The Leadership Playbook: 10 Invisible Skills Every Founder Needs

What the Best Start-Up Leaders Know That Others Don’t

What separates the world’s best founders from the rest isn’t just vision or grit—it’s a toolkit of invisible skills. These are the habits and mindsets that turn chaos into clarity, uncertainty into action. Here are the 10 skills every founder should master:

1. Emotional self-control—staying calm in crisis.
2. Radical self-awareness—knowing your triggers and blind spots.
3. Decision making under uncertainty—moving forward without all the answers.
4. The art of feedback—giving and receiving it with honesty and care.
5. Managing up and sideways—navigating boards, investors, and cofounders.
6. Building psychological safety—creating space for ideas and mistakes.
7. Storytelling—using narrative to inspire and align.
8. Delegation—letting go to scale up.
9. Resilience—bouncing back from setbacks.
10. Lifelong learning—staying curious and humble.

Practice these skills daily, and you’ll not only grow your company—you’ll become the kind of leader people want to follow.

Inspired by 'From Start-Up to Grown-Up' and interviews with top founders. For more, see leadership coaching resources.