Episode 168 - You Can’t Hold People Accountable for Expectations You Never Set

Accountability does not start when someone misses a deadline. It starts when the work begins. In this episode, Steve and Jake break down how strong engineers and leaders set clear expectations, document them, follow up before problems become emergencies, and address missed commitments without turning the conversation emotional. Not theory, practical, tactical advice for anyone responsible for getting results through other people. 

Key Topics Covered:

• Why accountability is impossible without clear expectations up front.
• Why important expectations should be written, not left to memory.
• How to anchor deadlines instead of asking, “When can you get this done?”
• Why confirmation matters after assigning actions or changing expectations.
• How early check-ins give you time to recover before a deadline is missed.
• Why responsiveness should be an explicit expectation, especially on fast projects.
• How objective scorecards remove emotion from performance conversations.
• Why criticizing behavior works better than attacking the person.
• How excuses weaken your ability to hold the standard.
• When to develop a struggling vendor, contractor, or teammate and when to move on.

Actionable Steps:

• Define the deliverable, deadline, and communication expectations before work starts.
• Put important expectations in writing and ask the other person to confirm alignment.
• Set required response times for questions, urgent issues, and critical-path decisions.
• Check progress before the deadline, not on the day something is due.
• Ask immediately whether new problems will affect the timeline.
• When an expectation is missed, document what happened without adding emotion or excuses.
• Ask what specifically must change to prevent the same miss from happening again.
• Look for opportunities to recover lost schedule elsewhere in the project.
• Track reliability, responsiveness, urgency, and execution over multiple projects.
• Decide whether someone is willing and capable of meeting your standards before investing more time.

Who This Episode Is For:

• Engineers moving into leadership or project ownership.
• Managers frustrated by repeated missed commitments.
• Engineers coordinating suppliers, vendors, contractors, or cross-functional teams.
• High performers tired of rescuing projects at the last minute.
• Anyone who wants to build a reputation for reliability and execution.

Why It Matters:

Your reputation is built on whether people can trust you to deliver. But leadership also means creating the conditions for others to deliver. Clear expectations, early communication, objective accountability, and the willingness to hold the line give you more control over execution. If you consistently accept missed deadlines, vague communication, and excuses, you are teaching people what you will tolerate. 

Where to Listen:

• Spotify
• Apple Podcasts
• Google Podcasts
• Or wherever you get your podcasts

Share:

If this episode hit home, send it to someone. The Impactful Engineer grows by word of mouth, just like the best careers do.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:24

Engineers don't fail because they lack technical skill. They fail because they never learn how to lead, communicate, and take ownership. This is the Impactful Engineer. We give you the blueprint for career excellence and not textbook answers. I'm Steve Maxie, a senior manager in product development, and I'm here with my brother Jake, owner and principal engineer at NLS Engineering. If you're done with the status quo and ready to take control of your career, then you're listening to the right show. Hello, Jacob.

SPEAKER_03 0:49

What's going on, man? I'm going, man. Like my super hyped nature or or I guess mood right now might show through in this episode. Beautiful. I'm like, dude, I'm straight off of uh doing some engineering while rocking out to uh hell yeah. And oh yeah, yeah. Some of those songs, man, will get me going. Yeah, it's that super metal group from you know forever ago. Um, with all the favorites as we were growing up. Yeah. Uh but yeah, I'm just fucking pumped. I'm ready to destroy.

SPEAKER_02 1:26

Yeah. Dude, well, um, when I've been driving to work, it's been uh like early slipknot. Yeah, you know, uh earlier corn stuff. That's that's been my my jam the past uh few weeks. Just been like, yep. I feel like I'm in high school again.

SPEAKER_03 1:39

Turn it up. Turn it up. You ever want to change your mood? You just gotta put on your favorite thing that gets you hyped up and just blast it.

SPEAKER_02 1:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:48

Have your iPhone tell you that it's been too loud for too long and you go, nope. More. More is necessary.

