Also visibility of us. Right? So I think we can I think we can slowly start as as people are coming?So, Niti, I will I will just go off camera so the floor is yours so I can begin.

Hello. Hello, everyone. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening to all of you. I'm very excited to be here and to be speaking with all of you today. My name is Niti Jain, and I'm the global talent leader for growth and innovation at I work very closely with our growth and innovation executive leadership team on creation and deployment of talent strategies across all of our functions in the growth and innovation pillar, which is actually focused on driving the next phase of growth at e y.

These are functions like client technology, applied innovation, alliances and ecosystems, managed services, smart delivery, and AI. I also lead inclusiveness, culture, and careers for EVI's executive functions. At EVI, we operate at a global scale with over 400,000 people across more than one fifty countries, and technology is at the core of how we help our clients transform and grow. We combine deep industry expertise with capabilities across AI, data, and cloud supported by significant investment and a strong ecosystem of alliances. Increasingly, our focus is on how we can bring technology to life by connecting our platforms and solutions to real client problems and embedding them into data ways of working. Our culture is underpinned by teaming and collaboration, inclusion, advancing our people's careers, and ensuring that we create an exceptional experience for all our people at We're also focused on creating an ecosystem where everyone can thrive and achieve their potential. And today's conversation is gonna focus on two such critical pillars that enable our people to succeed and achieve their potential.

Now in today's environment, we spend a lot of time talking about performance, about potential, about pipelines. But one of the most powerful levers, would say, behind all these is often something which is much less formal and far more personal. It is how we choose to invest in our people, not just through structured programs or periodic conversations, but through actions that are consistent, through guidance to our people, how we challenge them, and how we create access. Now this is what mentorship and sponsorship mean, and this is where mentorship and sponsorship come in. They are two very distinct roles, but they are often used interchangeably, but they have very different impacts. Our discussion today will be all about unpacking this difference and more importantly, what it really takes to show up as a mentor and as a sponsor in a way that meaningfully accelerates people's careers.

Because in the end, leadership isn't just about delivering outcomes. It's about building people who can go further than we did. I'll move on to our agenda for today, which is the next slide. So we'll walk through four parts. We will speak about building capabilities through mentorship, shaping careers through sponsorship, clearing up the mentor versus sponsor versus coach versus manager language, and then look at a few actions that you can use right away. Quick definitions to level set because I know these are terms, like I said, that are used interchangeably. We hear these in everyday conversations. But like I said, these roles, each of them is very different and has a very different impact. A mentor is someone who builds skills. A sponsor is someone who uses influence to open doors.

A coach is someone who improves performance on very specific articulated goals, and a counselor or a manager is someone who sets direction and creates condition for success. As we move through the session, I would like to invite you to reflect on some key ideas that we'll be discussing during this session, and I'm happy to take questions once we have covered the slides. And this actually takes me to my reflection question one. As you think about your own teams, where do you feel stronger today? On mentoring or on sponsoring? And where do you want to be more intentional? This is just a question for your own reflection today and later, but, yeah, something to something to think about. Moving to our next slide, we'll talk about mentorship, how it shapes capabilities. And in this section, we will focus on mentorship as a practical way to build capability and accelerate growth.

We'll walk through what effective mentorship looks like day to day and what outcomes it should create for individuals and teams. If we move to the next slide, mentorship helps people recognize and grow into their potential. Now I think of mentorship as an active partnership where you set direction, you give and get honest feedback, and create opportunities that build new skills. Indira Noohi describes mentorship beautifully. She says mentorship is about helping people see what they can be. And when they see what they can be, confidence goes up, performance improves, and capability can scale beyond the individual. Next, we'll translate this into specific behaviors and routines that actually make mentorship effective.

If we go to the next slide, mentorship is how we grow people faster and with more intention. It's not just support. It's leadership in action. A strong mentor will help the mentee get clarity on development priorities. They will connect their work today to the bigger picture. They will turn goals into a practical plan. They will create stretch opportunities for their mentees and challenge the mentee to do their best and achieve their potential. But what it takes is consistency and follow through, regular check ins, confidentiality around the conversation, a nonjudgmental stance so that the conversation and development stays real. At we recognize the importance of mentorship and encourage formal mentorship programs where we invite our our leaders who are interested in mentoring and providing opportunities to mentees. And then mentees come in and select from an available group of mentors.

