I like the sponsorship model of supporting people around you.

A typical model for support in an organization is traditional management.

An alternative model is sponsorship: supporting the other person, but without boxing them in.

Traditional management is akin to an aggregator.

Supporting the person from above, but also constraining what they can do.

Sponsorship is akin to a platform.

Supporting the person from below, not setting any ceiling on what they can do.

Of course, organizations must have formal management to be able to be administered at scale.

Still, a sponsorship mindset is a kind of figure-ground inversion that leads to different kinds of investment in the people around you.