Sponsorship vs mentorship

There's a lot of talk about mentorship, and rightfully so. We need more experienced people to help us navigate the shoals of the workplace early in our careers so we don't stick our feet in our mouth or somewhere even worse.A few people took me under their wings early in my career and helped me from making a bigger mess of certain aspects than I otherwise would have. All my mentors were unofficial, however, and I could have really used someone to talk to about decisions I'd make before I made them. It would have saved me a lot. But there are other methods of being a mentor that can be just as effective and helpful.I've been thinking about this after reading an excellent post from Cate Huston the other day, "Sponsorship can start small." Before opening the link, I thought it was going to be about getting sponsorship for her blog or newsletter (sign up, it's great!), but I was wrong. It was about a different way of looking at mentorship.Sponsorship, Cate explained, can be as simple as giving an excellent book on management to a new manager. Take it further, you can bring someone along into a private online community where folks share important and useful ideas and experiences. You can pay for a webinar, or provide other opportunities for your mentee - your sponsee? - to learn.This doesn't mean breaking the bank. These can be small things. It can be a $10 book or a $25 webinar, or even a free community. The idea (to me, at least) is that you provide something of value to this person rather than just your brainpower. There are tons of things that people we mentor need that we cannot provide them - sometimes the thing we can't give them is time.The idea that we can sponsor younger co-workers rather than simply mentor them is extremely attractive to me, and something I'd like to put into practice - in the end, I think it has potential to be more valuable for both mentor and mentee.Photo via StockUnlimited.