ABOUT THIS EPISODE
“Bad news isn't wine. It doesn't improve with age.” — Colin Powell, American U.S. Army general, diplomat, and statesman
Are you intimidated by the idea of disagreeing with an executive in your company? Many engineers are.
You may feel that disagreeing with an executive will hurt your credibility, your chances for promotion, or even keep you from keeping your job. When done the right way, disagreeing with an executive when warranted will usually have the opposite effect.
Successful executives know that they don’t have all the answers. And they usually don’t tolerate “yes men and women.”
In fact, they prefer engineers who tell them the unvarnished truth, even when it conflicts with the executive’s own view.
In this article, we will explore three ways engineers can disagree with executives without damaging their credibility.
References
- Gallo, Amy. “How to Disagree with Someone More Powerful than You.” Harvard Business Review, March 17, 2016. Discusses assessing the risks of speaking up, connecting disagreement to shared goals, asking permission to dissent, avoiding judgmental language, and respecting the decision-maker's authority.
- Edmondson, Amy C. “Psychological Safety and Learning Behavior in Work Teams.” Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 44, No. 2, June 1999, pp. 350–383. The study of 51 work teams established psychological safety as a shared belief that a team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking and connected it with learning behavior.
- Nembhard, Ingrid M., and Amy C. Edmondson. “Making It Safe: The Effects of Leader Inclusiveness and Professional Status on Psychological Safety and Improvement Efforts in Health Care Teams.” Journal of Organizational Behavior, Vol. 27, No. 7, 2006, pp. 941–966. Examines hierarchy, professional status, leader inclusiveness, and employees' willingness to speak up
- Nembhard, Ingrid M., and Amy C. Edmondson. “Psychological Safety: A Foundation for Speaking Up, Collaboration, and Experimentation in Organizations.” The Oxford Handbook of Positive Organizational Scholarship, Oxford University Press, 2012, pp. 491–504. Reviews evidence linking
© 2026 DiBartolomeo Consulting International (DCI), LLC. All Rights Reserved. May not be used without permission.
© 2026 DiBartolomeo Consulting International (DCI), LLC. All Rights Reserved. May not be used without permission.
