Leadership: messy, dynamic, ever-changing, hard. Yet when done right, the difference between success and failure in any startup. Catherine Popper, angel investor at Launchpad Venture Group, stressed the importance of recognizing leadership as a skill that must be constantly honed and refined by all members of a startup team, and not just checked off as a one-time item on the CEO’s to-do list.

Some of Catherine’s tips on key leadership practices are as follows:

1. Make the complex simple. Can you cut through the noise surrounding a larger issue and narrow your vision to identify the exact problem you are trying to solve?

2. Read the room. Why is your audience here? Who is the decision maker? What does the optimal success look like? And when the meeting is over, debrief with your partners to catch a new perspective you may not have noticed at first glance.

3. Address conflicts. Great teams don’t shy away from conflict and differences of opinion because they help move an agenda forward. 

4. Progress over perfection. Acknowledge leadership as a skill to be developed constantly rather than a resume bullet that’s already been perfected.