A high performing team begins with its leader, who must passionately desire to create one. Even with this desire, well-intentioned leaders fail because they succumb to other desires that can derail a high performing team. Improve your effectiveness as a leader and the effectiveness of the executives who report to you by learning to avoid the desire to protect your leadership status, the desire to be popular, the desire to make "correct" decisions to achieve certainty, the desire for harmony, and the desire for invulnerability.