How important is mentoring in building and retaining talent in an organization?

I am a fan of mentoring, but we have to think about it in a non traditional way. We've got to be broader and wider in terms of the people who we consider mentors. Sometimes we think of a mentor as that one person up there who can help kind of pull me up the career ladder, and I don't really think that's the way it happens. Mentoring can come from all sorts of sources -- your peers, people who work for you can be great sources of learning and opportunity. One of the most powerful ways for people to get promoted is for there to be a groundswell of people beside you and who work for you that think you're terrific. That's a lot more powerful than having one senior person whose radar screen you're on.

You're No. 2 on Fortune's 2007 Most Powerful Women list. What does that feel like?

I don't think it has a set of feelings that goes along with it. My identity is Xerox, and any feedback I get should be regarding my success at Xerox, not so much my standing as a stack ranking. I understand that with so few women in leadership positions, bringing attention to it is a good thing, as is drawing attention to the fact that we certainly aren't taking advantage of the enormous opportunity to hire and promote more women in the workforce. But I think my identity has to be linked with Xerox and my performance for my constituencies there.

What are the most important qualities to have to be successful as a CEO?

"Followership" would be No. 1 on my list. If you run a big company, individuals don't really get anything accomplished. Teams get things accomplished. So the ability to build good teams, and have good teams that build good teams, is really the path to success in a big company. I think we also live in a world today where transparency, or credibility, or authenticity -- there are lots of words for it -- but there has to be a sense of trust that needs to be apparent to the people you're asking to follow. And I think that's something that's become a lot more important recently than it was in the past.

Is there anything you brought to the position simply by virtue of being female that enabled you to be more effective than your male predecessors had been?

No. I like to think there are a lot of things I brought to the job that hopefully have equipped me to be successful at Xerox. But I don't attribute them to gender. I attribute them to a leadership profile. The context that women or men have inherent advantages because of gender is something I try to stay away from. If you sign up to suggesting that you have inherent advantages, then you leave the door open for saying you have inherent disadvantages, and I think that's a slippery slope.

Let's talk about the turnaround you engineered. One of the first things you did when you became CEO was pick up the phone to call Warren Buffet to set up a meeting with him. What advice did he give you?

Like he's become known for, his advice was very straightforward and fairly basic, but right on the mark. That was to focus on employees and customers. And don't get confused or distracted, because the constituencies that will not just have you survive, but make you successful, will be your employees and your customers. Sustainable companies are built on great relationships with those constituencies.