女性晋升捷径：给自己找个担保人

    IBM公司全球商业服务业务高级副总裁布里吉特•范•克拉林根（位列《财富》“最具影响力女性”排行榜第23位）以自身职业生涯两个不同时间节点的故事，为我们阐述了导师和担保人的区别。

    当她首次加入德勤咨询公司（Deloitte Consulting）时，从南非的老家搬到了美国。“纽约一位年轻的合伙人示意我坐下，然后说，‘布里吉特，你拥有巨大的潜力，但你有些过于谦和了。’那的确是非常好的指导意见！”她说。“它帮助我理解了文化的差异，我很快就适应了。”她最终成为德勤咨询公司金融服务业务管理合伙人。

    2004年，范•克拉林根进入IBM公司。自1916年老托马斯•沃森创建IBM以来，“导师制”就一直是该公司管理培训的组成部分。CEO吉尼•罗曼提（位列最具影响力女性排行榜首位）曾经正式或非正式地指导过数十位男女员工，她自身职业生涯几次关键的晋升也与其导师的贡献密不可分。

    范•克拉林根回忆称，在这家绰号为“蓝色巨人（Big Blue）”的公司，“一位担保人推举我担任欧洲和非洲金融服务业务的负责人——尽管我欠缺在IBM的工作经验。正是他的鼎力支持，最终才说服了公司高层，冒险启用我出任这个职务。”

    换言之，导师帮助人们做好升职的前期准备，而担保则促使升职实实在在地发生。对于任何一位渴望出人头地的公司职员来说，两者都“极其重要”，范•克拉林根说。一条不太好的消息是：虽然大多数大型公司现在都在实施员工指导项目，而且在具备擢升为管理高层潜质的员工群体中，拥有多位导师的女性员工数量已经超过了男性。但根据非营利性研究机构Catalyst公司的调查，自1998年以来，女性在高级管理人员中所占的比重几乎没有发生变化，仅仅从当时的11.2% 提升到了现在的15.7%。

    根据Catalyst公司一项针对4,000位男女MBA的研究，出现这种情况的一大原因在于，男性获得有影响力的担保人的几率依然高于女性。“相对于男性同僚，具有升职潜能的女性员工虽然拥有多位导师，但愿意为她们作保的人却严重不足，”Catalyst公司高级主管克里斯蒂娜•席尔瓦指出。“如果没有引路人，女性员工就不大可能被委以重任，或许也就更不愿意去追逐这些高级职位了。”

    由于帮助下属升职需要一位高管动用自己的政治资本，用他或她自身的声誉去冒险，为某人充当担保人的风险要远高于提供指导意见。“所谓担保就是一位有影响力的人士愿意信誓旦旦地拍胸脯为你作保，”克莱尔•法利指出。法利女士曾经以德士古公司（Texaco）北美石油和天然气勘探业务主管的身份，跻身1998年“最具影响力女性”排行榜。她之所以能够在30多岁的时候就担任如此重要的职位，一定程度上应归功于一位位高权重的担保人。她现在著名的私募股权基金KKR公司担任董事总经理。

    “提前了解一个人的领导潜能几乎是不可能的事情。有些高管能从下属身上看到自己年轻时的影子，因此愿意为他们作保，这或许仅仅是人的本能而已。因此，男性往往倾向于为其他男性充当担保人，”法利补充说。

    Bridget Van Kralingen, senior vice president of global business services at IBM (andNo. 23 on our list of Most Powerful Women), tells two stories, from different points in her career, that illustrate the difference between a mentor and a sponsor.

    When she first joined Deloitte Consulting, she also moved from her native South Africa to the U.S. "A young partner in New York sat me down and said, 'Bridget, you have tremendous potential, but you're way too nice and polite.' That was great mentoring!" she says. "It helped me understand the cultural differences. I quickly adapted." She eventually became managing partner of Deloitte's financial services business.

    Then, in 2004, Van Kralingen joined IBM (IBM), which has included mentoring as part of its management training since Thomas Watson, Sr. founded the company in 1916. CEO Ginni Rometty, who tops our list, has mentored dozens of women and men, both formally and informally, and credits mentors for several key promotions in her own career.

    At Big Blue, Van Kralingen recalls, "I had a sponsor who recommended me to run the financial services part of IBM's business consulting services in Europe and Africa -- in spite of my lack of IBM experience. His advocacy both helped IBM to take a risk on me and helped me navigate the job."

    Mentoring, in other words, prepares people to move up, while sponsorship makes it happen. Both are "critically important," says Van Kralingen, to anyone aspiring to get ahead. The not-so-great news: Most big companies now have embraced mentoring and, in the high-potential pipeline that leads to senior management, more women than men have had multiple mentors. Yet the percentage of senior executives who are female has barely budged since 1998, creeping up from 11.2% then to 15.7% now, according to nonprofit research group Catalyst.

    A big reason why that's so, according to one Catalyst study of 4,000 MBAs of both sexes, is that men are still more likely than women to have powerful sponsors. "High-potential women are overmentored and undersponsored, relative to their male peers," observes Christine Silva, a Catalyst senior director. "Without sponsorship, women not only are less likely than men to be appointed to top roles, but may also be more reluctant to go for them."

    Because it requires a senior executive to spend his or her own political capital, and put his or her own credibility on the line, to give an underling a leg up, sponsoring someone is far riskier than mentoring them. "A sponsor is someone influential who will pound the table for you," notes Claire Farley, who appeared on our 1998 list as head of North American oil and gas exploration at Texaco (since merged with Chevron (CVX)) -- a job she took on while still in her 30s, thanks partly to a high-ranking sponsor. She's now a managing director at private-equity powerhouse KKR (KKR) in Houston.

    Farley adds: "There is so much that is impossible to know ahead of time about anyone's leadership potential, it's probably just human nature for people to sponsor people who remind them of their younger selves. So men tend to sponsor other men."