How to Challenge Your Boss Without It Feeling Like a Challenge | Nita Patel, VP at Otis

Most people who challenge a superior's decision get it wrong. They oppose. Nita Patel, VP of Engineering at Otis, says the people who have changed her mind did something else: they stayed curious. They asked what happens after step two. They wanted to understand rather than object. By the end of the conversation she is the one asking them what they think, without realizing she was challenged at all.

That works because of the larger skill underneath it. Nita calls herself a translator, estimating 30 to 40% of her time goes to it: working out why a meeting matters, what the goal is, and which pieces of information will get someone there. The translation changes depending on whom you're speaking to. What she presents to a CEO is different from what she presents to the team building it or to a cross-functional peer.

She splits translation in two. Translating an idea to stakeholders means finding the intent and explaining it separately to each group that has to buy-in. Translating an idea into action means breaking the problem down and moving forward before the full plan is in place. She used both to launch the first IEEE Women in Engineering International Leadership Conference, arguing that sometimes you take the leap and build the wings on the way down.

She also names the Toastmasters feedback that changed her most: that she assumes too much and jumps straight to the answer. And she explains why technical leaders labeled direct or difficult are usually being read as too focused on the detail.

If you have ever had a good idea die on the way up, this episode is about the trip.

00:00 Meet Nita Patel, VP of Engineering at Otis

01:17 What Chess Teaches About Anticipating the Other Side

02:11 Know the Rules So the Unexpected Move Does Not Derail You

02:58 How to Make a Fair Call When the Rulebook Runs Out

03:56 Where Confidence Comes From in a Gray-Area Decision

04:35 Rules, Experience, Fallbacks: The Three Sources of Confidence

06:15 When Following the Process Costs You the Objective