For the first time in a long time, you can sense a blind spot for both of you, and the stakes are high.
How can you raise your odds?
In a previous post, we unpacked the dynamic relationship between the Growth Leader, the Sponsor and the HR leader that is essential for successful cross-functional team leadership. The sponsor is the executive leader that resources, connects and provides leadership for the full-time lead on the program (who we call the Growth Leader). The HR executive is the leader that provides coaching, insight, and tools that are required to do this unique work. The Growth Leader is the runway level leader who guides the program, plans the tactics and approach snd leads a high-powered, cross-functional team. This post unpacks four of the key roles that the Sponsor plays and provides some insight into the mindset key activities that we look to them to provide.
#1: Providing Air Cover and Connection
What is this activity?
The Sponsor provides the air cover needed to create freedom of movement for the growth team to do their work. Additionally, they make sure that the supporting organizations provide access to key talent that assures the progress of the effort.
How does it work?
Highly operational organizations are tightly compartmentalized to optimize and scale the core value proposition. They plan budgets carefully with very objective ROI goals for each dollar invested. When the hard work of connecting ideas to the market needs to be done in a new way, the internal value chain shifts dramatically, but the budget and controls associated with it does not. In fact, those areas that are underfunded may well provide the most value.
To avoid having the team get stalled, the Sponsor needs to work with her peers to make sure that every portion of the firm that is touched by the growth work is represented in the management review process. This avoids the dreaded “pocket veto,” and keeps the team moving.
They must also have the “street cred” to be able to get the key pieces of funding, talent and resource access that the team needs. This takes a level head and strong respect of the sponsor across the firm.
What value does it provide?
This work literally provides oxygen to the effort, allowing the promise of the activity to come forward. Without an investment in the precise understanding of the requirements, much time, budget and resources will be lost.
#2: Providing Room & Resources to Lead
What is this activity?
The strong sponsor knows that you need to allow time to let “the play develop.” The mindset is to provide guardrails, with room for significant creativity between them. This allows the Growth Leader maximum opportunity to fully tap into the members of the team and the firm, while not running afoul of areas that would affect the functioning of the larger enterprise.
How does it work?
An effective sponsor does this by challenging the growth leader to structure their project into very focused learning objectives, each with a strong hypothesis to be tested. It is very important that these tests get done quickly, with the best resources both inside and outside the firm.
The process we use for this is the STRIDE framework which allows for carefully tranched investments. Contrast this with the two usual methods of either micromanaging or abdicating between long-term objectives. By setting real measurable outcomes, the savvy sponsor can allow the creativity of the team to be fully engaged while attending to their other leadership duties.
This freedom comes with trust. Growth Leaders and Sponsors develop a powerful trust bond that starts with clear communication about what communication is needed, in what form and how often. The hardest part of this is usually getting the exception reporting right. My rule of thumb is that if there is good news or bad news, I want to hear it from you first. The only time you’ll be in trouble is if I hear bad news from someone else first.
What value does it provide?
This is where real leadership is developed. By providing a clear zone of accountability and creativity, the Sponsor assures that the Growth Leader and key members of the team are able to expand their leadership muscle. Much like a great flight instructor allows the student to practice safely, a great sponsor gives a great deal of freedom to allow learning to happen without derailing the larger program.
#3: Being an Exceptional Mentor
What is this activity?
Strong sponsors realize that one of their key unstated roles is to create future senior leaders through the intense work of developing a new value proposition. In this way, a sponsor works to be objective. By not being overly positive or critical, the sponsor becomes a trusted advisor and coach.
How does it work?
Experience shows us that one of the key areas to be coached is decision making. Decision making is literally the pulse of a cross-functional project, and the Sponsor needs to check in on decision vitality at regular intervals. It’s very easy for leaders who are functional experts to allow a decision backlog to accumulate, and a strong sponsor will help assure that the group remains action oriented. By supporting the Growth Leader to make the best decision quickly, the sponsor keeps the need for certainty from derailing the progress of the group.
What value does it provide?
A sponsor/mentor pushes the Growth Leader to be sure to engage the full team – including all four capacities of Growth Leadership. Experience has shown if one of those is missing in the team, the project will not get off the ground.
#4: Providing Perspective
What is this activity?
One of the strongest roles a sponsor plays is keeping the Growth Leader anchored. In the heat of pursuing a new product or service, it is very easy to lose perspective. Leading a growth team is like driving a van with no side or rear windows – you only see what lies in front.
How does it work?
In this sense, a sponsor needs to push the Growth Leader toward what I call a clear “universal value proposition.” A universal value proposition answers the question of why any stakeholder in the firm would be supportive of the work the Growth Team is producing. This allows the full firm, not just the growth team, to get behind the effort.
One unstated role for the sponsor is the chief truth teller. This person needs to be seen as the “lighthouse” for the Growth Leader and the team. By implementing a no BS approach to every interaction – be it with the team or with the senior leaders of the firm – the sponsor provides a consistent foundation for the work the team completes.
Lastly, perspective for the team is not gained in the conference room of firms, but outside with the stakeholders that the team is serving. A good sponsor buffers the leader and their group from the “nice to have” meetings and training overhead of the firm, and keeps them in the field close to the essentials.
What value does it provide?
Motivated cross-functional teams, that are eager to please have delivered some truly atrocious results. Chiefly, these always involve a loss of perspective and truth-telling inside the group. By assuring that this work is consistently done, in the daylight of good critical thinking, protects the team, brand value, and clients.
Wrapping Up
The Sponsor is an extremely critical role in developing new-to-the-enterprise offerings for the firm, but it’s only one corner of the triangle. To have the minimum essential group, we need to have the Growth Leader and the HR support specialist, as well.
If you’d like to gain more perspective on how to equip and launch powerful growth teams that have momentum and deliver value, we should talk. Our work involves equipping firms and leaders to have outstanding results by activating the right project, the right team with the right plan. We have built coaching and tools based on deep knowledge and experience for complex firms and their leaders. Please reach out via 847-651-1014 or use this link to set up a short call.
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