Hunt spends roughly half her time on security matters and the other half on general corporate affairs. She has not yet encountered anyone who performs her role at another company. Williams hasn't either. "[The security department] is one of the best internal clients I have ever had. You know what you're going to get when you work with them," she says. Williams is a straightforward guy, pleasant to work for, requiring little second guessing on strategy or tactics. "He values communication, which makes my work more effective for Caterpillar and more fulfilling for me personally," says Hunt.

5. File this one under easy to say, hard to do. Williams encourages his staff to bring honest disagreement to the table--respectfully, of course--whenever it comes up. "He's very open," says Frank. "He is open to the opinions of others."

"On our teams, we have direct, crucial conversations," says Williams.

"We have respect, but we get the conversations on the table. I solicit people to challenge management. That is so critical. It creates much better decisions when people can respectfully and openly challenge assumptions, thinking and decisions." Giblin, for example, may disagree on how certain processes and protocols are implemented in his region, and he feels comfortable letting Williams and the rest of the team know. Like Williams, he encourages his staff to bring up differing points of view.

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