Transitioning to management might feel like a natural next step in your career. But Patrick Stokes, a Salesforce executive, cautions that it might not necessarily be the right path for everyone.
“I think it’s easy for people to be enamored with the growth of kind of moving up the ranks, rather than the growth of themselves personally,” Stokes, the executive vice president of product and industries marketing, told Business Insider.
Stokes, in a conversation during Salesforce’s Agentforce World Tour in New York City, said whenever people tell him they want to move into management, he asks them why. Usually, people say that “it’s the next step,” he told BI — and that’s not enough of a reason.
“No, you need to know why you want to be a manager, because now you have to inspire a team,” Stokes said. “You have to think about your day-to-day job very differently.”
Lori Castillo Martinez, Salesforce’s EVP of talent growth and development, shared a similar sentiment in a previous interview with BI. “Being a deep expert isn’t always an indicator of being a great manager,” she said, adding that collaboration and task management skills are more important, and the best managers are those who can analyze their teams and maximize productivity.
Responsibilities naturally shift when you transition from an individual contributor to a manager. Stokes said that if you take on a management role, you may not be able to do some of the things you value.
Stokes, who started out as a developer and transitioned multiple times in his career, said he moved into management because he wanted to be a leader, and he was already acting like one.
The Salesforce executive showcased the contrast in responsibilities between an individual contributor and a manager at the company’s Agentforce conference. At the executive level, the job involves more than simply managing massive teams — it can often include public speaking at high-profile events. Stokes gave a keynote address at the event, opening with an anecdote about recent events in New York City. Then, he introduced the company’s digital workforce of AI agents, Agentforce, along with other speakers, all while walking through an auditorium of hundreds of people and talking directly to a video camera that trailed him.
Stokes said he’s always had strong opinions and a desire to rally others around his vision. Even in high school, he found himself leading projects, despite frequently sitting in the back of the classroom. He said he didn’t announce himself as the leader, but he was often the one coming up with ideas and convincing others to get on board.
“That’s what you really need to have if you want to go into leadership,” Stokes said.
Stokes said that as soon as he feels “not nervous” about an event or meeting, he wants to try something new, and he’s a big advocate of changing roles. The exec said some people tend to “think too narrowly” about change and only want to switch roles if it’s “growth within the org chart.”
“If you value the growth, the personal growth that you’re going to get from that new role, enough, you should be willing to take a step back to go forward,” Stokes said.
Outside work, Stokes likes to play chess. He said there’s a concept in chess called a “gambit” — fans of the hit Netflix show “The Queen’s Gambit” will be familiar — where you make what appears to be a bad move, but it’s actually designed to get a reaction from an opponent. Stokes said that’s how he likes to think about his career changes — seemingly risky but strategic in the long term.
“When I first went into marketing, a lot of my peers and product were like, ‘Why are you going to marketing?’ And I’m like, ‘Just wait. It’ll be fine. I’m gonna be great,'” Stokes said.