SPEAKER_02 1:56

Hell yeah. Yeah. Um, just some quick housekeeping. I'll just run it through it real quick. Uh, you know, our our primary uh episode type is Jake and I, or Jake or I get on here and we'll just dive into a singular topic that uh we feel is critically important uh of the day that we believe um will immediately make an impact to your career as long as you uh consider it, follow it how you may, but uh um apply the principle in general. Um and you know, we're here to inspire specific actions to make you win. Uh the other type of episode is guest episodes, right? It's our long format uh where we bring on a guest or or maybe two or three, and we dive into their um backgrounds a little bit uh and and find like where they can bring the most value to you, our listeners, and on how um you know we can change your mindset, uh your perspective on on your careers and take actionable tips around their area of genius. So those are our episode types. And uh yeah, today is just me and Jake um riff raffing.

SPEAKER_03 3:09

Like always. We were going good before we hit record.

SPEAKER_02 3:14

I know. So hopefully we can bring the same fire.

SPEAKER_03 3:16

Yeah, well, hopefully, you know, I can tone it down just a little bit because I don't want to scare people away.

SPEAKER_02 3:20

So yeah, so scary. All right, so yeah, uh today let's uh um talk a little bit about um accountability, right? Um, I've I've got this question a lot um before is is you know, how do I hold people accountable? Um and uh, you know, I I we've touched on this before a little bit, but uh um let's just start out with um, you know, the first thing we we gotta do is we have to make sure we're setting expectations immediately, right? Whenever we're engaging, whether it's a coworker, a peer, a supplier, um, a vendor, et cetera, et cetera, right? We gotta communicate our expectations of what they're delivering at the at the the get-go. Because if we don't do that, then how the hell are we gonna hold them accountable?

SPEAKER_03 4:09

And and written, not verbal. Yes. Uh well, written and verbal, but the most important part is written and often. Yes. In everything.

SPEAKER_02 4:17

It it's it's gotta be front and center all the time. Yep. And and a lot of times you will set a new expectation along the way, right? And it will be verbal. You'll be in a meeting or you know, some uh phone call or conversation in person, whatever, uh, and you and you will have this new thing that that needs to be delivered, you'll insert expectation. Um, follow up with an email and say, hey, had a great meeting. These are the action items that I took from the meeting. Uh, you know, can you make sure you you confirm that that we're aligned on on these bullet points?

SPEAKER_03 4:52

Solicit a response. They shall respond, right? They have to respond.

SPEAKER_02 4:56

Yeah. Yeah. You have to respond on this to confirm, right? You can't just like send it out to the ether and expect it to be gospel. They have to confirm.

SPEAKER_03 5:04

Yep. And they'll think it's a pain in the ass, and that's perfect. You'll know you're doing it right. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 5:09

So now let's get to the meat and potatoes of the conversation, right? You set those expectations to whoever whomever you're working with. The deadline approaches, right? Let's start here. The deadline is approaching. What do you do? You check in and you say, Hey, are we on track to meet this deadline? Right. I've been uh uh in so many cases where where the situation is the deadline already has passed, or it's the deadline date. And they're like, hey, do you have this for me? And they're like, oh no, we forgot, or oh no, it it it we had a delay two weeks ago. It's like, well, great, now you're on the deadline and you have no way to fucking pivot.

SPEAKER_00 5:50

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 5:50

But if the deadline is in two weeks from now, you verify that they're still on track and say, no, we just hit a delay um or a pivot. Now it's going to be another two weeks or whatever it is. Um, well, now you have you just saved yourself two weeks because now you can pivot, you can you know make a judgment call, you can truncate the expectation, like like whatever is required for you to be successful in your overall project.

SPEAKER_00 6:14

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 6:15

So because you'll never hit everything and you'll never know what they're going through. And it's always a conversation. What's really great is to cut somebody a check, tell them the outcome you want, and then you say nothing until the day it's due, and it's there. That's the ideal. And it's or earlier. They're like, hey, look, I we finished earlier. Here it is. That's the ideal scenario. It can happen very rarely. And is if you're a business owner or like if you're uh just in your career, whatever position you're in, you should aim to do that so that nothing needs to be said and that it's just finished.

SPEAKER_02 6:51

Yeah, your reputation is on time earlier.

