Skills of great Salesforce managers

Curious what skills people felt they needed to develop when they moved from being an IC to a leader/manager of any sort? What did you do to develop them?

Technical skills are table stakes.

The Business Systems manager without any previous technical Salesforce experience will not last long. They’ll be dead weight in meetings, won’t know how to steer technical deliverables, and will get walked over by stakeholders.

They earn the trust of those around them.

It’s not just the immediate Salesforce team that enjoys working with them, but the stakeholders as well.

Sometimes, the best managers never wanted the title.

Most importantly, the best managers are the ones that reluctantly took on the mantle because their surrounding team mates wanted to work under their leadership.

Know Salesforce, but not only Salesforce.

Great managers know Salesforce, but not only Salesforce. Their experience as an IC has given them exposure to other business applications and can speak to how they work with Salesforce. Or, they can tell their leadership that they're a waste of money.