Wall Street Journal article

In today's WSJ (page B1) Joann S. Lublin's Managing Your Career column is titled, "Even Top Executives Could Use Mentors to Benefit Careers." (The article is not yet available for free on-line, but I think it's just GREAT that she writes articles like these.) In it, she tells the tale of Melissa Dyrdahl, senior vice president of corporate marketing and communications at Adobe Systems. Ms. Dyrdahl, it seems, credits much of her success to mentoring she's received from Adobe president and CEO Bruce R. Chizen.

"[Mentors] provide a mirror for me to reflect back on," she says, "[presenting perspectives] that I am unable or willing to see." As her mentor, Mr. Chizen says he is "...brutally honest with her," but adds, "If she wasn't intereseted in feedback, [mentoring] would be impossible."

According to the article, Mr. Chizen has his own mentors, too, co-chairman John F. Warnock and Charles M. Geschke. The article continues ... "Mr. Chizen solicits their views before tackling notty problems, such as whether to set operating-margin targets that plese investors more than staffers."

But both "Ms. Dyrdahl and Mr. Chizen aslo have forged relationships with mentors with no Adobe ties," which I think is essential. Too often executives fall into the trap of listening only to people who share their same myopic view.

Good for them. And how about you?