SPEAKER_03 6:54

Yeah. Then then there's do nothing else and you're gonna have a great time. Um but that that rarely ever happens. So the defense against that or the proper best practice that will uh be good for you and them is to follow up, set the expectation. And if you see something happen that could cause a delay that you know has caused you delays in the in the past, you can get ahead of it by communicating that. Hey, saw this happen. What's happening on your end? Sometimes these things cause delays. Let me know if this is one of those instances today, not tomorrow. Don't think about it, don't take your time. Yeah. Tell me today whether this is going to influence the timeline or not. And if they don't respond, right? You have set, I just did this the other day. You set the expectation for the expectation to respond. Like you have to do it in the beginning. So we we I just did this like, well, it was six weeks ago, but we started a project. We all know it's gonna be fast. It's a big project. Engineering work does not move, architecture and engineering work does not move on six-week timelines for an entire three-building campus, okay? But it was what was required. So when I led the MEP team through it, and I get on the horn with our client and all the other players on the job, I set the expectation in the kickoff meeting that within 72 hours, responses shall be given for questions asked within 72 hours. If you're not gonna meet the 72-hour turnaround, you're gonna tell us on day two why you can't meet it and what you need to solve it. And that's gonna give me the chance to manage this, not just wait, miss it, wonder why, and then it snowballs out of control.

SPEAKER_02 8:43

Yeah. Yeah, how how how I like to to phrase this is anchoring the expectation, right? So instead of saying, hey, when can you get this done, right? Now you're giving them the power to anchor the expectation.

SPEAKER_00 8:57

You never want to do that.

SPEAKER_02 8:58

Yeah. You you say, hey, can you get this done in 72 hours? That is when I need it, right? Or can you get this date this done on Monday, the X date? That's when it when I have to have it to be successful here.

SPEAKER_03 9:12

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 9:13

Right. Anchor that expectation now and don't give that that authority to to whoever you're working with.

SPEAKER_03 9:40

That's right. And they should respond accordingly within an hour or whatever of you sending that email. You tell them that. And by the way, after that meeting, sent a detailed follow-up with all the expectations written down and told them to, if they disagree, reply. If they agree, reply, right? So you're building that accountability. That's what the episode's about. The entire chain during the entire you're holding the accountability on a six-week timeline at five weeks and a few days, you're still hammering the message. 72 hours for returned comments, 48 hours for uh critical, urgent path, you know, critical path items, 24-hour communication turnarounds for any email, asking any question, or not, the it should be, yeah, received, confirmed, we've got it. No delays as part of based on the information we received, no delays, continuing on track. This is a must. This is a must, and not a lot of people do that. But if you're gonna be successful in a very short timeline with a lot of players, a lot of hands in the pot, and things that need to happen, you have to set those expectations. Are you just gonna or just watch it blow up?

SPEAKER_00 10:52

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:53

And here's another thing. It could seem or appear that nobody cares, right? Because they've been so jaded by the whole industry. Uh, and and it's just kind of an accepted thing, like, oh yeah, we said six weeks, and it's just we already know MEP engineers, we already know how this is gonna go, the junior staff's gonna be on it, and then it's gonna be up to the deadline, and then the principal's finally looking at it, and then they got to change a million things, and then it's gonna be two to three weeks longer, and blah, blah, blah. They they just kind of know because that's what happens to a lot of people in my industry. And and you could just lean on that and say, yeah, six weeks, great. Yeah, we'll see, you know, and then it just goes over and over it, and and that's an industry expectation. So you're fine with that. But I'll tell you, if you want to be just like everybody else, do that. If you want to be one of the top that gets paid good money and is reliable and is trusted, and will be handed the next job. Great thing. Yeah, do what we're telling you to do in this episode. Yeah. It'll it'll make a huge difference. And your competition is very, very narrow when you act this way.

SPEAKER_02 11:59

Oh, 100%. Yeah, you'll be in the top two percent, maybe. Yep. So, um, okay, so so now we're getting to the deadline and they missed it.

SPEAKER_03 12:09

What now, Jake? And you're just relying on somebody else to give you information? This is the context. They missed it.

SPEAKER_02 12:15

No, uh, you you even followed up and and they were like, yep, we are on track, we're good to go, blah, blah, blah. And then now we hit the deadline, and they're like, ooh, actually, we're gonna be two weeks ago.

SPEAKER_03 12:28

Oh, in two weeks, damn. Yeah, so we got a two-week delay on the day of the deliverable. What do we do? Well, you got to finish the job. So you do what is required to finish immediately. Damage control, all these things.

