Years ago, I decided to go skydiving but with one condition: I didn’t want to make my first jump in tandem, like most folks do. I wanted to jump solo.

To jump solo at the skydiving facility I patronized, an eight-hour course was required to familiarize the jumper with what to do during the sky dive and make them aware of everything that could go wrong. The course was designed to scare people off, describing every bad thing that could happen, but I was already committed to jumping.

After completing the day-long course, several experienced skydivers and I went up in a plane so rickety that it seemed safer to jump out than expect the plane to land intact. So at 12,500 feet altitude, I moved toward the open door, grabbed the bar under the wing, and swung back and forth three times before leaping from the plane.

The jump was exhilarating as I fell the first 7,500 feet at about 130 mph. My training included instructions to check the altimeter every few seconds during free fall to keep me aware of my progress descending. Potentially catastrophic for me, I went into sensory overload and failed to check the altimeter even once. Of course, this lack of awareness meant I passed right through the 5,000-foot checkpoint where I was supposed to pull the ripcord.

This could have been a really big problem, but my coach, who had dived separately but just after me, realized what was happening and flew over to draw my attention to the altimeter. Realizing my altitude was 4,500 feet, I pulled the ripcord and safely completed the skydive, landing right next to the X that I was targeting on the ground.

Skydiving was a wonderful experience, but I would not be alive today had the coach not pointed out my mistake in time for me to correct it. While work situations are rarely life-threatening, the principle of needing others still applies, for me and probably you, too.

The company I lead as CEO, Correct Craft, is a large organization with nearly 2,000 employees across the United States. I often say that I may be the least talented person on our team, and that’s not hyperbole. A CEO gets a lot of recognition when their company is successful, but I am under no allusion; there is very little I can do by myself. Any success I’ve had during the course of my career has resulted from the good fortune of being on great teams with great people.

Over the years, I have seen some very talented people get on bad teams, and it took a tough toll on their careers. Sometimes, after accepting an opportunity they thought could not be turned down, they learned that their success depended more on the folks around them than they realized. These talented people learned an important lesson — the need to be surrounded by other talented folks — the hard way.

So how do you know if a team is exceptional? There are some signs we can consider. First, determine if the team is chasing rewards or impact. Teams that are primarily focused on rewards land on the hedonic treadmill and often end up unhappy and discouraged, even if they do get the rewards they were chasing. Being rewarded for exceptional results is nice, but if that is your primary focus, it can lead to trouble and angst.

However, teams that chase impact — making the world around them better — have great satisfaction in their work. The nice part is that since almost everyone wants to be around impact-driven people, they often still get rewards even though it is not their primary motivation.

Second, determine if the team is composed of learners or knowers. Learners consume information to grow and even like having their minds changed. Knowers, if they consume information, do it not to learn but to validate what they already think. There is a big difference between these two types of people, with learners having a big career — and life — advantage.

Learners want accurate feedback and any other information they can use to improve themselves and their organizations. At Correct Craft, we encourage employees to respectfully and politely speak the truth, what we call being “highly assertive, highly cooperative.”

Third, determine if the team is committed to being results-driven. Many teams get so caught up in activity or busyness that they lose sight of the results they should be delivering. Busyness can become part of a team’s identity and help justify not delivering the results they should because they are “busy.” Good teams have clarity in their vision, values, why and strategic plans. And they are laser-focused on achieving what they should.

Sometimes results-driven people are criticized for not considering other important values for their organization. I understand that. At our company, we invest heavily in both people and philanthropy. However, as I often tell our team, without outstanding performance, we cannot make the team and community investments we desire.

When looking for people to join our team, we often evaluate them through the lens of character, competency and chemistry. I have written about my tendency to overvalue competency during this process, and when I do, I always regret it. The best teams have people who excel in all three of these areas.

Finally, leaders of great teams understand that they need to sometimes make what Henry Cloud calls a “necessary ending” in his book of the same name. I dislike asking people to leave our team, but I have learned over and over that it is usually very good for us — and often for the person being asked to leave — to make a change. Having the right people on the team sometimes means asking some members to leave. Making these changes is hard, but great leaders do the hard things.

Like I needed help on my skydive, we all need help being successful in our careers. The best recommendation for success I can give is to find a great group of people who will help you achieve that success. When you are joined together with the right folks, everything becomes easier.

Bill Yeargin is CEO of Correct Craft and the author of five books including the best seller Education of a CEO.