Maybe, maybe not. I've had technical managers that weren't as good at that as this manager. Now I'm sure maybe there are technical managers who can do this we

Maybe, maybe not. I've had technical managers that weren't as good at that as this manager. Now I'm sure maybe there are technical managers who can do this well too, but it's not an exclusive trait to them and my point (and experience) is simply that being non-technical is not in and of itself a disqualifying factor for being able to manage technical people.