One of the things you learn with experience is to default to taking direction from executives /people higher up in the hierarchy seriously, but not literally.
That happens after we make the mistake of doing the opposite – taking guidance literally instead of seeing the feedback as a signal to prioritize time and effort to get the thinking/execution right.
Good executives rarely know the right answer given the execution constraints on the ground, but almost always know to ask the right questions. Taking their guidance seriously ensures we do the work to figure out the right answers to the important questions.
Seriously, but not literally.
