Leadership is all about taking control. It is the single-most important skill that a leader must possess, along with other attributes like innovative thinking, drive, commitment to the organisation's values and a capacity to lead by example.

The ideal way to motivate is to lead by example. A leader should possess the ability to understand individual employees and focus on their strengths. Delivering results is all about team effort-a leader can accomplish even goals that are seemingly impossible if he can get the individual members of his team to focus collectively on one goal. A leader should delegate work and give individuals the freedom to sharpen their skills on live projects. Such experiences act as a catalyst to transform individuals with average performance records to confident achievers and leaders of tomorrow.

It is equally important for leaders to be committed and to generate commitment among their team members towards goals and offer challenges to the team so that they can perform difficult tasks. With businesses increasingly becoming global, a successful leader is the one who can make his team perform effectively across different business cultures.

A leader needs to ensure that all his subordinates get their due importance, irrespective of the scale of their contribution to the overall task. This helps foster the spirit that is so necessary to bind the team together. It is also the leader's responsibility to keep his organisation's culture alive. Last, but not the least, the leader should ensure that the organisation's work culture facilitates employee growth and development. Employee development results in the overall growth of the organisation.