Sponsorship, or the tactical moves a leader makes on behalf of junior talent, is essential for advancement to senior leadership. There are times when sponsorship relationships form naturally — but more often than not, they simply don’t. Sometimes the problem is that leaders are just busy. Sometimes it’s that they don’t think of sponsorship as a part of their job. And sometimes (much of the time) it’s that they’re drawn primarily to sponsorees who look and think and act like them — which means that some groups, among them women and people of color, remain persistently under-sponsored. Given how well established the benefits of sponsorship now are, that’s a loss for everybody involved, and to address it many companies are now investing in “synthetic” sponsorship programs, which formally assign sponsors to sponsorees.