A leader's role changes as his organisation moves from being a start-up to one that is in its infancy to an organisation going through growth, adolescence and maturity. The best part of the leadership journey that I have undertaken has been my own learning experience, adopting to changes and challenges, and trying and testing new leadership techniques.

A leader has to be fully convinced about the task he is undertaking, willing to try and experiment, be flexible to change, and respond quickly to initial success and failures. At an early stage the leader is the magician, and promoters, suppliers, employees and the world around him expect that he will succeed. Therefore, ensuring success at the start-up stage becomes the most important quality of a leader, and it requires conviction, presentation and persuasion skills.

As the company grows into infancy, a leader's style undergoes a change. This stage requires nurturing, building basic good practices, mission, vision and values in the company.

When a company is in its growth phase, the leadership role reverses, wherein the leader has to learn more and listen because most of the employees want to participate in the building process. Hence, a leader has to ensure high level of motivation, allowing space for growth and challenge, and at the same time ensuring that the organisation builds replicable practices.

I have gone through all these stages, and now I am at a stage wherein I have to give a lot of space to my team for them to put their learning into practice and take up a leadership role. For a start-up leader, this is one of the most difficult stages wherein you have to give up and allow others to grow. This also gives the leader a chance to relearn to become a guide. A leader has to fundamentally have all the above qualities, but essentially must trust his team and have full faith in their deliverability.