It is much easier to believe in, be inspired by, and follow a leader who really and honestly is into what they do for more than just making money. (Photo: Shutterstock)

I used to think that the hard part about leading a company was understanding the market, figuring out the product to build in all its gnarly glory, building, and then selling and delivering product. I have changed my mind. The hardest part of building a company is building out the full “factory” behind it—the people, the processes and the culture.

Related: Is your company culture undermining employee productivity

Tesla may build cars, but in fact once the basic innovation was done, there are two main problems that still need solving:

• The obvious ones: building the production line, the supply chain, the engineering, the design, the sales and the marketing
• The harder ones: the team, the internal processes and the underlying cultural tenets that will make it continue to succeed. As a leader that's the harder part of the work one has to do every day, “after all the hard work is done.”

Here are some of my experiences in trying to build and be a part of teams that have worked out well and ones that haven't—the things I believe can be taught through demonstration, repetition, and results: