How to Build Rapport in Science Collaborations

𝐈𝐧𝐟𝐥𝐮𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐋𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐬: 𝐁𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐆𝐮𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝐄𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 In my last post, I shared what I’ve learned firsthand: authority may command action, but influence builds true commitment. And a few people asked me for a natural follow-up: 𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘥𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘪𝘯𝘧𝘭𝘶𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦? Then I started digging deeper into why that matters—and how to do it well. What I’ve found is that many leadership behaviors backed by rigorous research align directly with the principles I’ve practiced my whole life. Here’s how each principle is grounded in science—and how it’s played out in my own work: 🔹 Clarity  Research from the University of Pennsylvania shows that clear communication from the leader helps teams build rapport, trust, and collaboration toward shared goals. What I’ve seen: When I skip over the “why” and dive into tasks, momentum stalls. But making the purpose explicit, especially in cross-functional teams, can quickly unite everyone. 🔹 Credibility A 2022 study shows that “leader credibility” is key for building trust and getting people on board. I believe it depends more on actions than on job titles. In practice: Working with global teams, I discovered that being consistently prepared, honest about what I didn’t know, and owning mistakes did more to build trust than my title ever could. 🔹 Connection The success of collaboration hinges on trust and authentic relationships; even outside classic org charts. My experience: When a big project got complicated, only strategy could not help. But having honest, real talk beyond KPIs helped us navigate through the challenges. 🔹 Curiosity Research shows that curiosity—when genuine and well-timed—sparks collaboration, unearths unspoken blockers, and accelerates solutions. What it meant: For example, when leading a project where things look stuck, instead of pushing through, the right question to ask would be “what is holding us back?” And remember, it isn’t just about asking—it is also about making it safe to answer. 🔹 Collaboration Research on collaborative leadership across sectors shows shared ownership enhances performance, innovation, and sustained impact. How I applied it: As we undertook a major rebranding for Kanerika Inc, it was decided that all key stakeholders would be involved from ideation sessions to final roll out. Calendars were booked and with the shared sense of ownership, it was easy to get the outcome we wanted.  Well, the 5C framework can be helpful in leading without relying 𝐎𝐍𝐋𝐘 on org charts. It can help unlock trust across teams.  I’d love to hear what leadership strategies have you found most effective? Anshul Sharma Bhupendra Chopra Dr. Kshitij Singhal Gaurav Verma Cdr Manpreet Singh (Retd) Nandini Sarika Amit Chandak Amit Manisha #Leadership #Influence #EvidenceBased #Trust #Collaboration #Curiosity #Credibility #Clarity #ModernLeadership #Kanerika

Icebreakers are the corporate equivalent of a root canal That's what an engineer whispered to me during a team offsite. He was right—but the solution isn't ending them. It's engineering them. Most leaders try to fix team chemistry with better icebreakers. But great teams aren't built on better questions—they're built on better systems. After many years of building global tech teams, here's the counterintuitive truth: introversion isn't the problem. Poor system design is. Here's how to transform those awkward moments into trust-building engines: 𝗥𝗲𝘄𝗶𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗶𝗿𝗰𝘂𝗶𝘁 ↳ Start async: Share technical challenges 24h before meetings ↳ Give prep time: Introverts process internally first ↳ Create choice: Offer both verbal and written options 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗦𝗮𝗳𝗲𝘁𝘆 𝗟𝗼𝗼𝗽𝘀 ↳ Begin with pairs, not groups ↳ Focus on shared challenges, not personal exposure ↳ Design interactions that build on each other 𝗠𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗠𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀 47% more cross-team collaboration 3x more participation in planning sessions Faster time-to-trust in new project teams We built an async 'challenge-pairing' system where engineers shared technical blockers 24h before meetings. Participation jumped from 20% to 90% in the first week. Systems thinking isn't just for code. It's for humans too. The best teams I've built weren't divided by intro/extroversion. They were united by well-designed interaction patterns that worked for everyone. Here are 3 easy intros that help build rapport and trust without the typical icebreaker pain: - What's your most unusual but effective life hack that you think more people should know about? - What's a common saying or tradition that you'd love to know the real story behind? - If you could instantly possess expert skill at something, what would it be? What's your most unexpected yet effective trust-building technique? Share below 👇 #TeamBuilding #SystemsThinking #StartupLeadership

🧵The most underrated superpower in science: Bioinformaticians and wet biologists working together. Here’s why it matters. 1/ Great discoveries don’t come from code or pipettes alone. They come from collaboration. Wet lab and dry lab. Side by side. 2/ Too many bioinformaticians treat data as abstract. But data has context. It comes from messy, imperfect biology. 3/ A PCA plot shows an outlier? The reason might not be in your code. It might be in the lab. 4/ I once found a ChIP-seq sample that didn’t cluster. Looked like junk. Turns out the chromatin was degraded after IP. 5/ Another time: ATAC-seq data looked off. Low TSS enrichment score. It made perfect sense—once I talked to the experimentalist. That’s the point. You can’t clean up your data until you understand how it was made. And you can’t understand it alone. 7/ I learned most of my immunology by asking immunologists. Over coffee. At their bench. In the hallway. 8/ They explained the different CD4, CD8 T cells. They showed me why a antigen-specific population made sense. And where it didn’t. 9/ This kind of collaboration isn’t optional. It’s how you avoid mistakes. It’s how your analysis gains depth. 10/ Want your findings to make biological sense? Don’t guess. Ask. 11/ Zoom meetings help, but they’re not enough. In-person communication builds trust and speeds up clarity. 12/ You’ll get better feedback. You’ll find mistakes faster. And you’ll build something that actually matters. 13/ Key takeaways: • Know the experiment, not just the data • Talk early, talk often • Be humble about what you don’t know • Go to the lab if you can 14/ Action items: • If you're a bioinformatician: talk to the people behind the samples • If you're a biologist: explain the details to your analyst • Don’t silo the science 15/ Every discovery worth making lives where wet biology meets dry analysis. That’s the handshake that matters most. I hope you've found this post helpful. Follow me for more. Subscribe to my FREE newsletter to learn bioinformatics https://lnkd.in/erw83Svn