A wonderful passage from page 56 of Lab Dynamics, a book recommended to me by a biologist colleague:

If you are a technical professional, it would probably not come as a big surprise to learn that some people in your organization think you are hard to manage or are a poor manager. In the private sector, scientists are often sent to management training seminars. These typically teach participants to set goals and objectives, give feedback, do evaluations, and manage projects. These are all important skills and worth learning. However, your success at applying these skills is not determined by how well you know them or even how long you use them. It is determined by how well you understand yourself, and how well you relate to and respond to the people to whom you need to apply them. If you are oblivious to your own motivations and feelings, you probably do not pay attention to or understand the motivations and feelings of those you manage. If you interpret silence as agreement, repeated absences as laziness, and failure to follow instructions as forgetfulness, you cannot be an effective manager.