Vegas gave America3 100-to-1 odds against winning, and at least two dozen newspapers predicted the Koch-led America3 team would be watching the other boats’ wakes. Imagine, then, the crew’s excitement when they found themselves leading the favored Italian entry by just seconds in the final race. Koch described for us the eerie calm that swept over

I evaluated the people on talent, teamwork, and attitude.” However, to win we also needed technology. That “T3” leadership concept even found its way into the boat’s name: America3, pronounced “America cubed.”

“I want you to pause for a moment and think about the very best person you have working for you. Now I want you to think about the second-best person you have working for you. Now I would like you to think about where your organization would be without them. You would be terrified if you lost them. And you would love to have ten more like them.

This isn’t to say that Cheetahs lack soft skills. To the contrary, they are talented people whose soft skills played a critical role in their ascent to the top job. The difference, though, is that Cheetahs know when it is time to stop asking for feedback and to attack a target to achieve key outcomes that move a company forward.

The second dominant profile that emerged from our analysis was of CEOs who move quickly, act aggressively, work hard, demonstrate persistence, and set high standards and hold people accountable to them. We call these CEOs “Cheetahs” because they are fast and focused. Cheetahs in our study were successful 100 percent of the time. This is not a

teamwork is a core value in your company, then a star athlete who wants the spotlight is not an A Player. We don’t care how productive he or she might be. We have already cited several instances where clients fired a top performer who was achieving results at the expense of cultural norms and values, and we could cite many more.

We have found over the years that the thought of hiring a full team of A Players can make many managers nervous. We have even had managers express their fears explicitly. “Aren’t A Players the athletes who don’t work well together?” they’ll say. Or “Isn’t there an inherent conflict because they all want to be the star? Shouldn’t we staff our team

We rated one COO a B Player after conducting a Who Interview. To us, it was obvious that he did not know how to build a strong team around him. The COO was burned out from trying to do everything himself and frustrated because his team didn’t seem to get it. As it turns out, he was the one who didn’t quite get it. Our rating included a warning that

client in Mumbai will come to Barclays if they think our people are distinctive. Whether they are a corporate or personal customer, they want to be smart in their choice of provider. We want customers to come to Barclays because Barclays’ people are among the best in the world.”