You now need to begin to build a list of potential sponsors. Who are the key people who can help you to achieve your reputational impact? In effect, sponsors and advocates are the people who you need to sing your praises. You can’t do it all yourself and the more senior people you have saying hugely positive things about you (to other powerful people), the faster you will move. Ideally, your sponsors should be:
- Powerful and influential in key parts of the organisation.
- Known and recognised as credible in most parts of the organisation.
- Hold a significant position within the organisational hierarchy.
- Well established within the organisation and politically robust.
- Regarded by many as being successful.
- Working in an area/division which is regarded as successful (relative to others).
- Potential users and beneficiaries of what you have to offer.
Exercise
Review the work you did in the previous exercises about your context. Work through each group you studied and try to identify people who meet many of the criteria above. Few will meet all, and many you will not know well enough to rate them — just work as best you can making intelligent guesses.It would have been easy to also add that they are accessible and also amenable to your reputation — however, that is the goal that you need to be working towards now. In order to build a strategy to increase the amount of sponsorship you have for your reputation:
- Once you have a list, select four or five people to target initially. You might like to give yourself an easy time and select people you already know, or at least have easy access to. Alternatively, set yourself a challenge and target the most useful people you don’t already know.
- For each individual you have chosen, think hard about the benefits you can potentially bring to them. This may be obvious in terms of helping to solve their problems and challenges. If you know their personal agenda, you might be able to find more innovative (and motivational) benefits.
- Finally, review each person against the 21 Ways to Increase Your Visibility and develop an engagement plan. How are you going to connect with them and give them the opportunity to see you at your best, and buy-in completely to what you are capable of doing?
If you are still feeling unsure about where to go next, start with the related reading below. There are no easy short cuts with this. You have to invest the time and energy into networking with these people to build their support. By following the process above, you will gain a greater return on your investment by making sure you focus on those who have the most potential to give your reputation more power within the organisation.
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