SPEAKER_02 12:40

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 12:41

When it's over, then your entire conversation is gonna be what happened? How do we handle it in the future? You knew the expectations, right? They're just gonna have to be the kind of company or the kind of person that meets your requirements for uh and and you're holding them accountable. They just have to. So what's great about holding them accountable this whole time, communicating regularly, and doing all of these things is that you get to the conversation's really easy. Either you meet the expectation and we continue working together, or you don't and we don't work together.

SPEAKER_02 13:17

Yeah. That's it.

SPEAKER_03 13:18

It's the easiest conversation in the world.

SPEAKER_02 13:20

Yeah, and and guess what, folks? People are motivated by money, right? And if you don't want to work with them, they're not gonna work, or they're not gonna make money. I mean, end of story.

unknown 13:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:30

And then you'll get the you'll get the person every once in a while that's just like, it's unreasonable. Well, where was this unreasonableness the entire time?

SPEAKER_00 13:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:38

Right? Which is not a conversation I like to have. That's a con that's a I'm just making that observation. I wouldn't say that to them. It gets you nowhere, right? There's no reason to tell them that. If you said, well, where was this urgency the whole time? If you knew it was gonna blow up, why didn't you tell me? Blah, blah, blah. You could say all those words. They don't care.

SPEAKER_02 13:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:58

And the only response you're gonna get is a bunch of excuses and attempt to justify why they were late, which doesn't help anything anyway. So you might as well skip that entire conversation.

SPEAKER_02 14:09

Really, it's like, what are you gonna do to ensure that this doesn't happen again? Right? Right.

SPEAKER_03 14:14

If you're giving them another chance, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:17

Well, at least for the remaining of the project because they have the rest of that project to done with the project. Oh, no, I got you. Yeah. So so say this is a middle milestone, right? Um now you have to be like, okay, do you need to hire more people? Do you need to re-prioritize you know some action items to have a better waterfall timeline, whatever? Like, what what is required for us to not do this again? And then just do that. Yeah. It's your responsibility to to uh to meet these expectations.

SPEAKER_03 14:46

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 14:47

So do what is is required to do that.

unknown 14:49

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 14:50

And just keep your scorecard too, on your end. You know, do they hit deadlines? Three out of five. When is crunch time? Are they responsive? You know, we'll score one through five. You're just gonna keep a scorecard of this vendor or whoever it is. Yeah. And and let the math do the talking. They're late, they don't communicate under pressure, uh, there's no urgency, so you're keeping the scorecard the whole time. And when the job's done, you weigh the scorecard and you go, I don't like the scorecard. Like, and then and then you you just factually tell them uh you were late here, you didn't communicate uh like I told you to, um, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And you lay it all out uh on the next job because we're gonna do another one together. Uh, you're gonna increase your communication under pressure, you're gonna respond to what I ask you to respond to, you're going to meet all the expectations, right? And we're gonna do what is required to meet those things. That's up to you. If there's something I can do to help you, then let's talk about it. Um, and then you can open up for further discussion to do the next job. Uh, but just you do the same thing. You set the expectations, do they meet them or not? You keep the scorecard, there's no emotion in it, there's just is or isn't, right? And then you decide, do I keep using this person or not? And they can have all the feelings they want about why and and how you're unreasonable. They'll probably try to turn it around on you sometimes if you get in this position. They could turn it around and say, Well, nobody expects that, but you do, and you need to.

SPEAKER_02 16:12

Yeah, you signed up for it at the beginning of the project because I set these expectations.

SPEAKER_03 16:16

Right. And it doesn't matter how they feel about your expectations and that they're too tough. Yeah, well, they should have said something at the beginning. Sure, sure. But you just need to hold the line absolutely and say, Yes, my expectations are unreasonable, and it's it's unreasonable for me to ask you to meet them. So I'm going to have, I'm gonna go get somebody else. That's it.

SPEAKER_02 16:38

Yeah. It I I think it's uh it is important to say that you know, we're being very direct in this episode, which you need to be direct. However, you you still need to show um respect when you're having these conversations. Absolutely. Right. And that's why don't be an asshole.

