Who’s pulling for you? Who’s got your back? Who’s putting your hat in the ring? Odds are this person is not a mentor but a sponsor. Mentors can build your self-esteem and provide a sounding board—but they’re not your ticket to the top. If you’re interested in fast-tracking your career, what you need is a sponsor—a senior-level champion who believes in your potential and is willing to advocate for you as you pursue that next raise or promotion. In this powerful yet practical book, economist and thought leader Sylvia Ann Hewlett—author of ten critically acclaimed books, including the groundbreaking Off-Ramps and On-Ramps—shows why sponsors are your proven link to success. Mixing solid data with vivid real-life narratives, Hewlett reveals the “two-way street” that makes sponsorship such a strong and mutually beneficial alliance. The seven-step map at the heart of this book allows you to chart your course toward your greatest goals. Whether you’re looking to lead a company or drive a community campaign, Forget a Mentor, Find a Sponsor will help you forge the relationships that truly have the power to deliver you to your destination.

Are you investing in the right people? Many people know the benefit of finding a sponsor--someone who goes beyond traditional mentorship to partner with a junior-level employee to help build their skills, advocate for them when opportunities arise, and open doors. But few realize that being a sponsor is just as important to career growth as finding one. According to new research from economist and thought leader Sylvia Ann Hewlett, senior executives who sponsor rising talent are 53 percent more likely to be promoted than those who don't. Similarly, middle-level managers who have proteges are 167 percent more likely to be given stretch assignments. Well-chosen proteges contribute stellar performance, steadfast loyalty, and capabilities that you, the sponsor, may lack, thus increasing how fast and how far you can go. But how do you find standout proteges, let alone develop them so that they're able to come through for you and your organization? This book has the answers you need. Combining powerful new data and rich examples drawn from in-depth interviews with leaders from companies such as Unilever, Aetna, Blizzard Entertainment, and EY, The Sponsor Effect provides a seven-step playbook for how you can become a successful sponsor. You'll learn to: Identify the right mix of proteges Include those with differing perspectives Inspire your proteges and ignite their ambition Instruct them to develop key skill sets Inspect your picks for performance and loyalty Instigate a deal, detailing the terms of a relationship Invest three ways and reap the rewards Along the way, you'll discover the enormous benefits of investing in these valuable relationships.

Are you “leadership material?” More importantly, do others perceive you to be? Sylvia Ann Hewlett, a noted expert on workplace power and influence, shows you how to identify and embody the Executive Presence (EP) that you need to succeed. You can have the experience and qualifications of a leader, but without executive presence, you won't advance. EP is an amalgam of qualities that true leaders exude, a presence that telegraphs you're in charge or deserve to be. Articulating those qualities isn't easy, however. Based on a nationwide survey of college graduates working across a range of sectors and occupations, Sylvia Hewlett and the Center for Talent Innovation discovered that EP is a dynamic, cohesive mix of appearance, communication, and gravitas. While these elements are not equal, to have true EP, you must know how to use all of them to your advantage. Filled with eye-opening insights, analysis, and practical advice for both men and women, mixed with illustrative examples from executives learning to use the EP, Executive Presence will help you make the leap from working like an executive to feeling like an executive.

The bestselling co-author of the legendary The One Minute Manager® and a former Twitter executive join forces to create the ultimate guide to creating powerful mentoring relationships While most people agree that having a mentor is a good thing, they don’t know how to find one or use one. And despite widespread approval for the idea of being a mentor, most people don’t think they have the time or skills to do so. Positive mentoring relationships can change the way we lead and help us succeed. In One Minute Mentoring, legendary management guru Ken Blanchard and Claire Diaz-Ortiz, a former Twitter executive and early employee, combine their knowledge to provide a systematic approach to intergenerational mentoring, giving readers great insight into the power and influence of mentoring and encouraging them to pursue their own mentoring relationships. Using his classic parable format, Blanchard explains why developing effective communication and relationships across generations can be a tremendous opportunity for companies and individuals alike. One Minute Mentoring is the go-to source for learning why mentoring is the secret ingredient to professional and personal success.

