What is a skip level meeting?
It's often hard for senior managers or those higher up in the organization to keep in touch with the people who don't directly report to them. The more the distance, the bigger is the gap between them.
The only way to bridge this gap is to develop the perspective required to stay close to reality—uncover what employees in the organization are really thinking, what are their frustrations, motivations and what issues impact them on a day-to-day basis.
Skip level is a meeting in which you meet your manager's direct reports without your manager's presence. It gives you an opportunity to connect with your indirect reports, hear their thoughts, ideas and concerns. They feel heard and valued and you get a chance to identify areas that need your focus, time and attention—a true win/win.
Why manager of managers should hold skip level meetings?
Doing regular 1-1 meetings with your managers is essential to learn about their teams, projects, ideas and concerns. However, you can't rely solely on your managers and let them do all the talking. How they feel about their teams may be disconnected from how their teams feel about them. There's often a wide gap between their perception and reality.
It's your job as their manager and as a leader of this organization to hear your employees concerns and hold your managers accountable to address them.
A skip level meeting done right can help you:
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Find blind spots to enhance your organization's culture.
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Identify real problems that impacts productivity and performance of people.
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Get visibility into how your managers are doing and support them in their pursuit to be better leaders.
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Build trust and make employees feel heard by giving them an opportunity to share their ideas and thoughts.
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Share company strategy and vision, seek alignment and improve communication flow in the organization.
How do you structure a skip level meeting?
A skip level meeting isn't a project status update or a chance to snoop in on your managers. To make the most of this meeting, be clear about the agenda.
A good agenda includes the following:
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Connect: Get to know them. Getting to know them personally will help you ease them into the conversation and make them open to sharing their thoughts and views.
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Career / Growth: Gauge how they're doing professionally and what you can do to help them succeed.
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Team feedback: Understand team dynamics, challenges and opportunities for the team to be more effective.
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Feedback for managers and leadership: Understand what you can do to help your managers become better leaders and areas where you can improve too.
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Top of their mind: Give them an opportunity to share their frustrations, motivations or anything else top of their mind that they wish to discuss.
Template provided with this download includes all these sections and more for you to have an effective conversation with your indirect reports.
What email template can I use to send skip level meeting invites?
Here's a skip level meeting invite sample that you can use to inform managers and indirect reports.
Email template to inform managers:
Hi [name of the manager],
I have come to realize that it's important for me to connect at a personal level with everyone on the team even if they do not report to me. This will give me an opportunity to hear their ideas, thoughts and concerns, align on our strategy and vision and get insights on how they view leadership and management in the organization.
These meetings will enable me to determine areas which need my time and attention. It will also be a great opportunity for me to share any feedback, patterns or questions that emerge from these conversations that I think will be valuable to you.
I am planning to start these skip-level meetings with your indirect reports [mention when] and will do them a few times throughout the year. Please note that these meetings are not intended to make decisions, problem solve or discuss anything that your team should be discussing with you directly. I will not undermine your role and authority in any way. I will be in listening mode to gather information that will help everyone in the team work more effectively.
If you have any concerns or questions regarding this meeting, let's talk about it.
Cheers,
[......]
Email template to invite your manager's direct reports or other employees for a skip-level meeting:
Hi [name of the employee],
I am planning to start one-on-one conversation with employees who are part of my organization but do not report to me. These meetings are an opportunity for me to get to know you better, get your perspective on how things are going in the organization for you and identify ways in which we can all work better together.
My agenda will be to hear your ideas, thoughts and concerns, seek alignment on company's strategy and vision and get feedback on organizational leadership and management (including your manager). If there's something you wish to discuss, please send it across and I will include it in the agenda.
You will soon get an invite from me. Look forward to talking with you soon!
Cheers,
[....]
How do I send a skip level meeting invite?
When planning to send a skip level meeting invite:
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Start with informing your managers. Send them an email stating the purpose of these meetings and when you wish to start. Take time to address any concerns they may have.
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Send an email invite to your indirect reports. Don't keep the invite vague. Clearly state why you wish to meet them and ask them to send you questions they wish to be included in the agenda.
After your first meeting with them:
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Anonymize the feedback and share it with your managers. This will make the feedback actionable and give an opportunity to your managers to improve.
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Schedule a recurring invite. Your indirect reports will know when they're going to meet you next which will enable them to prepare in advance and have a more productive conversation.
The information that you are meeting indirect reports will spread faster than you can imagine. Ensure you do this with each of the indirect reports to avoid people feeling left out or biased.
What questions to ask during skip level meeting?
Being prepared and asking good questions is the key to have a thoughtful and meaningful conversation with the people in your organization.
This skip level meeting questions download comes with 72 questions divided into multiple categories to help you stay structured and have a productive meeting. Choose a new question each time from the different categories and make sure to ask good follow-up questions.
Here are a few questions to get started:
Connect (Get to know them)
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Where did you grow up? Where did you go to college?
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What do you like doing outside of work?
Career / Growth (How they're doing)
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Do you have clarity on your goals or what you need to do to achieve success as a team?
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What do you consider as your strength and how can we better leverage it?
Feedback for Team / Company
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If there was one thing that you could fix in the team or the company, what would it be? Why?
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When was the last time your team performed really well? What do you think contributed to it?
Feedback for Manager / Leadership
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Tell me about a recent situation that your manager did not handle so well? What do you think they could have done differently.
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Do you find managers and leaders in this organization receptive to your feedback?
How long should a skip level meeting be?
Skip level meetings can range anywhere from 30 mins to an hour depending on the number of people you need to meet as well as the agenda. Start with whatever time commitment seems appropriate, see how it goes, then adapt and make changes. You can have these meetings once a month or quarterly.
The most important thing is to get started, have frequent conversations and stick to a schedule. Showing up to the meeting on time and not doing reschedules or cancellations is important to show that you are serious about these meetings and encourage your people to take them seriously too.
Are skip level meetings confidential?
Skip level meetings are confidential in the sense that you cannot share the feedback from your indirect reports with your manager (or others) by stating "who said what." The feedback must be anonymized while not missing important details.
At the same time, you shouldn't hide that you're doing skip-level meetings. Let your managers, other leaders or employees in the organization know your purpose and agenda. As a leader, meeting your indirect reports and hearing their concerns is sign of a healthy work culture.
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