Corporate Executive Justin Grant wants to see more Black executives sponsor people within their community.
Sponsorship allows an individual in a higher position than you to advocate for you in rooms with the goal of helping your career reach new heights, unlike mentorship, which typically is intended for skill building and obtaining more knowledge.
“You want your boss’s peers in other departments to know who you are and to be in your network and to be folks that will, when your name comes up, when they’re deciding who to promote or who to give the bigger bonus to. ‘Yeah, I know that person. I vouch for them.’ So I think that’s the distinction,” Grant said on the “Black Tech Green Money” podcast hosted by AFROTECH™ Brand Manager Will Lucas.
Grant credits three white individuals for serving as executive sponsors throughout his career and speaks to an alarming trend that he witnessed that has prompted a call to action. He notes that Black executives have been less inclined to open doors for Black talent. He urges them to change this now more than ever, especially in the rise of pushbacks in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts, which is being seen at the federal level with executive orders signed by Trump to remove DEI-related programs and offices and industries including entertainment, tech, retail, which are dismantling DEI programs or rebranding it to benefit the needs of all groups rather than keeping the goal posts on underserved groups.
“There are nuances for Black talent. I’ve had three executive sponsors in my career; all three were white men, and I will always be grateful to them. And this is the other challenge in doing research from my book [“Company Men: A Wellness Guide for Black Men in Corporate America”]. One of the most unfortunate things that I discovered is that sometimes Black executives don’t want to sponsor Black talent out of fear of seeming like they’re just trying to put other Black people on. That’s a challenge,” Grant explained on the podcast. “And so I’m issuing a challenge to leaders out there, particularly in this environment where we seem to be going the other way on inclusion. Don’t be shy about sponsoring somebody that is a person from a marginalized population.”
