How to Be a Good Executive Sponsor: A Comprehensive Guide

When it comes to building a successful company, every employee plays a pivotal role. However, as modern work becomes more connected and cross-functional, there are also opportunities to collaborate and optimize the way work gets done. For example, marketing and sales work closely together to set new accounts up for success. Sales reps and engineers work with implementation teams to get new clients off to a healthy start.Â

Executive leadership can also play an active role in these partnershipsânot just when itâs time to sign on the dotted line but throughout the entire sales process. Letâs discuss how building an active executive sponsorship program can help your sales teams.Â

An executive sponsor plays a critical role in helping major projects and initiatives succeed in an organization. They provide strategic guidance garner support from other leaders and ensure alignment with company goals. While securing an executive sponsor is important, organizations should also focus on helping sponsors be as effective as possible in their role. This guide covers everything you need to know to be a good executive sponsor.

What is an Executive Sponsor?

An executive sponsor is a senior leader who is accountable for enabling the success of a particular project or business initiative. Their key responsibilities include

Providing direction on goals, scope, and alignment to company strategy
Securing financial, personnel, and other resources
Overcoming resistance and resolving conflicts
Maintaining alignment as conditions change
Keeping stakeholders informed on progress

The sponsor acts as the top advocate and champion for the initiative across the organization. They focus on strategic leadership rather than tactical details.

Key Benefits of an Effective Sponsor

Having an engaged executive sponsor is correlated with higher success rates for major projects and change efforts. Effective sponsors provide many benefits:

Strategic guidance – Sponsors connect initiatives to company goals and strategies. This ensures efforts stay aligned as conditions evolve.
Securing resources – Sponsors have the authority to obtain funding, staffing, technology and other resources vital for implementation.
Leadership support – Visible sponsorship signals the effort is a company priority and enhances buy-in from other executives.
Overcoming resistance – Sponsors can overcome political resistance that might stall progress at lower levels.
Ongoing counsel – Sponsors provide objective guidance to keep team leaders on track and focused on the end goal.

In short, skilled sponsors create the leadership foundation for major initiatives to deliver the intended business results.

How to Be a Good Executive Sponsor

Here are key tips for being an effective sponsor:

Clearly Define Goals and Scope Upfront

Work closely with team leaders early on to define the goals, scope, risks, and measures of success. Document these in a project charter.
Ensure the goals align with company strategic priorities and justify the investment of resources.
Set a clear scope and guardrails for decision-making to keep efforts focused.

Secure Adequate Resources

Assess what funding, staffing, technology and other resources are needed for success.
Leverage your authority to secure and allocate required resources from other business units.
Build resourcing requirements into budget planning to ensure sustained support.

Maintain Engagement as a True Partner

Have regular touchpoints with project leaders to provide guidance but avoid overstepping into execution details.
Be responsive to keeping updated on progress and addressing emerging roadblocks.
Balance high-level oversight with hands-on leadership when challenges escalate beyond the team’s capacity.

Communicate Proactively with Stakeholders

Actively communicate with other executives, managers, and staff to signal your sponsorship and priority.
Celebrate wins and milestones to sustain momentum and positivity.
Be transparent about setbacks, tradeoffs, and course corrections needed.

Drive Alignment on Changes

Periodically review if the goals, timeline, approach, and resources remain optimal as conditions and assumptions change.
Work through leadership teams to maintain alignment and commitment to any shifts needed in the initiative’s execution.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

While executive sponsors are vital, they sometimes fail to deliver maximum impact due to these common missteps:

Providing little strategic guidance and just delegating all details to the team
Not allocating enough of their personal time and focus
Passively waiting for updates rather than proactively guiding progress
Failing to resolve conflicts and remove roadblocks for teams
Not maintaining engaged communication with stakeholders
Allowing scope creep and misalignment without course correcting

Effective sponsors are hands-on leaders, not just figureheads. They must balance high-level oversight with hands-on leadership when challenges escalate beyond the team’s capacity.

Being an excellent executive sponsor requires strategic business acumen, leadership capability, project management skills, and unwavering commitment. Follow the guidance in this article to maximize your impact. Drawing on your authority and influence, you can create the conditions for major initiatives to drive real business results and advance organizational success.

how to be good executive sponsor

Define who owns the program

Consider the programâs impact on revenue and determine who owns the program, whether itâs a team member from sales, marketing, or customer success. The more important consideration, however, is who the role reports to.Â

The executive sponsorship program owner often reports to the CEO or other executive leadership. This organizational structure creates a direct line of communication with executive leadership and ensures that the program is aligned with the businessâs larger strategic goals.

Determine how executive sponsors can help close dealsÂ

Executive sponsors should also be account sponsors. While account managers manage the day-to-day communications and touchpoints with existing and potential clients, it can be useful to give executive sponsors the flexibility to build their own or additional relationships with senior decision-makers at the company.Â

Once theyâre involved in tactical discussions, they can provide a more visionary perspective of the solution to the customer. This optimistic approach will be that much more effective and credible if theyâve worked closely with the account manager to truly understand the needs of the account.

So how can executive sponsors move the deal forward? By reassuring customers when they express doubts and by providing the encouragement customers need to take the next step. Sometimes this means offering a discount or other financial incentive to make the deal even more appealing. Other times, just listening and talking through issues will be enough. Never underestimate the power of human connection.Â

What Makes a Good Executive Sponsor in a Software Implementation? – ERP Building Bytes

What are some examples of executive sponsor responsibilities?

A few specific examples of executive sponsor responsibilities: Provide business context and guidance to the project manager and team. Champion the project, including advocating and securing support from cross-functional departments. Ensure resource capacity, secure funding, and communicate project priority within the organization.

What makes a good executive sponsor?

(With Examples) An observant executive sponsor can see and interpret the meaning of different behaviors. These behaviors can identify a lack of resources, confusion about the project’s purpose or execution of the project. Recognizing these signs early and understanding how to deal with them is essential to being a good executive sponsor.

Do you need an executive sponsor for a project?

For a project to succeed, it’s often necessary to form a team. Sometimes, companies appoint executive sponsors to coordinate teams and lead them as they complete projects. If you’re an executive sponsor, knowing how to manage a team effectively can help improve efficiency, boost morale and help you accomplish project goals.

How important is executive sponsor support to project success?

According to PMI’s 2018 Pulse of the Profession report, inadequate sponsor support is the primary cause of failed projects for an average 26% of organizations and for 41% of organizations with a low project management maturity (which includes most small businesses). That’s how critical the executive sponsor role is to project success.