Everyone knows that you are supposed to “follow your dream.” But where is the road map to help you discover what that dream is? You have just found it. In Springboard, award-winning author and teacher G. Richard Shell helps you find your future. His advice: Take an honest look inside and then answer two questions: What, for me, is success? How will I achieve it? You will begin by assessing your current beliefs about success, including the hidden influences of family, media, and culture. These are where the pressures to live “someone else’s life” come from. Once you gain perspective on these outside forces, you will be ready to look inside at your unique combination of passions and capabilities. The goal: to focus more on what gives meaning and excitement to your life and less on what you are “supposed” to want. Drawing on his decades of research, Shell offers personalized assessments to help you probe your past, imagine your future, and measure your strengths. He then combines these with the latest scientific insights on everything from self-confidence and happiness to relationships and careers. Throughout, he shares inspiring examples of people who found what they were meant to do by embracing their own true measure of success. Eric Adler: one of Shell’s former students who walked away from a conventional business career to help launch a revolutionary new concept in public education that has placed hundreds of inner-city high school students in top colleges. Kurt Timken: a Harvard-educated son of a Fortune 500 CEO who found his true calling as a hard-charging police officer fighting drug lords in southern California. Cynthia Stafford: an office worker who became one of her community’s leading promoters of theater and the arts. Get ready for the journey of a lifetime—one that will help you reevaluate your future and envision success on your own terms. Students and executives say that Richard Shell’s courses have changed their lives. Let this book change yours.

Economist and award-winning author Sylvia Ann Hewlett blends vivid stories with powerful new data in assessing the impact of the #MeToo movement in corporate America and provides concrete action to help executives and companies create more inclusive and safe work environments for women, people of color, and LGBTQ employees. While the #MeToo movement has exposed the enormous harm done by sexual misconduct in the workplace, the movement’s full promise has not been fulfilled, Sylvia Ann Hewlett argues. Showcasing new data on the incidence of sexual harassment and assault at work, she reveals how the movement has focused almost exclusively on white women and failed to support other vulnerable groups who are also targets of abuse. Black men, gay men and women, and Latinas experience particularly high rates of sexual harassment and assault. In addition to exploring the movement’s limitations, Hewlett examines the collateral damage inflicted by #MeToo. She looks at hits to the bottom line (lawsuits and settlements, tarnished brands, and stock devaluations) and hits to the talent pipeline. In particular she shows how male leaders, fearful of gossip and legal action, are increasingly skittish about sponsoring young women, no matter how high performing they are. This makes it much more likely that women will stall out mid-career and will deprive companies of diversity in the C-Suite and “gender smarts” around decision-making tables. Digging deep into examples that range from Fox News, Nike, and Google to CBS, Michigan State University, and the Catholic Church, Hewlett lays bare the financial losses associated with sexual misconduct scandals. No wonder corporate chief risk officers newly have #MeToo in their line of sight! A third of this book is devoted to solutions and Hewlett offers a three-pronged strategy, combining legal remedies with individual and corporate action steps that can be used to protect employees and businesses they work for. Drawing from companies as different as IBM and IPG she discusses “experiments at the edge” as well as more evolved initiatives that can help any corporation create a more equitable and safer environment.

"At last. At last this very important book has been written... It will empower legions of women to step into their greatness.' ELIZABETH GILBERT, author of EAT, PRAY, LOVE 'One of the most important books in my life. If you want to achieve anything, or simply be less stressed, this book will help you do it. In it you will find your voice, your ability, your self-confidence and perhaps even your mission in life. Buy it. Pass it on.' SHIRLEY CONRAN The groundbreaking book that gives every woman the practical skills they need to begin PLAYING BIG. Five years ago, Tara Mohr began to see a pattern in her work as an expert in leadership: women with tremendous talent, ideas and aspiration were not recognising their own brilliance. They felt that they were playing small' in their lives and careers and wanted to play bigger', but didn't know how. And so Tara devised a step-by-step programme for playing big from the inside out: this book is the result. Many women are aware of the changes they need to make to be more successful, but they don't know how to become that more confident woman they'd like to be. Playing Big provides real, practical to