Who is on your “A team”?

During a recent discussion with one of my colleagues he asked me if I could think of 5 people who I have worked with, done business with, worked for or supervised that would constitute my "A team".

He then gave me a couple of names on his "A team".  Among them was a former chairman, former hospital administrator and a couple of pathologists, past and current that would make up the team.

5 names quickly came to mind from my perspective that would be solid leaders, administrators, managers and diagnosticians whose ethics and integrity were beyond reproach.

One of the key people on my dream "A team" was also a former chairman and prior chair of anatomic pathology in the same department many years ago while I was at Walter Reed.  

One of the many important lessons I learned from her was the ability to work with people you many not normally choose to work with in an environment where there was little control regarding new hires, transfers and folks moving to other assignments when their time came.

Important lessons for any organization, particularly one on a large scale, but equally valuable or more valuable even in smaller organizations.

A few of her key attributes among many was also the ability to know what she did not know, delegate when necessary and know when certain goals were not going to be measurable or achievable.   She was also wiling to listen to any idea or criticism but you needed the data to back it up for anything to move forward. If you had strong justifications, the support would be there.  If anything appeared misleading, she could detect it.  

Who is on your "A team"?