In working with sales leaders I often find that many of them have created an inner circle organically over time, without a huge amount of intention - in a lot of cases, it just happened. There is some merit to the adage that we are the average of the 5 closest people we hang around, which means we should be very careful when it comes to selecting our inner circle. This is something that exceptional performers the world over do very specifically and very carefully, and it is something that we, as sales leaders, should be doing as well.