18 What’s the Difference Between a Mentor and a Sponsor?

by Janice Omadeke

Mentorship and sponsorship are powerful tools for personal success and building stronger workforces. Although they are related to one another and share some similarities, they are not, as most people sometimes assume, the same thing. In reality, sponsorship can grow from a productive mentor-mentee relationship.

What is mentorship?

In a work setting, mentorship is a relationship between someone sharing knowledge and providing guidance (the mentor) and someone learning from that person’s experience and example (the mentee).

Most of the time, the mentor is older and the mentee is younger—perhaps new to the workforce—but mentorship can exist and thrive in any situation ...

Get Bosses, Coworkers, and Building Great Work Relationships (HBR Work Smart Series) now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.