Although the relationship then actually develops organically and that's how it develops the best, what we provide is essentially a framework, access, and facilitate the process for our people. And this brings me to our reflection question two. Where do you see your mentees if you have mentees? Otherwise, where do you see yourself as a mentee needing the most clarity right now around your skills, around the options that you have in terms of opportunities, or confidence? What is that one stretch opportunity that you can open for your mentees, say, in the next six months? Or you would want your mentor to open for you in the next six months. Just some thoughts just some thoughts, questions to think about. Moving on to the next slide, let me talk a little bit about sponsorship here. Now sponsorship is what speeds careers up.

Strong performance plus someone senior actively advocating for you. Quick contrast, mentoring is guidance, development, advice. Sponsorship is visibility and opportunity. I'll share some interesting data points with you to, build context further. Sponsored talent is 53% more likely to be promoted, and mid level employees with sponsors are one sixty seven percent more likely to get attention and stretch assignments. A strong sponsor relationship is built on trust and not just affinity. It can even work when people have different styles or completely different backgrounds as long as there

is

trust. On retention, the sponsor effect is very real again. 85 percent of working mothers with sponsors actually stay with their organizations versus a 58% without, which is a 27% sponsor effect. As we move to the next slide, I want us to think about these questions. What is sponsorship? Now, these are some definitions that are available from various organizations. At Evi, we define sponsorship as advocacy from an influential leader on behalf of a high performing individual, someone whose potential you believe in and you're willing to put your reputation behind. Now this piece is crucial. Sponsorship requires visibility, risk, and accountability from you. We also run formal sponsorship programs actually at where we encourage leaders to identify sponsors whose careers they would then like to sponsor and be intentional about it.

We spoke about this earlier. Very important to be intentional. Now sponsorship also many a times, and we see this more often, that this is also a relationship that would develop organically. But as an organization, we can do a lot in terms of providing our people the framework and then help them provide access, create that ecosystem where such relationships can thrive. Harvard Business Review reinforces this and emphasizes active support by someone who can influence decisions. Catalyst actually takes it a step further. It says sponsorship is a power based relationship with high stakes for the sponsor, the sponsor, and the organization. When we bring all these definitions together, the message is clear. Sponsorship is about using your positional power to create opportunities, not just give advice.

It's intentional, visible, tied to real career outcomes, and leaders are well placed to make that difference. Let's move to the next slide. I want you to just think about these questions in the light of what we've discussed. Who spoke about you when you were not in the room? Who would vouch for you if a stretch role came up tomorrow, and who would vouch for you in decision in rooms where decisions are being made about projects, about rules, about progression, promotion, career advancement? Who would use their influence to create real opportunities for you? Who is that one person who put your name forward or made an intro, opened the door, or backed you for a role? Sponsorship shows up when decisions are being made and someone uses their credibility and social capital on your behalf.

We spoke about how sponsors really use their reputation, their credibility to put your career forward. This brings me to our next reflective question, which is also another question. Some of it we've just spoken about, but take time to think about your own experience. Who sponsored you? What did they do specifically, and what changed because of their actions? Describe the action and think about its impact. Moving on to the next slide. Another very interesting aspect of sponsorship is reciprocity. Sponsorship runs on trust and mutual value, and this is what actually also differentiates sponsorship from mentorship and some of the other roles that we spoke about. Both people should come out stronger. A quick example, Larry Summers opened doors for Sheryl Sandberg. She delivered.

She performed, delivered, and later, she bagged him publicly when he, was not going through a great time in his career and needed someone to stand up for him in public. Now that's the give and get in action. To make it real, a sponsor is placing a prayer bet. If the prodigy wins, the sponsor often wins too because there are better outcomes, there is more influence, there is more reputation. Takes me to our next reflection question. Where have you seen a win win sponsorship relationship work well in your organization. Perhaps you've experienced it yourself too. Next, we'll talk a little bit about the different roles that exist as the support ecosystem for people's careers. Moving to the next slide. I did mention right at the start of, our session that we will talk a little bit about manager and coach as well. We spoke about mentors and sponsors.