SPEAKER_03 16:56

That's why removing emotion from it is the key. The conversation well, and I'm not good at having the conversations and keeping it, the emotion out of it. I'm a very I get pretty hot and excited real quick and then I'll say something that's stupid. And then I end up having to apologize for it. What's great about the scorecard is you can just send an objective measure of how the project went. It was due this day, you missed it. There's no emotion in that. It just is. Right? We said in the beginning that if there was an urgent matter and we put urgent in the subject line, that that email shall be responded to within 48 hours from the sent sending of that email. You didn't do it. Not uh because I said before, right? Oh, we they're not when I was scoring them, they're not responsive under pressure. What does that mean? It means that urgent emails are supposed to be responded to in 48 hours and they missed it. That's what that means. That's an objective measure of their performance. So, yes, you bring up a very good point, and it needed to be said, especially if there's someone that has the natural tendencies that I do listening to this episode. Yep. Keep it very objective, keep all the emotion with discussions with yourself and your peers and whoever you're working with. Um, never let it bleed over into the other person that you had drawn the expectations for, for sure. Yeah, very good point.

SPEAKER_02 18:18

Yeah, I mean, it kind of goes along the lines of uh um, you know, never insult the person, just criticize the the behavior. That's right. Critique, don't insult. Yes. That's very true.

SPEAKER_03 18:30

So it's it's it's uh it's hard to do.

SPEAKER_02 18:33

It is, especially in the heat of the moment when you're amped up because shit wasn't done, right? Yep.

SPEAKER_03 18:38

So and I've been on the receiving end of emotional outbursts so many times, and I can tell you my only response is that I want to throw that person out the window. No, how is that helpful? It's not so yeah, uh counterproductive.

SPEAKER_00 18:53

It is very counterproductive.

SPEAKER_02 18:56

Um yeah, another thing I do want to touch on this is um since we are in in the realm of um reasons, right, why something was wasn't meant is don't ever offer excuses to like let's just say a a vendor, right? Never offer excuses to the vendor or to hear your reporting about the vendor of why they didn't meet the expectations. Just focus on that the expectation was not met. And then now how can we meet it moving forward? Right? Don't say, oh, they you know did this and the you know this uh earthquake happened and you know an asteroid came down and hit the hit the owner's mom and blah, blah, blah, blah. You know, just like just don't at all. Um focus only on they did not meet this expectation, uh, they did not communicate anything ahead of time. They told me that they uh it was supposed to be delivered. Um we are figuring out why or or how we can uh prevent this from move uh happening again moving forward, right?

SPEAKER_03 19:58

Because holding people accountable is it takes a very strong and secure position, um, not an overbearing position, just a strong foundational position. And as soon as you start giving excuses to people, well, this thing came in and I saw it, and usually that makes it harder to do the job. So I understand why it was getting hard a little bit, you know, to the line, and you were like, Oh, do do I say something now? I've been there too. As soon as you start saying all that stuff, all you're doing is cracking the foundation.

SPEAKER_02 20:30

You're just yeah, you're relinquishing authority, is what you're doing.

SPEAKER_03 20:32

Yeah, you're relinquishing authority, you're allowing blame like on external circumstances to enter the room, which never helps anything. Um, it just dilutes your power to do what is required to fix it. So yes, stick to the hold the line on the objective facts that expectations were not met.

SPEAKER_02 20:57

Yep. And then you can get into productive speak. Yeah, and you can get in and productive conversations of how you can make up the time, right, for from that from that point. Because you're just being very objective. So you can go, okay, we we missed this goal. A, how can we prevent it from happening again, right? Do you need to hire people? Do you need to, etc., etc., whatever. And B, how can we pull back some time in some other elements that we may have added a little buffer? You know, can we do a little less testing over here because we we just wanted to be real comfortable with everything? Can we uh, you know, maybe hire an outside firm to do the drawings rather than us doing them? Like, is there something that we can do to pull in that schedule just a little bit to make up for this delay? And then your overall deliverable will still be on time, and that's the ultimate goal.

SPEAKER_03 21:44

And I what I'm learning, Steve, because I use a lot of contractors, okay, it's my whole business model. When you you can try to help them too much with their own business, but there's some folks that just can't meet your expectations. And you have to just move on.

SPEAKER_02 22:07

I was just about to say that's when you need to fire whoever you're working with, right? Like I'm firing this vendor. I'm firing this vendor. Just keep it in mind.

SPEAKER_03 22:15

Just keep it in mind. Absolutely. I I would say from my own experience that perhaps. Perhaps it could be on too long of a timeline to try and help them help you. There's just some it's just the way it is. They operate at a different level and they're okay with that.

