What's important about having a career mentor? There are four things Helen really helped me with. The first is understanding organizational politics -- you have to know when to hold 'em and know when to fold 'em! You have to assess the political situation early on and make decisions on forward-looking strategy not only on the facts, but also the political landscape.

The second thing is to make split-second decisions without 100 percent of the information. I had a consultant background and naturally wanted to do a lot of analysis before making decisions. [Helen] taught me that from a market perspective, sometimes it's very important to be fast. Timing is huge.

Helen can really synthesize a lot of analysis quickly, moving through the information to weed out the important things, based on three critical drivers. She liked to first be presented with three bullet points, and I have carried over that philosophy. The three things she wanted were the financial implications, the risk and the suggested path going forward. After that, I would provide alternatives and more background information.

The third thing is speed. I'm relatively fast, but Helen was so much faster. She forces you to quickly ferret out the important information.

The last thing was to learn to have a good time. Work is work, but people are whole human beings, and we have to value the whole person. An example is holding lunches or parties to celebrate wins, which brings things to closure and lets people know they are appreciated.