I never say "No". Really? I expect to hear No (clarification: I am a project manager/ geek herder). That's fine. I don't need my developers to be wasting time

I never say "No". Really? I expect to hear No (clarification: I am a project manager/ geek herder). That's fine. I don't need my developers to be wasting time working out convincing arguments and workarounds to requests - I trust that they want to be helpful and if they are saying no, there's a good reason. Hell, assuming I am on top of stuff, I can figure out what the reason is - and in the rare occasion when I can't, I just ask. I am here so that my developers don't have to worry about this shit. Yeah, if your PM is not shielding you, you can try that approach above - at least it makes you not look obstructive. However, people burn out doing that after a while, especially when they have to explain this stuff to people who don't want to understand them. In which case a simple "How does this compare with my current top priority X?" is generally sufficient.