Helen
Tubb
Leadership Advisor & Speaker at HT Consulting
"What Top Leaders Get Wrong About Talent Sponsorship"
"What Top Leaders Get Wrong About Talent Sponsorship"
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Session: What Top Leaders Get Wrong About Talent Sponsorship
Most executives think talent sponsorship is charity - a nice-to-have gesture to "pay it forward" in developing women and underrepresented talent. This misconception is killing leadership development and stalling cultural transformation in tech. As organisations scramble to meet ESG mandates and combat talent flight, leaders who dismiss sponsorship behaviours and mindsets as altruism are missing today's most powerful leadership accelerator. Senior executives face mounting pressure to deliver diverse pipelines while developing their own leadership capabilities in a highly turbulent business environment. Helen Tubb reveals how sponsorship transforms sponsors themselves - sharpening cultural awareness, boosting emotional intelligence, and driving measurable career and business impact. When leaders actively sponsor different talent, they outperform peers by significant margins.Key Takeaways
- Business case for the sponsorship ROI
- Sponsorship benefits for executive leaders, backed by real examples from tech and beyond
- Tangible strategies for building sponsorship into leadership development, succession planning and talent management
Bio
Helen Tubb is a global expert in sponsorship-driven leadership, specialising in transforming talent pipelines through systematic advocacy. A former VP with 8-figure P&Ls and Managing Director across two continents, she holds distinction-awarded INSEAD research on the human dynamics of sponsorship and founded her boutique consulting to serve clients in this untapped field. Her proprietary Sponsorship Rings framework shifts thinking and action for aspiring talent, established leaders and organisations as a whole. Drawing from her own executive journey, overcoming personal adversity and being 'the only woman in the room', Helen challenges classic training and sponsorship-versus-mentoring narratives. Her talks call on executives to embed sponsorship as a core leadership competence and strategic KPI to build inclusive cultures and accelerate diverse leadership pipelines.