Being Neurodivergent in the Salesforce Ecosystem with Joe Sterne

This week on the Salesforce Admins Podcast, we have Joe Sterne, Solutions Architect at Salesforce.

 

Join us as we talk about learning and becoming a Salesforce admin while neurodivergent, and how we can be compassionate and give space to each other when we work together.

 

You should subscribe for the full episode, but here are a few takeaways from our conversation with Joe Sterne.

Working with ADHD.

 

Joe is a Solution Architect at Salesforce in the Solution Consulting Group. “Long story short, I’m client-facing—I help clients either implement or fix their Salesforce instance,” he says. When Mike was looking for topics for the pod, Joe approached him with an idea to talk about being neurodivergent in the Salesforce ecosystem. Joe was diagnosed with ADHD in middle school, and he’s been managing it his entire life.

 

Everyone has an attention bandwidth: how many things you can pay attention to or how much you can focus on one thing. People with ADHD are very focused on managing their attention bandwidth, which can make some tasks and environment more difficult but also has advantages as well.

How to stay on task in Trailhead.

“The number one thing I tell people when they are signing up for Trailhead is to understand what you’re looking to get out of it and make sure that you are staying on topic when you’re trying to learn,” Joe says. With badge recommendations and the flow of the platform, it’s incredibly easy to go down a rabbit hole picking things that sound fun. “3 hours later, you realize that you’re trying to code in Apex when you were trying to learn about leadership,” he says.

 

Joe’s advice is to rely on Trailmixes and, honestly, tabs. Have the Trailmix in one tab and the badge in another and “as soon as you’re done with that badge, close it and open up a new tab with the next badge,” he says. Another effective strategy is timeboxing: giving yourself a deadline to complete what you’re trying to do.

 

This doesn’t mean you should never follow your fancy—it’s just about knowing when to put them on a list or favorite them so you can stay focused on the task at hand.

Working with neurodivergent team members.

One thing that’s important in these conversations is that everyone is different, and neurodivergent conditions don’t show up the same way in everybody. “Give people space to talk and grow without making assumptions about what they’re going through,” Joe says. That also could also mean creating internal groups to give people the space to talk about it and not feel alone.

 

Another practice that can be helpful is for each member of your team to fill out a “working with me” document that includes information like helpful ways to communicate, what to keep in mind, and how you can help them succeed. It’s a practice we do on the Admin Evangelist team that we’ve found very helpful whenever we add someone new.

Podcast Swag:

• Salesforce Admins on the Trailhead Store

Social:

• Joe: @MrJoeSterne
• Salesforce Admins: @SalesforceAdmns 
• Gillian: @GillianKBruce
• Mike: @MikeGerholdt

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