What does it take . . .

Here we go again…………….

Very well said Vinny………………………………….And to that point this person would successfull no mater what he/she was doing. 
A good BB also has to understand the nature of the beast, and by this I mean not all corporate VP’s share the same vision as the guys in trenchs and they (BB’s) must be able to adapt to what Management is asking them to accomplish, which is not always what should be done.
CT

Be a walking talking calculator and statistician.  Forget any useful communication skills because at this point you are far removed from the real world.  Can anyone say Champion?

There should a poetry competition and the theme should be Six Sigma. The panel of judges should include top CEOs. The author of the best poem should be crowned the best MBB…

Try to be employed in a successful company, leave it when it’s still successful and after sometime write a book.
 

Vinny, thanks, so what I’m hearing is use $50 words randomly and throw in names of German people that might or might not be real.
Will do, I mean –  I’ll let my friend know.
Stevo
ps, thanks for being my virtual buddy.
 

Ben,
I agree with Vinny completely. Without execution (read Bossidy’s book) you are just another piece of COPQ.
Assuming you have been through some type of training use exactly what you were taught Y = f(x) or “A successful BB” = f(x). What are the x’s you are seeing in the successful BB’s around you? They will vary to some degree with the company culture. There are a ton of BB’s that can be successful at GE because they are operating in a company that is aligned, aggressive and empowered. What happens if you drop them into a Silicon Valley type deployment? Aggressive may not play well in that environment – personal experience.
We are asked to deliver Six Sigma results not Six Sigma statistics. I don’t recall reading in any book by Jack Welch or Larry Bossidy that they got chills when they saw a great presentation on MSA or a well designed ANOVA. They did like the results. If you take that back to the Y = f(x) the great results does start with some form of ststistics and analysis so there does need to be some level of competance. It is what you do with them when you get the results.
We had an article published on iSixSigma a few weeks ago (Toolbox) that somewhat addressed this issue. When you watch the really good Belts they are bilingual (they speak statistics and their mother tongue). People speaking will say something like Process A runs better than Process B. The Belt is thinking hypothesis test – normality, variance and mean tests or whatever combination is applicable – but typically they doen’t say that. They set the team up mentally to test it and run with the results without hammering people with statistical terminology – particularly phases like “fail to reject.”
If you check out Bob Wilson’s website (http://www.BobWilsonConsulting.com) you can also find information on personalities that make good Belts and personalities that have never been successful and everything in between. There are people with personality traits that just have a tough time doing this work, in particular the change management part.
Just my opinion.
Good luck

Ben,
You are welcome. I am glad I could help.
Regards