Let's see what sets all these roles apart because these roles do form an important part of the entire career support ecosystem for an individual. Moving to the next slide. Now all these four roles, they have a a you know, these are very these four roles are all different, and they have a very specific impact in how they can help develop and support talent. Understanding these differences is critical because, like I mentioned earlier as well, each of these roles carries a different level of responsibility, influence, and impact on someone's career. A mentor we spoke is someone who can guide you through the organization or your career. A coach will help build specific skills. A lot of us might have already experienced executive coaching or coaching, where we have a specific goal that we want to achieve, and the coach helps us with specific skills or behaviors that we want to develop. A counselor or a manager is really someone who focuses on our performance goals, development planning. This is within the formal performance framework in any organization.

But a sponsor is different, and a sponsor advocates for you. So advocacy, I would say, is is something that really differentiates the sponsor from all of the other roles that we spoke about. Yeah? Okay. Moving to the next slide. Alright. Now that we've understood, you know, what a sponsor, mentor, coach, and a manager role really entails, let's take this from intent to impact, real action on the ground. How can you become an effective mentor or sponsor? Or if you have a mentor or sponsor, then how does one really move towards ensuring that that relationship is is really sort of building or moving towards providing effective outcomes? If we move to the next slide, let's talk about the intentional behaviors of a sponsor. Now effective sponsorship is not just a single action.

It's a series of intentional behaviors, which open doors, which create visibility, and they accelerate progression. Now what you see here is essentially nine practical building blocks which illustrate what meaningful sponsorship actually looks like. Now it's also important to note that a sponsor could actually work across the spectrum. So really saying that only if someone were able to get someone promoted in a particular year or advance their career in a particular year, were they successful? No. Not really because it is a series of actions that are building towards the ultimate outcome of career advancement. The sponsor provides air cover. This means the sponsor empowers the cap sponsees to take risks, innovate, stretch.

They are ready to defend them in front of stakeholders, skeptical stakeholders, and that's where the seniority of a sponsor actually protects the sponsor. Sponsors, they expand horizons. Now a lot of times, sponsors may not be able to, see yet what's possible, encouraging them to consider opportunities that are really stretch assignments, global mobility assignments, leading a new work stream can actually fundamentally shift their career trajectory. Sponsors connect talent to power networks, inviting your into leadership roundtables, industry events, giving them access, they simply can't create on their own. And these networks, they matter enormously for career development. Fourth, sponsors elevate visibility. Something as simple as highlighting achievements in a leadership meeting or in firm wide forums, or in performance assessment roundtables. Sponsors create growth opportunities. This could be one of the most transformational actions where a sponsor can actually enable a more stretch assignment, or a high profile project, or working on a major client relationship.

Sponsors can actually also help sponsors develop executive presence. They can connect them to clients. Sometimes a warm introduction to a key decision maker during a pitch can actually shift the complete career trajectory, widen the network of a sponsor. Offer honest feedback. Obviously, sponsors offer honest feedback because this and this should be constructive, actionable feedback, particularly, say, on leadership style or a skill gap, something that sponsors may not be able to get elsewhere. And finally, you advocate for promotion or career advancement. Now this is the moment when sponsorship could become very tangible in terms of an outcome where a sponsor can actually champion readiness in calibration discussions using their influence to ensure that achievements are are appreciated and recognized. Together, I would say all of these building blocks, they show that sponsorship is not abstract. It's concrete, visible. It's it's rooted in in leadership actions.

Moving on to our next slide. Now this is a very simple framework, just a five step framework to help sponsors have meaningful outcome driven conversations with their sponsors. Starts with clarifying career aspirations, strengths, development areas, which becomes which the sponsees would have picked up through various discussions and, you know, over a period of time to constructive feedback. Clarifying career aspirations will really be the very first step about the the sponsor sponsee relationship. Discussing visibility and access, what do you have today? Where do you want to be? Like we said, open doors, help sponsors, help sponsors by using their influence. Setting goals and actions, agree on next steps and how the sponsor will support. Clear goals and actions, they create accountability and momentum. Track progress, celebrate wins, and invite feedback and reflection. It is important to keep strengthening the relationship through open feedback because feedback would also help sponsors grow.

