Listen to The Last Mile with Christina Cho, a lively conversation about supporting the ambition of quiet achievers.
I believe sponsorship grows out of mentorship. It’s a relationship that needs time to develop, to mature, because it involves a champion who’s willing to share more of themselves to help someone else progress in their career. And for me, it’s a really powerful form of advocacy in the workplace that builds trust and mutual respect with my staff to help them advance a career. But most importantly, their advancement aligns with their own ambitions and values. The important aspect of this is that they’re happy. They’re content, they have a sense of purpose, allowing them to reach the full potential, which then equally contributes to the positive growth of our practice.
The term sponsorship is probably not one that was overtly used through my own career, and reflecting back on my experience, sponsorship came to me in many forms at different times of my career and through many people.
Christina Cho
Those of us who are more reserved, soft spoken or appear less proactive in perusing professional goals aren’t necessarily lacking ambition. Christina speaks about how sponsorship can cultivate a culture of support, mentorship and advancement that provides recognition for ‘quiet achievers’.
Christina Cho is a Director of Cox. She is passionate about creating active, inclusive and inspirational environments and leads projects using an open and collective design process. She is a third-generation architect, born in Seoul and raised in Brisbane. Her Korean-Australian heritage has significantly shaped the way she perceives the world and her practice in architecture.
Christina is the winner of the 2018 Australian Institute of Architects, National Emerging Architect Prize and recipient of the Australian Financial Review Young BOSS Executive.
The Last Mile is an initiative of the Champions of Change Architecture Group Sponsorship Action Group.
Interviews were conducted by Brian Clohessy, Isabella Aliberti, Tia Soulakellis and Sam de Jongh and are published in collaboration with Parlour.
