What kind of leader do you need to make a start-up successful?

This is the question I was asked recently by a student from Leeds University.

Kaori Gunarathne has just gained a First Class Honours in a business management degree. She interviewed me alongside 11 other founders for her dissertation: "How Startup Founders Build High-Performance Teams Under Uncertainty".

The thing that really interested me about this exercise was that it forced me to reflect on how my leadership has evolved over the years. Not only has each successive start-up has grown faster, reached product/market fit quicker, and hit profitability more easily, the ventures have demanded fewer working hours from me. Or maybe I just manage my time better and invest more in people and resources.

We think of start-up founders as relentless, driven perfectionists who work 20 hours a day and there is an element of truth to the stereotype. But Gunarathne's study paints a more nuanced picture. She found that the greatest precursor to start-up leadership success was all about understanding people.

Call it empathy, call it insight, call it emotional intelligence, great start-up founders can see the true potential in people, and know how to encourage them to be their best.

The thesis raised points that I've always known instinctively. That successful leaders don't necessarily hire for skillset, prioritising resilience, adaptability, curiosity and autonomy – people who will take it upon themselves to solve problems rather than waiting for it to be solved for them.

Interestingly, I bring in more expertise, earlier, these days. But always balanced with raw talent and enthusiasm. Right now, we're hiring for a Chief Professional Services Officer. In the old days, I would simply have promoted from within.

The founders all said they would rather hire someone who embraces uncertainty than someone with the perfect CV. As one founder commented – maybe it was me! – I want "people who are not going to need managing."

I've watched people with limited experience grow into outstanding leaders because they possessed the right mindset from day one. I'm seeing that happen right now in Build Concierge. Whether it's Simon our Chief Operating Officer, who is my right-hand man, or Andy, who is our Chief Product Officer, everyone wears a lot of hats and wears them with panache!

I've always believed that if you hire exceptional people only to tell them exactly what to do every day, you've wasted everyone's time.

The research also found that founders overwhelmingly recruit through trusted networks rather than formal recruitment processes. Personal recommendations and previous working relationships dramatically reduce hiring risk when every employee matters.

It's true that when building businesses, I always seek out past colleagues and team-mates to come on the journey. But I also give new talent a chance because you need that diversity of thought to propel you forward.

So, what have I learned after a lifetime building businesses in technology, bakery and telematics? Great leadership is about creating conditions where talented people can excel without you. Share the vision, be transparent about what you want to achieve as a business and then get out of the way. If you need to make every decision in your business, sooner or later, you'll become the bottleneck.

When I founded my first business, I thought leadership meant having all the answers. Now, I understand that you need to give your team-mates space to learn and make mistakes.

If you had told me 25 years ago that culture and trust mattered more than speed of execution, I would have laughed at you, I spent my whole career talking about customer service but it took time to realise that your people only give exceptional service when they are happy and engaged.

Over time I've become less interested in hiring people who simply impress me, and far more interested in hiring people who challenge me and raise the standards of everyone around them. I've learned to delegate sooner, listen more carefully, and accept that mistakes are inevitable, but repeating them isn't.

Founders don't really build successful companies. They create the environment and culture for their people to build successful companies. We are the servants, and our teammates are the heroes.