This section of the book is about understanding the ideal team player model, what it means, where it comes from, and how it can be put to practical use. Let's start with the big picture.

In his classic book, Good To Great, Jim Collins talks about the importance of successful companies getting “the right people on the bus,” a euphemism for hiring and retaining employees who fit a company's culture. It is a concept that is relatively simple and makes perfect sense, yet somehow it is often overlooked, as too many leaders hire mostly for competency and technical skills.

For organizations seriously committed to making teamwork a cultural reality, I'm convinced that “the right people” are the ones who have the three virtues in common—­humility, hunger, and people smarts. I refer to these as virtues because the word virtue is a synonym for the nouns quality and asset, but it also connotes the idea of integrity and morality. Humility, which is the most important of the three, is certainly a virtue in the deepest sense of the word. Hunger and people smarts fall more into the quality or asset category. So, the word virtue best captures them all.

Of course, to recognize and cultivate humble, hungry, and smart team members, or to become one yourself, you first need to understand exactly what these deceptively simple words mean and how all three together make up the essential virtues of an ideal team player.