Great Leaders Understand the Difference Between Activity and Advocacy

Leadership shows up in the way you treat people long before it shows up in a title. People do not follow a role. They follow a person. They follow your consistency, your integrity, your ability to support others, and your willingness to stand behind your word.

Sponsorship is one of the clearest reflections of who you are as a leader. It is the moment you choose to use your position and influence to help someone move forward. The act itself can be small, but the impact is almost always meaningful.

What Sponsorship Really Means

When we talk about sponsorship, we often picture major career moves like promotions or stretch assignments. Those moments matter, but sponsorship shows up in smaller ways too. It can be coaching someone through conflict with another colleague or helping them navigate a difficult dynamic with a leader. It can be putting their name in a room they cannot get into yet. It can be connecting them with an opportunity, a resource, or a new network.

It can be something as simple as making a real introduction when someone asks for support in their job search. Not forwarding a resume to a general inbox. Not sending a quick note and stepping back. Real sponsorship is when you take one more meaningful step. You reach out to the hiring team. You make the introduction. You use your voice where it actually carries weight.

Great leaders understand the difference between activity and advocacy. Anyone can do the bare minimum. Leaders go further because that is part of the responsibility they accepted when they stepped into leadership.

The Leaders We Need

The gap we see in many organizations is not a lack of leadership principles. Most companies can recite them with pride. The gap is in behavior. Too many people are promoted for operational competence alone. They know how to manage workflows, but not how to develop people. They can run a process, but they cannot build trust. They can hit targets, but they cannot stand behind their word.

Leadership becomes fragile when it is grounded in skill but not character.

Real leadership requires more than knowing how to move a project forward. It requires knowing how to move people forward. It requires the ability to build confidence, create psychological safety, and offer clear support. It requires a willingness to see your own gaps, name them, and work on them.

Integrity as a Leadership Practice
Integrity is not a concept. It is a daily practice. It is in the decisions you make when no one is watching. It is in the promises you keep when it would be easier not to. It is in the follow through that separates true leaders from people who simply hold a title.

When people come to you for help, they are paying you a compliment. They are telling you they trust your judgment, your influence, and your voice. When you say yes, you take on a responsibility. When you do not follow through, you damage more than a single opportunity. You damage the trust people place in you, and you send a message about the kind of leader you are.

Leadership Everywhere
The way you lead inside your company often mirrors the way you lead in your personal life. The same patterns show up in your home, in your friendships, and in how you navigate conflict. Leadership is not something you turn on at work. It is part of your character.

If your instinct is to avoid difficult conversations, you likely avoid them at home. If you hesitate to advocate for someone at work, you probably hesitate to advocate for yourself or the people you care about. If you struggle to keep your commitments professionally, it shows up in your personal relationships too.

Strong leaders understand this. They treat leadership as a whole person practice. They examine who they are, how they show up, and where they need to grow. They know that leadership is shaped through awareness, accountability, and deliberate effort.

Becoming a Leader People Trust
Better leadership starts with humility. You need to be honest about where you fall short. You need to recognize when your patterns undermine the trust people want to place in you. You need to accept that leadership is not a reward. It is a responsibility.

Here are four practices that matter.

Keep your word. If you commit to something, follow through. Those small moments shape your reputation over time.

Use your influence with intention. Sponsorship is not about favors. It is about using your access to create opportunity for others.

Do your own inner work. Bias, blind spots, and emotional patterns shape how you lead. A leader who refuses to grow becomes a barrier to the people they manage.

Choose character over comfort. Real leadership will always pull you out of what feels easy. That stretch is where trust is built.

People do not need perfect leaders. They need leaders who care, who show up, and who honor the weight of their word. They need leaders who understand that sponsorship is not a task. It is an expression of who you are.

When leaders commit to that standard, everything else follows. Teams get stronger. Trust deepens. Culture shifts. And people finally experience leadership in the way it was always meant to be practiced: through integrity, action, and genuine support.

By Benjamin Adkins, Certified Professional Coach (ACC)