ABSTRACT
In layman's terms, a leadership sponsor is one who uses their experience, influence and skillset to leverage situations for the benefit of others. In order for advocacy to work, the right people must be present, linked and motivated to advocate for something other than themselves. Thus, sponsors are the grease for the skids that ensure advocacy is successful. When ideal sponsors are present and active, the leadership journey can be much easier. A large service organization began to experience operational declines for consecutive years. Thus, the revolving door in the top leadership ranks began to spin. But, the enterprise was experiencing top leadership turnover nearly double the industry average. With the outflow of leaders and the global organizational restructure both occurring at the same time, many leadership gaps and gray areas formed. Team members with long standing working relationships began to compete against each other unhealthily which eroded cohesiveness, trust, synergy and outcomes even further.