SPEAKER_02 22:34

Yeah, and and I think that's you'll find out that you'll you'll find that out um when you're having those uh initial conversations of how do we fix this moving forward. Um because it'll be really apparent. Some contractors, vendors, suppliers, whatever you're are gonna just be like, well, that's just the way it is. All right, you're fired, right? Others are like, Yes, we really do we really want this business. Um, we will do what it takes to make it happen. Like you can see the fire in their eyes about making their uh business better, um their projects better, etc. Um, because I've seen, you know, a supplier that you initially engage with be pretty terrible, but then you you essentially co-develop them to and elevate them up to your expectations, and then they're uh an amazing supplier at that point, right? They know exactly what you want, they will deliver, and they will just keep cranking out projects for you exactly how you expect them to be cranked out. Um, and then it's a great relationship. But it did take some development uh effort on your part, right, to work with them to get to that point. Yep. And so, you know, there there's some nuance there. It's not just a oh, they didn't they didn't uh perform, fired. You know, you you you can't just jump to that conclusion immediately. Right. It's it's a all right, you're doing data. Yeah, exactly. So it it's it's not just a uh like how long that they take to develop, but it's like what is their their inner desire? Like, do they want to be better? Right. If you can find that out quickly, then the decision is really easy at that point. Then it moves on to the are they capable of improving? Right. So first it's are they willing, right? No, later, gone, right? Yes, okay, next stage. Are you capable of improving? Yes, all right, let's do it. No, all right, later.

SPEAKER_03 24:27

Yeah. There's degrees to this, of course, and it depends on the situation too.

SPEAKER_02 24:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 24:32

Can like what I would look at it is can my business afford to wait for you to get better? Absolutely, yeah. And that's why one filter.

SPEAKER_02 24:41

Yeah. And that's why this is a fluid conversation with who you're working with. Yeah. But uh um, but the conversation needs to happen. You can't just let constant delays happen because it's just the way things are.

SPEAKER_03 24:53

And very much so, they could be the person you need a few years down the road. Very much so. You're not saying that this is where emotion comes in. It's like we're not saying that uh they're gonna they're they're terrible people and that uh their companies are trash. It's that they're not the fit right now for the goals that you have. Like, yes, do you have five years to work together and figure it out, or do you have six months? So if it's six months, you need the person that already has it all figured out. If it's five years, then you can build a great strategic relationship if you so desire. Yeah. Data is a good thing to have. So I love those scorecards because you can have ten projects that have been done at a certain level. Because where I'm at in my business, like I can't just go out and win huge infrastructure projects. I can't just go out and win a data center. I can't go out and win a huge water treatment plant. I I can't do that, right? So I'm working in other areas. Okay, there's and and there are certain levels of expertise and business acumen that I need right now, and that I am also fit within. So I can't, you know, but if I don't have 10 projects with someone and have taken the time to build the data to know how they perform under what scenarios, you know, rush time, uh, intelligence, ability to improve, uh, whether they hold construction costs in mind while they design, or do they wait until the VE period and they don't care? Do they respond after permit has been sent, after stamp drawings have been sent, do they just wash their hands and walk away, or are they still responsive? So you keep all of these things as a scorecard so that when your business is ready to take the next leap, you know who to bring with you, right? It's very important. It's not that if you choose to not bring someone with you, that they're terrible. It's just that they don't fit with the your ambitions and where you want to go next. So it's kind of the same thing when you're evaluating vendor partners and you're trying to set expectations and weigh it against them to see if you should use them again. There's it's this whole living and breathing world that you need to consider and all of that. But I think we hit the zoomed-in accountability piece within that whole larger structure. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 27:20

Yeah, yeah. And I think we hit it all, but if we didn't, reach out to us. You can uh you can send an email right to questions at impactfulengineer.com. Yes, it is still active, Jake. Um and or um this week, when you're here in this episode, we will be doing daily posts about the content on LinkedIn under the Impactful Engineer LinkedIn uh profile. So you can engage with us there too. Uh ask a question. Or um, you could also say, hey, you know, I have this specific uh issue with accountability that that you guys really didn't touch on, you know. Can you uh can you touch on it on another episode or could or can you just uh you know answer here? So but other than that, if you did learn something today or think someone else needs to hear this uh uh perspective that we share, please share the show. Um it's the best way that we can continue to grow this podcast and create value and impact for the engineering community.