To get ahead, it's time to seek out sponsors, not justmentors.

That was just one key takeaway from the Filene ResearchInstitute and World Council of Credit Unions Women's Colloquium onLeadership held recently at the University of SouthernCalifornia.

According to Kathleen O'Connor, a management professor atCornell University in New York, the difference represented a shiftin the paradigm from someone to consult with to someone spendingpolitical capital lobbying for your next raise, promotion or newjob.

The June 19 gathering in Los Angeles was held in conjunctionwith Filene and WOCCU releasing the results of a year-long study onthe challenges women face in credit union management.

O'Connor's session at USC focused on the distinction that whilementors offered advice and encouragement, sponsors not only didthat but also used their influence with senior executives toadvocate for their mentees.

The Ivy League professor added that mentees must also bringvalue into the sponsorship relationship in terms of potential anddrive. As mentees move up, they too could then pay it forward toothers.

O'Connor, associate professor of management at the JohnsonGraduate School of Management at Cornell University, urged women toexpand their networks by finding sponsors.

Given that the majority of senior leadership roles are held bymen, O'Connor advised women to include men as potential sponsors.She also pointed out that women's lack of access to powerfulnetworks and sponsors has been part of the more subtle what shecalled second-generation biases that hold women back.

Meanwhile, Ben Rogers, research director at Filene, said, “Ifyou want to talk about women in leadership, you have to talk aboutgender intelligence. The conversation is useful for men and womenin uncovering blind spots at your organization, whether it's a lackof role models or gendered career paths.”

The speakers and 91 attendees agreed that explicit gender biashas been conquered but the subtle biases have been more difficultto overcome.

For example, according to Professor Melissa Thomas Hunt of theUniversity of Virginia, the fact that 26% of male respondents inthe WOCCU-Filene study and 19% of female respondents have businessmanagement degrees, or 25% of men majored in finance or accountingversus just 15% of women, may explain part of the leadershipdiscrepancy.

In addition, according to the survey of 750 credit unionemployees, 37% of women held a bachelor's degree, while 14% had amaster's or higher degree compared to 51% of men who had abachelor's degree and 28% who held a master's or higher.

Research also revealed that women in organizations with visiblefemale leaders felt more empowered and engaged. It also found thatconversely, in terms of expectations of what it would take to stepinto a leadership position, sometimes women have been hardest oneach other, which presented another obstacle to overcome.

“I think every organization is sincere in recognizing theimportance of diversity in leadership but it's one thing to hearand another to see female role models in those senior-levelpositions,” Rogers said. “Each organization should feel responsiblefor building a first generation of powerful women so thatup-and-coming women have role models and potential sponsors.”

The Filene researcher added that boards and hiring executivesshould demand diverse candidate slates for senior positions andcredit unions should track data about how many women leaders arewithin the organization.

“The first step to addressing the gender intelligence challengeand women in leadership is to track how many are in leadershiproles within your organization and how has it changed over time. Itallows you to make informed decisions if any changes need to bemade. Without the data you're relying on a gut feeling, which couldbe wrong,” Rogers said.

“It's nice to finally have numbers to see the types of skillsmen and women arrive with at the credit union and how it can be astrong determinant in the career path,” he added. “It's importantto keep in mind if we are honest about getting women to thosesenior-level positions.”

Rogers said the colloquium provided good foundation upon whichto build and attendees also spent time discussing the nextsteps.

Looking ahead, plans are underway for release this fall of adetailed report on the research.

“We at Filene are committed to keep the conversation going butto effect change, it's also on attendees, readers and everyone inthe credit union community,” Rogers said.

“We're on a good trajectory,” he added, “and it's better nowthan it has been in the past so we've got to stay committed andpassionate about gender intelligence. Incremental changes liketracking or demanding that diverse candidates be included in theexecutive or senior level search can make a difference.”