What is a skip level meeting?

A skip level meeting is a discussion between people who have a gap between levels in the organizational chart—for instance, it’s when a manager meets with the direct report of someone who she herself manages. This meeting skips a level in the leadership hierarchy, hence its name.

Skip level meetings allow information to be shared directly down the leadership hierarchies to the extended team without involving middle management. This ensures that leadership has a chance to hear directly from lower-level staff about their work experiences and satisfaction level. Without the presence of their bosses in a skip level meeting, workers generally feel more open about expressing how things are going.  

Why should leadership hold skip level meetings?

There are many benefits to skip level meetings. The following are some reasons leaders may choose to hold them:

Demonstrate company values

Holding a skip level meeting gives leadership the opportunity to personally share company values with employees. It allows leadership to both hear stories and share stories, which helps leadership become more relatable to their employees. By discussing company values in a friendly open environment, leaders help employees see their workplace as ethical, honest and trustworthy.

Read more: Company values 

Ensure clear communication

Having skip level meetings is important for ensuring clear communication up and down the hierarchy of your business without messaging being filtered through middle management. This strengthens communication and transparency within departments as well as throughout the company as a whole. 

Solve performance issues

Skip level meetings help you figure out the cause of specific issues that a team may be experiencing. If your team’s performance has been lacking due to challenges that are reducing productivity, skip level meetings can serve a critical role in finding out what the problem is. They allow you to differentiate whether performance issues are due to poor leadership or another problem. 

Receive feedback about middle management

Skip level meetings are a good way to fix ineffective management. These meetings allow for direct feedback from members of the non-managerial team about the communication skills of management. Because middle management isn’t present, the absent manager or managers’ direct reports can freely discuss whether their leader or leaders are causing the problem. 

Of course, staff may still be hesitant to share critical feedback about their boss with their boss’s boss. Nevertheless, a skip level meeting does give staff the opportunity to be as fully transparent and honest about their boss and department as they’re comfortable with.

Address middle management issues

If there’s negative feedback coming from skip level meetings about a director’s communication or leadership skills, this is a chance for you to address concerns and reiterate expectations. You can address management issues by giving specific instructions on how to fix the issue, creating a time frame in which issues should be solved and laying out consequences if the problem is not improved.

Related: How to Create a Performance Improvement Plan 

How to prepare for a skip level meeting

The following are some steps you can take to prepare for a skip level meeting:

Set a goal

Ask yourself what you would like to get out of the skip level meeting. Perhaps you anticipate direct feedback or you’re hoping to encourage a transparent culture within your organization. Whatever the case, keep your goal in mind throughout preparation and during the meeting itself.

Select the key topics to share

When preparing for the skip level meeting, narrow topics down to select key ideas you want to share with the team. Gather information to learn about the team members before the meeting, and try to gain an understanding of what their strengths and weaknesses are. 

Be prepared to ask questions

Gather a list of questions you plan to ask. You’ll want the questions to be engaging and framed in a positive way, so your team will be comfortable sharing. You want to foster an environment that causes staff to open up to you, so take pains to make sure the tone is not negative—even when addressing problems you see that need to be fixed.

Be prepared to make it personal

You may want to make your questions personal. It’s always good to encourage employees to share their stories. For example, you could ask, “Tell me a time when you helped a customer and it felt good” or, “What is your idea of an ideal work day here?” With an environment of openness created, your staff will be more forthcoming about their experiences and how they feel their team is functioning.

Contact managers about the skip level meetings

Skip level meetings are not supposed to be secret gatherings that happen behind the backs of middle managers. Middle management should be aware that you’re talking to their direct reports about the team’s performance and they should know it isn’t a cause for concern.

Whether you want to directly schedule meetings with the staff is up to you. But you may also want to ask middle management to gather available meeting times from their team and schedule things that way. Involving middle management in this step can be yet another reassurance to them that you’re not going around their back to hold meetings with their direct reports.

Another thing to consider is how much lead time you’re giving staff before the skip level meeting. You want the staff to come prepared and to be comfortable with the idea behind such a meeting, so you certainly want to give several days or more lead time. Scheduling such a meeting for the same day or even the next day may make it seem like an emergency, and that can rattle or confuse staff.

Related: Best Practices for Managing Change in the Workplace 

FAQs about skip level meetings

The following are some frequently asked questions about the topic of skip level meetings:

What skip level meeting questions should I ask?

What you want to get out of the meeting will determine the kinds of questions you’ll ask. If at least part of the purpose is to get a general sense of team satisfaction and engagement, here are 10 sample skip level meeting questions you can ask to open the floor to a transparent and honest discussion. Note that some of them are completely unrelated to work, which is a good way to get the conversation flowing and to disarm any staff members who might be nervous about the meeting. 

• What would be the one biggest thing we could change or implement to to improve team performance?
• On a scale of one to 10, how would you rate the leadership of our company? 
• If instead of your boss you were suddenly the manager of the team, what would you do differently to improve morale and performance?
• What is your favorite and least favorite thing about working here?
• What project that you were apart of here made you the proudest?
• What changes could the company implement to make you happier in your role and happier within the company in general?
• Is there anything you need from the leadership team that you feel you’re not getting?
• What is your greatest non-work achievement within the past year or so? 
• Where would you take a two-week vacation if you won an all-expenses-paid trip?
• What is a good podcast or television show you recently enjoyed that you would recommend to this group?

What should I avoid at skip level meetings?

The purpose of a skip level meeting is to solicit transparent feedback from the staff. A skip level meeting is not an opportunity for denouncing employees, and indeed, the overall tone should always be positive, even when discussing criticisms. The skip level meeting should feel like a friendly and professional environment where everyone can feel free to speak their minds openly and honestly. Let your employees know that you are seeking to be more transparent and maintain a clear channel of communication between leaders and staff members.  

What kind of feedback should I look for?

Often, skip level meetings are held to seek feedback about management and leadership, but these meetings can also be used to gain insights about employee satisfaction and engagement. It’s a way to “take the temperature” on an individual department. You can use this time to ask for feedback about how staff members view the company’s organizational culture and values. This is an opportunity to learn about what your employees are doing well and how they may be struggling.

How do I let managers and leaders know about a skip level meeting?

When contacting managers to inform them about skip level meetings, keep it positive. This is a time to explain the benefits that the meeting will have for the whole team. Explain to them that you’ll share any relevant feedback you discover. You can meet with managers one-on-one before the skip level meetings if they have questions or concerns.