carpediemracing 

For me I think it works best with riders that understand their own limitations. It's fun to maximize the use of your own abilities to overcome theoretically stronger individuals or even teams.

So, for example, in Cat 123 races I often find myself outclassed in the last few laps because I can only follow, not sprint. Therefore when I rode with a pretty cohesive Cat 123 squad, I was the sprinter tailgunner, last in line to prevent anyone from sitting on our sprinter's wheel. Because Cat 123 means mainly 1s and 2s at the end, it was pretty aggressive, and I eventually stopped because I didn't feel right doing the stuff I did to keep the sprinter's wheel clear. Plus he wasn't the best sprinter so even if I kept riders well off his wheel, they could pass him in the sprint. Not terribly inspiring.

For some reason I've had a lot of folks come up to me and offer to lead me out. I'm not sure why but it happens, even if the rider is on a different team. They're not necessarily "friends", like I've never hung out with them outside of cycling, but I think it had to do with me putting myself into promoting races. I really can't imagine any other reason random riders would help me out.

Think of what motivates you at, say, work. What makes a good boss, a good manager? Who inspires you? How do they do that? A good team usually needs such a rider, charismatic, able to lead without necessarily strutting their ego around. It's a delicate balance between bossing others around and being humble enough to do some of the grunt work.