The leadership and communication skills that Scientific Project Managers need to use are distinct from those of other leaders and project managers. That is because on the one hand, Scientific Managers most often don’t have formal, hierarchical authority over their teams. On the other hand, you need to create engagement, buy-in and the understanding for the common goals over long distances, while communicating across language and cultural barriers. 
In this second part of our series, we look at the skills that distinguish good Scientific Managers from the amazing ones in the area of communication and leadership. The three skills we have seen over and over again that make a difference are:

IV. Be a great listener and value feedback
V. Master a repertoire of leadership styles
VI. Be an inspiring presenter

Scientific managers nowadays have a whole range of tasks and challenges in every workweek. Most fall under two categories: project management and people management. While those two areas are complex and at times tricky to truly master, there are skills that every scientific manager either should have from the beginning or should be developing over the course of a couple of years. The seven most effective skills that I have seen in amazing scientific managers can be divided into how to treat oneself, how to behave in your communication towards others and into how to make it all sustainable.
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How to treat yourself
I. Manage yourself first of all
II. Understand yourself so that you can understand others
III. Have a growth mindset
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How to communicate towards others
IV. Be a great listener and value feedback
V. Master a repertoire of leadership styles
VI. Be an inspiring presenter

How to make it all sustainable
VII. Develop your resilience

We will talk about these skills in more depth over the course of three separate blog articles. The first one is about skills that have to do with how you manage and treat yourself.