In my 40 years of corporate experience and owning my own business, I've found that he most important ingredient in a company's success is having a "winning team".

Jim Collins, in his book "Good to Great", states that the first component is "first who, then what". Once you are clear about your Vision and Strategy, and you have buy-in, then it is paramount to ensure your leaders -- especially the core group -- have the desire and capability to make the journey.

Generally, in any group, 20 percent are stars, 70 percent are in the herd, and10 percent you cannot "get to come out of the dog house". You must deal with these individuals in the "dog house" and quickly. Gallup research shows that if they become disengaged, they will drain energy from the group and bring everyone down. The key – address it and make your moves before proceeding!

1. Open to feedback – you solicit it and listen. You do not always agree with it or necessarily change, but you ask several open ended questions to dig deeper to understand and find context.
2. Constant learner – you have internalized the principle that "no one knows everything about anything". Why? Because situations change. Your job is to "connect the dots" and make the connections between what you learn and how you can apply it. Continuous learning also makes you humble and curious with the expectation and enthusiasm to discover something new.
3. NOT arrogant – Being arrogant is a major derailer and people around you can detect it fairly quickly. Arrogance is thinking you are the smartest person in the world and letting everyone know that you are through your statements and behaviors.
4. Adaptive – probably the most important of the four. Adaptability is recognizing that things have changed, there is a problem, and you need to adjust to meet the goal. You know you are not adaptive when you are always a "victim", reactive, and not changing your behavior to either solve the problem or accomplish your goal.