We spoke about how sponsors and sponsees have to both emerge successful, from this relationship. So a very basic five step framework that can actually be applied to all conversations that sponsors are having with their sponsors. Moving on to a similar framework for if we can move to the next slide. What do strong mentors and empowered mentees do? As you can see, the headline here is simple. Strong mentoring needs both sides to show up well too. Capable mentors, empowered mentees. Now on the mentor side, it is about setting direction, giving clear feedback, create enough safety for honest conversation. On the mentee's side, be prepared, be clear on your goals, Ask for feedback. Follow through. Again, momentum matters.

So this is essentially what mentors and mentees can do to further build on on their relationship, that we are, moving towards successful outcomes. Moving on to our next slide, which is actually inviting you for questions.

Thank you, Nidhi. We see some very nice questions in chat. We have still four minutes. And by the way, welcome everyone to discussion. Feel free to post your questions in chat or join the site. We can have a conversation. And I can already find a nice one. So Ankita Gupta, thank you for your question. How can we get someone to sponsor us? What do you think?

That's a that's a great question. Sorry. I think the simplest and the most straightforward answer to this, Ankita, is looking for someone who is aware of your performance and potential and just walking up to them and talking to them about being your sponsor. When I say someone who's aware of your performance and potential, someone you've worked with very closely. And usually, your manager or the leader you work with will be the best person to actually sponsor your career. At the same time, it becomes extremely important for us to be sure of who we are asking to sponsor us because there is a lot of positional power, credibility, social capital that this sponsor is going to be using for you. And, therefore, that relationship built on trust, built on, you know, collective success, and their understanding of your performance and potential becomes very important.

So in my view, although I did share that at EYE, we run formal programs where, you know, we have sponsors. We encourage sponsors to resensitize them. We encourage them to look at high performing, high potential employees and their teams and formally start a sponsoring relationship. If you do not have that opportunity, reaching out to someone you want to be sponsored by is the best way to to start this or initiate this.

Thank you so much. And we have time for one more question. We have a question from Cassandra about how to maintain a mentorship's relationship when you are not really planning to moving on in your career at the moment, but you just want to keep the relationship going. What would you recommend?

Strong recommendation, even if you're not planning to make any moves in, you know, immediately, We all talk about the power of networks and the power of relationships. And mentorship and sponsorship, again, continue I mean, a very important relationships to support you in your career. Whether you're planning to move now or planning to move later, development and learning is something that should always continue. I'm sure you'll have enough to work on, today so that when tomorrow the opportunity arises and you're ready and looking to move on, you are already sort of ready from a skills, experience, and capability perspective. So even if you're not planning to move now, work on your mentoring relationships, continue to develop yourself, continue to have those conversations with your mentors so that they can actually help you develop as you move towards your next career move whenever that is.

That's an excellent advice, and I can also confirm that it's great to keep the keep the relationship going and also keep yourself visible. So so the opportunities when they come, you're ready for them. And we have do we have one more minute for a question one last question from Ankita? Do you think? Or Sure. Sure. Sure. So one last quick question. I don't think I can spotlight it anymore. I have some issue with connection, it seems. But the question was, should you ask a person or your manager to become your sponsor? How does

it really work? Yes. Yes. Of course. Like I said, your manager or someone you work with who's aware of your performance and potential is the best person to sponsor your career. So talking to your manager, talking to them about sponsoring your career is really the best way to look for a sponsor. Unless you feel that in your network, your professional network, at work, there are other people who will know your work and your potential even better than your manager and will be in a position of power and influence to actually play the role of a sponsor. But, yes, your manager, if they have the right positioning and influence, could actually be the best sponsor.

Thank you so much.

Seniority of a sponsor matters a lot. Seniority and the positional power and influence that your sponsor has matters a lot. It's the it's the foundation of a strong sponsoring relationship.

Thank you so much. Great advice. Thank you so much for the session, Niti, and thank you everyone for joining. And what I can already say, please join our eway booth. Our recruiters will be there for you if you have any questions about our careers, opportunities, also programs. As Nidhi mentioned, we have mentorship programs. So this is something that could be very interesting for you to to ask.

Thank you very much, and all the best to all of you. Thank you. I Thank you.