Episode 169 - You Don’t Need to Agree. You Need to Execute.

You will not agree with every decision your boss, client, or business makes. That does not mean every disagreement deserves a fight. In this episode, Steve and Jake break down why strong engineers know when to make the recommendation, accept the decision, and execute. Not theory, practical, tactical advice for protecting your energy, building trust, and becoming someone people want on high-impact work. 

Key Topics Covered:

• Why technically correct does not always mean strategically right
• How to separate a recommendation from the final decision
• Why the customer’s desired outcome can matter more than your preferred optimization
• When cost, capacity, margin, reputation, or peace of mind change the engineering tradeoff
• How unnecessary resistance burns energy without changing the outcome
• Why constant complaining changes how coworkers and leaders perceive you
• How being easy to work with can increase trust and opportunity
• The difference between a real hill to die on and an ego-driven objection
• Why safety, ethics, and legality are valid reasons to stand your ground

Actionable Steps:

• State your recommendation clearly, then let the decision owner decide
• Ask whether your objection changes safety, ethics, legality, or the required outcome
• Stop treating your preferred solution as the only acceptable solution
• Understand what the customer, leader, or business is actually optimizing for
• Execute the chosen direction without dragging resentment into the work
• Stop retelling every frustrating decision to coworkers
• Reclaim the energy you waste trying to prove a decision was wrong
• Make your leader’s life easier when the request is reasonable and responsible
• Build a reputation as someone who can disagree professionally and still deliver

Who This Episode Is For:

• Engineers frustrated by decisions they would not personally make
• Early-career engineers learning how technical work fits business priorities
• High-performing ICs who want more trust, autonomy, and leadership opportunity
• Engineers burning energy fighting battles that do not affect the outcome
• Future leaders learning when to challenge and when to execute

Why It Matters:

Your career is not built only on whether your technical recommendation was correct. People remember whether you brought clarity, judgment, energy, and execution. Fight the issues that truly matter. For everything else, make the recommendation, understand the decision, and get the job done. 

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

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SPEAKER_00 0:05

And with my co-host and Brother James, we are here to bring you guidance, fresh ideas, and the tools to help you become an impactful engineer. 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 are listening to the right show. Hello, Jacob.

SPEAKER_01 0:51

What's up, Steven? No, that's funny. And we lose half the audience because they do not want to listen to what we have to say.

SPEAKER_00 1:01

And that's okay. There's always a right fit for everyone.

SPEAKER_01 1:04

That's right. Go do your own thing. That's what we're doing. So you might as well do it too. Yep. All right. Uh yeah. Housekeeping, I guess. Sure. Three typical episode types. One is what we're going to do today. Go figure it out. Uh the other one is either Steve or I get on to bring a message that we think will help. Um some fundamental principle or something that that you could apply today whenever you're listening to this. Um, or maybe the entire world slipped down on its head and nothing that's worked for 3,000 years works anymore. That'd be cool too. Yeah. Um, and then sometimes we have for a third episode type is we have a guest come on. Um, because you can't listen to Steve and I talk all the time. And we learn too. Yeah. We don't even like listening to ourselves. I know. It's our secret way of learning more stuff. You know, you can only learn so much by uh experiencing it yourself. We want to shortcut all that stuff.

SPEAKER_00 1:59

So yeah. Yeah. We've had some good ones recently and some good ones coming in. So I'm excited. Yes, yes, yes, yes.

SPEAKER_01 2:08

Well, today, um, short episode, something pretty light. Um, what I really want to hammer today is that sometimes you just gotta do what's required. Um, even though you heavily object, or maybe you don't even heavily object. You're you maybe you just ask yourself why? Why do we gotta do this?

SPEAKER_00 2:31

Or you just think there's a better way.

SPEAKER_01 2:33

You just think there's a better way, which is which is great. Uh, you should always be thinking about those things. But sometimes you just gotta do it, and so I'm hoping that I can help someone just I mean, especially coming from me, just do what somebody tells you to do um is hard. Uh especially especially when you just don't agree, like flat out, you know.

SPEAKER_00 2:56

I I I I think a good way to say it is like, how can we just overcome our objections? That's right.

SPEAKER_01 3:02

Our own objections. And if and I find it is easy when you look at it like you're just taking an approach. It's not the way, it's just the way that you are doing it this time. Uh, for example, I'm working on a job where there's a lot of opportunity to be very cost conscious while I'm doing the design. And someone could say, well, you should always be cost conscious when you're doing any design. And I say nay nay. I say that is not always the focus. But for this one, it is. Um, so as I work my way through the design, there's decisions that I have made, right? That uh were trade-offs of cost. And then uh the electrician and the owner, we review it together, and they reverse a lot of the cost savings measures because they just want the best, they want the thing that will have the most capacity, that in their mind future proofs the entire installation. Gives them peace of mind, gives them peace of mind. And I happily traded what I considered cost conscious design for their peace of mind, because in the end, my business and my service is all about them reaching their desired outcome with the least amount of pain and suffering on their part.

SPEAKER_00 4:33

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 4:34

And giving them what they wanted for peace of mind eases their suffering and their pain. Because you'd have they'd have to think about it. Ah, you know, we saved $10,000 to $20,000, but I'm still worried about this thing, and and I think about it all the time, and that's just friction and energy they're giving away to something that shouldn't even be there. So I'm happy to trade that.

SPEAKER_00 4:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:57

And you'll and you'll find that a lot of people are willing to trade a ton of money for ease at which they feel about the project.

