How to tell if someone on your team is blocked
People who are stuck often do not say so. They wait politely, start something else, or try to work around the problem. Days can pass before anyone notices.
What you can notice yourself
- A pull request has waited days for a review.
- They say "still working on it" at stand-up several days in a row.
- They start new work while older work sits unfinished.
- They are waiting for an answer from another team.
What to do
- Ask: "Is anything holding you up?"
- Find a reviewer, or the right person on the other team, and make the introduction yourself.
- Agree as a team on how long work may wait before someone raises it.
What to avoid
- Do not ask why they did not say something sooner. It teaches people to hide delays.
Guides on this
- One on one questions to ask your team
One on one questions for every part of a 1:1 meeting: workload, the team, growth and you as their manager. Plus what to talk about, and a simple agenda.
- Signs an employee is secretly struggling
The work changes that show someone may be struggling, why they hide it, and how a manager can ask in a way that gets an honest answer.
- Overwhelmed at work: how a manager can help
What to do when someone has too much on: how to find out what they are carrying, what to take away, and how to check that it worked.
- Employee onboarding: a 90-day plan
A practical plan for a new hire's first days and first 90 days: what to prepare, who they should meet, and what to check on each week.
- First time manager: what to do first
A plan for a first time manager: meet each person, learn how the team works, start one on ones, and avoid the mistakes most new managers make.
Related signals
- How to tell if a team member is overloaded
Someone is working too much.
- When an employee goes quiet: what to look for
Someone is much quieter than usual.
- How to spot good work nobody is talking about
Someone is doing more than usual, or helping others a lot.
- Are you giving one person less of your time?
One person gets much less of your time than the others.
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