How do you cope with delays and the results of it?

Play with the perception people build on your delay. Show people that the reason that happened is for them. Never forget that your audience/IC is the hero of the story. Your brand is just here to provide stepping stones guiding them toward resolution.

Try to find the source. If they are blockers, think as a team on how to overcome them.

Plan better next time. But know that no plan will be perfect. You should be hitting 80% of your goals per week. If you're hitting 100% every week, it means you're not pushing yourself enough.

Use ReliablyME to build an accountability culture on your team. It is a gamified peer-to-peer accountability tool that allows people to offer or request commitments via SMS, WhatsApp, mobile app, web app, and soon Slack plugin. It allows all users to build a personal Commitment Portfolio with their collection of earned/issued badges and reliability, punctuality, and confidence scores.

Really just focusing on what I can change rather than worrying about the effect of the delays

You're right especially when working on a small team with a new product this is always bound to happen. I think for starters setting realistic timelines helps and learning from the setback to plan appropriately, adaptability is key!

Just over a month ago, our product was ready. It took us 1-2 weeks to build the MVP, and we were itching to get it into people's hands. We had so much momentum. But for all of April, the App Store rejected our app submission eight times, with days in between reviews! That's months in startup land. Fortunately, I've launched in the App Store before, so I had low expectations. We focused on adding more functionality and getting the thing we could control underway. I did still get annoyed at myself for not getting through the process faster, but I genuinely don't think there's anything we can do sometimes. You have to focus on what's in your control and keep your expectations low. Now our cross-platform AI chat and image mobile app are in both main app stores, we're thinking almost exclusively about the launch.

Although dealing with delays can be frustrating, there are certain things that you can do to manage the situation and lessen its negative effects on your objectives. Open communication, reevaluating your schedule, determining the source of the delay and resolving it, maintaining focus on your objectives, and using the experience as a chance to learn and enhance your procedures are all possible ways which I personally think are best to deal with delays.

Look for opportunities to improve the process or optimize the workflow to avoid similar delays in the future.

Re-evaluate the resources and budget to determine if additional support or funding is needed to address the delay.