SPEAKER_00 5:05

And there's there's like so many things there. Like just on that very last comment, I my mind goes to you know, why people like why rich people will spend you know a hundred thousand dollars on something silly that like someone's like, I can just make that myself, or I can just blah blah blah blah, right? I can buy the Walmart version. And it's it's it's because they just want it now and they want to fully know that it'll always work every time, and they don't care what they what it costs, right? That's the key. They don't care, they just don't care. Um, and then the the other the other thing I wanted to unpack there was oftentimes, like like a business owner, you know, the the reputation of the brand is more important than the margin. And so they will say, Hey, no, my brand is premium. My brand is is what I stake my my entire life on. And if I underdeliver even a fraction in the perception of my customers, then my brand is tarnished, and then I lose customers. I lose those customers, the customers that want premium products. And so I don't care that this component is gonna cost me 10 points on the margin. I don't care. I want the best, even if everyone else does something different, don't care. I want the best because my reputation or my brand's reputation is so important because I built it up to this point on high quality, you know, uh desired outcome every time, etc. etc. And and so as an engineer, when you're working on a product, yes, you you want to have strong margins. Yes, you want to have, you know, the the most optimized design, you know, like, hey, this needs to last uh two years. It is designed to last two years in one day, you know. It's it's perfectly optimized. You just have to be okay with with doing what the business owner wants, regardless if you think it's inefficient or whatever. It's like, yeah, this component's you know 10% heavier because it's stronger, but we don't need that strength. Who cares? Just do it. Do what's required. Do what's required.

SPEAKER_01 7:10

That's right. And you can zoom all the way in to something applicable to the first-time engineer or just entering the job market and they have their first job. You know, you can zoom all the way in. There's gonna be tons of things you can apply this to. Um, just remember like the person that's asking you to do this is asking you for a reason. Um, and it probably just makes their life easier. And if it's your direct boss, why wouldn't you want to make their life easier? Uh if it's something you need to die on a hill over, then you could decide that for yourself and die on that hill. But most of the time, I would say making their life easier and just doing what's required, doing what is asked, taking the decision over your own is is a perfectly acceptable and most of the time the right decision. Um because I could have stood my ground and died on that hill and said, why would you ever do this? I know all the data, I've looked at the loads, I know the historical peaks, I know all this stuff, and you're overpaying by tons to do all of this labor and this additional wire and these breakers and the transformer and all this stuff. I could just sit there and argue. But you know what they want? They want what they want, and it's and they don't care what it costs. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 8:29

So and and I do want to have a note here for all the astericals, right? The but but in this situation, you know. Yeah, the special snowflakes, yes. Uh, we are not asking you to uh go against your morality or your ethics, right? It's is and we're not asking you to be unsafe. What we're saying is that if someone wants to do something that is not the ideal situation, um, it will make it better or at least in their perception better, but it does not harm anyone in any way, shape, or form, then just do it. Do it for them. Yep. Yeah, just do it, right? If it's unsafe, it's unethical, don't do it, die on that hill. And I have. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 9:14

It's always worked out when it's comes down to the law and safety. Yeah, I just want to throw that in there because there's always someone. Yeah. But actually, I know everybody thinks they got some special circumstance and we don't understand it. It's like, yep, just continue doing it then.

SPEAKER_00 9:29

Yeah. And and you know, the other thing I I want to uh bring up is um you worrying about why is burning a lot of your own energy. Yeah, you know what? And and you're gonna burn yourself out giving a shit about things that don't matter. So stop. You know, reclaim that energy, put it into other things like getting the job done, spending time with your family, you know, uh enjoying life. Just don't burn energy over things that just don't matter and just just do what was asked.

SPEAKER_01 10:02

And I didn't even think about this, but like, because I just so don't do it ever anymore. Uh, is that it could just turn if you if you let it ruin your day, it you're still gonna have to do it because this is what they're gonna want, but then you're gonna turn it into every interaction you have after that, you're gonna talk about it. And that's where I think you're coming from, Steve. It's like you're gonna spend so much energy because you want to tell the next person how dumb this thing was that you had to do, and then you're gonna, and then it's like there's no positive impact or productivity to be had, you're just losing energy and time.

SPEAKER_00 10:38

And then that affects you know the perception of you, right? If if you're Mr. Complaining Pants about uh the why, and you complain to one person, and that person says, geez, you know, Jake really fucking didn't want to do that, just he should have just done it, you know, and that gets around. And then people are like, Yeah, don't work with Jake. He's an asshole.

SPEAKER_01 10:58

It sure does. It sure does get around, yeah. And so you get passed up and you don't you aren't seen as the person that can handle things, and you stay right where you're at.

SPEAKER_00 11:09

Yep. Yep. Yeah, and then if you're like, yeah, boss man, uh, sure, we can do that. You know, uh, I do recommend this if we want to be most efficient, but yeah, that will definitely uh increase the the life of this thing. That sure, let's let's rock it, knock it out of the park. And guess what? You're done with the project, you did the thing, and the boss man is super happy. And you're on to the next. Yep, and you're on to the next project. So I think that's it, man. That that's that's really uh the the meat and potatoes of that one. I said that I said that again. Damn it. All right, anyways. All right. So if you learned something today, or you think someone else needs to hear our point of view, please share the show. It's the best way that we can continue to grow this podcast and create value and impact for the engineering community and leave us a review. That helps the most. Five stars. That'd be great. Thank you. Bye.