Quick answers
- How do you communicate a delay?
- State what's delayed, why, and the new timeline. Inform early.
Key takeaways
- State the delay, cause, and new timeline.
- Inform early.
- Suggest mitigation.
- Own it.
Instead of → Say
| Instead of | Say |
|---|---|
| It's late | We're going to slip by two days. The root cause is [X]. I'll have it done by Wednesday. |
| Something happened | The migration took longer than expected. New ETA: Friday. I've updated the tracker. |
| Sorry | I need to push the deadline. Here's why: [reason]. New date: [date]. I'll keep you posted. |
Example dialogue
You: I need to update the timeline. The staging deploy hit an issue—we're debugging. New ETA is Wednesday instead of Monday. I've notified the QA lead. I'll send an update tomorrow.
Manager: What's the blocker?
You: The CI pipeline. We're working with DevOps. Should have it resolved by EOD.
Common mistakes
- Hiding delays.
- Blaming others.
- No new timeline.
Frequently asked questions
- How do I tell my manager something is delayed?
- State the delay, cause, new timeline, and what you're doing. Do it early.
- What if the delay isn't my fault?
- Stay factual: 'The delay is due to [X]. New ETA is [date]. I've [escalated/notified].'
Related
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