Mentorship and Sponsorship Front and Center at Learning from Leaders Event

In the Broadway musical “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying,” young J. Pierrepont Finch rises through the ranks of the World Wide Wicket Co. with the help of a book. In the real world it takes a lot more.

“I think nothing teaches as much as listening and doing and being a part of it,” said Audrey Gregory, executive vice president and CEO, AdventHealth Eastern Florida. Gregory, along with Denyse Bales Chubb, CEO AdventHealth Flagler/St. Johns Market, spoke at the latest EVOVLE Communication Group’s Learning from Leaders Series event on “Women in Business: From Mentorship to Sponsorship.”

“I’ve always had a mentor,” Gregory said in response to a question from EVOLVE News publisher Howard Holley, who served as moderator at the early morning event at the St. Johns County Convention Center. “The sponsors are the ones who are not always in your personal life but are there guiding. They’re not only the ones who guide you, they’re in the rooms that you’re not.”

Chubb said it is also important for successful people to be mentors and sponsors themselves.

“When you’re in the role to be a sponsor, be a sponsor,” she said, “particularly when you’re a women and a person of color, the sponsorship is even more important.”

Chubb said mentorship and sponsorship have had a strong impact on her own career. Recalling the time when her husband was a hospital CEO and she was working her way through the ranks, he encouraged her to take the next step.

“He was very instrumental, along with the boss I had at the time,” she said. Overcoming doubts is especially important for women, Chubb said, calling it “a barrier we have to overcome.”

Gregory and Chubb also see a responsibility to be mentors and sponsors not only to help develop careers but to maintain the health of the organization.

“My job is to continue to grow leaders within the organization,” Chubb said. “The organization has to foster that kind of relationship. It doesn’t happen naturally.”

Gregory said mentoring and sponsoring are also important in finding talent for an organization.

“There is the belief that the more you open the aperture and the more people you have at the table, the more successful you’ll be,” she said, and that includes finding people with different perspectives.

“There is an intentionality about it that is required to drive the culture,” Gregory said.

Asked by Holley what career advice they had for women, Chubb said continuing to learn is key.

“Always be curious; always ask the question,” she said. “We need to look to our mentors and look to our sponsors because they are there to help us. It’s okay to second guess, but don’t let it stop you.”

For Gregory the answer was to be present.

“Raise your hand,” she said. “Don’t be embarrassed to learn and ask for help.”