When building and growing a startup from scratch, it requires your full attention, countless hours, and a tonne of personal and financial sacrifice. Because of this constant grind and hustle as a founder, you rarely have the opportunity to sit back and reflect on what got you to where you are (whether it’s for better or worse- hopefully for better).

In almost all cases, successful companies have good leadership. Most startup founders are laser-focused on every minuscule dimension of their business, from finances, cash flow, hiring, support, payroll, development, etc. In between all of that, the founder is in fact leading the way, whether they know it or not.

So, what makes a good leader?

1. Good leadership is the ability to empower your team, and allowing your team members to make impactful decisions on their own. The ability to trust the capabilities of your team, and not micro-managing, can help your business get off the ground faster, and more efficiently.

2. Keeping your team motivated through all of the ups and downs is critical. Of course, having the right team who believes in your company helps, but the team will always be looking at the demeanor and attitude of the founder(s) to get a sense of how things are. No matter what the circumstances, it’s imperative to keep the positivity and make sure your people aligned and focused on the company vision and goals.

3. Respect. You have to build a team where each member respects you, and genuinely wants to work with you. If not, you won’t get the commitment and quality to push forward in your vision, no matter how amazing your company is. There is only so much an individual can take from someone they don’t respect before they leave. Once they reach that threshold, they won’t last, no matter how much money is thrown at them. Respect is everything.

4. Results. In order for all of the above to happen, your team has to see tangible results to know their efforts are working, and the leader is steering the company in the right direction. If you’re team isn’t seeing some sort of output from their work, your vision and goals will eventually start to fall on deaf ears, and things will eventually crumble.