It’s Monday morning, and your inbox is already flooded. Execs heard you won’t be able to deliver this week the big project your team has been working on.
The exec team is frustrated, and they want answers.
Your team is working hard, but you’re not close to delivering it. The pressure is on, and how you communicate from this point onwards is important.
What do you say? How do you keep trust while also protecting your team?
Outline
🔒 The wrong approaches
🔒 Three acceptable ways to handle the situation
🔒 How to communicate without hurting your reputation
🔒 How your plan could go wrong (and what to do about it)
🔒 Final thoughts
🔒 Some useful links from me
If you enjoy posts like this, consider supporting my work and subscribing to this newsletter.
As a free subscriber, you get:
✉️ 1 post per week
As a paid subscriber, you get:
🔒 50 Engineering Manager templates and playbooks (worth $79)
🔒 The Engineering Manager’s Field Guide (worth $29)
🔒 A weekly "What would you do?" scenario & breakdown from real challenges EMs face
🔒 The complete archive