{"id":588,"date":"2010-06-28T11:48:43","date_gmt":"2010-06-28T16:48:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.watermarklearning.com\/blog\/?p=588"},"modified":"2024-08-23T15:13:59","modified_gmt":"2024-08-23T20:13:59","slug":"are-you-my-sponsor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.watermarklearning.com\/blog\/are-you-my-sponsor\/","title":{"rendered":"Are You My Sponsor?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"iStock_000006230006XSmall\"In the popular children\u2019s book A Mother for Choco<\/a>, a baby bird goes looking for its mother.\u00a0 He stops and asks Mrs. Giraffe, Mrs. Walrus, and others \u201cAre you my mommy?\u201d\u00a0 But to no avail.\u00a0 None of these potential mommies looks like Choco and so he is left alone and very sad and begins to cry, \u201cMommy, mommy, I need a mommy!\u201d<\/p>\n

Finally, Mrs. Bear comes along and asks \u201cIf you had a mommy, what would she do?\u201d\u00a0 Choco explains that his mommy would give him hugs and kisses, sing and dance with him to cheer him up, etc.\u00a0 When Mrs. Bear suggests that she could be his mommy, he happily goes home with Mrs. Bear and meets her other children, his new brothers and sisters: Ally (a baby alligator), Hippy (a baby hippo), and piggy (a baby piggy).\u00a0 (Lemme tell ya – Hallmark commercials have nothing on this book when it comes to bringing me to tears.)<\/p>\n

For us adoptive parents, this is a favorite story because we define ourselves as parents not by our biological relationships and how much our children look like us, but by our emotional and personal relationships, how we treat each other and meet each others\u2019 needs.\u00a0 Love, not blood, makes us good mommies and daddies.<\/p>\n

How many project managers feel like Choco, wandering corporate halls looking not for a mommy, but a sponsor, asking \u201cAre you my sponsor?\u201d<\/p>\n

What exactly are these PMs looking for?\u00a0 What do their sponsors need to \u201clook\u201d like?\u00a0 Who should their sponsor be?<\/p>\n

Too often, like Choco, we think sponsors need to \u201clook\u201d a certain way.\u00a0 Unlike Choco, however, project managers are typically looking for someone who doesn\u2019t look like them: sponsors need to be \u201chigher\u201d than they are.<\/p>\n

And that is quite true.\u00a0 Whether it\u2019s resolving cross-functional conflict, securing resources, or championing a project at all levels of the organization, a peer isn\u2019t going to be able to help you with the things that you need from a sponsor.<\/p>\n

But sponsors don\u2019t have to look a certain way.\u00a0 They don\u2019t have to have a particular title, work in a particular office, or have certain letters after their name to be effective sponsors.\u00a0 Commitment and availability, not position, make us good sponsors.<\/p>\n

I remember a student in\u00a0one of my\u00a0Project Management Fundamentals <\/a>classes who suggested that her company\u2019s CEO was the sponsor of all of her projects.\u00a0 After all, she explained, that\u2019s whose name was in the box labeled sponsor.\u00a0 Now, this was at a Fortune 100 company and she was a novice project manager.\u00a0 Upon hearing this, I thought to myself \u201cI\u2019ll bet you\u2019re good, but I\u2019ll bet you\u2019re not that good.\u201d\u00a0 I\u2019m fairly certain the CEO of that company did not have regularly-scheduled meetings with her to be updated on the project status.\u00a0 In fact, I\u2019ll even go out on a limb here and suggest that he probably didn\u2019t even have a clue who she was.<\/p>\n

So, unfortunately, that project manager didn\u2019t have a sponsor; she had a name in a box.<\/p>\n

Who makes for a good sponsor isn\u2019t so much a function of what they \u201clook\u201d like, i.e., where they sit on the organization chart or whether or not they get invited to the executive 3-day offsite meetings.\u00a0 It\u2019s more about their ability to \u201cdo\u201d what it is the project manager needs from them.\u00a0\u00a0 My last article, What\u2019s on Your Sponsorship Short List?<\/a>, highlighted some of the things project managers may need from sponsors.\u00a0 The answer as to who will make the best sponsor must start there.<\/p>\n

For example, if capital acquisition isn\u2019t a component of a project, a sponsor may not need to be someone with a say in budgetary expenditures.\u00a0\u00a0 Or, perhaps a project in which the project manager is relatively new to the organization and may need more assistance with navigating political terrain may benefit from a sponsor who is a little \u201ccloser to home\u201d on the org chart.<\/p>\n

Regardless of what is needed from the sponsor, there is one thing that every sponsor must be able to do for any project manager on any project: Be willing and available to develop a real, working relationship with the project manager.\u00a0 Whoever management decides is the best person to sponsor a project, it must be someone who will actually make time on a regular basis to meet with the project manager and to consume information about the project in order to do what is needed from them.\u00a0 A name in a box on a project management plan cover page does not a sponsor make.<\/p>\n

In fact, I would rather have a \u201creal\u201d sponsor who is less senior but actually interested and engaged in the project and able to meet my needs, than have a senior executive who will never have time for me — even if it means that my sponsor may have to run some things up the chain of command for decisions periodically.\u00a0 Those time delays are likely to be significantly less than the project inertia that results from an absent, disinterested sponsor.<\/p>\n

So, sponsor assigners: When deciding who should sponsor organizational projects, don\u2019t make Chocos out of your project managers!\u00a0 Find out: What does Choco need and who is the Mrs. Bear who will be available and interested in making sure he gets that?<\/p>\n

Because project managers of sponsorless projects wandering the halls may not be a sight that brings anyone to tears, but it is pitiful \u2013 and avoidable.<\/p>\n

Next, Project Sponsorship \u2013 Strategies for Increasing Sponsorship Success.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the popular children\u2019s book A Mother for Choco, a baby bird goes looking for its mother.\u00a0 He stops and asks Mrs. Giraffe, Mrs. Walrus, and others \u201cAre you my mommy?\u201d\u00a0 But to no avail.\u00a0 None of these potential mommies looks like Choco and so he is left alone and very sad and begins to 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