98. Skip Level Meetings

As you advance in your career, you won’t be as involved in the day-to-day activities and it can be harder to get a true sense of how your team is feeling. This is particularly true as you begin to manage managers and you’re a bit farther removed from some people in the organization. We’ve reviewed many different strategies to get engaged feedback from your team and here’s a new one: skip level meetings. A skip level meeting is when a higher level manager meets with employees who report to people they manage or others on their team who don’t report directly to them. The goal is generally to create open lines of communication with the higher level manager and get insights on what’s happening in the organization at all levels. It can also be to understand how managers are doing. The meeting can be 1:1 or in group settings. This episode provides tips on how to set up successful skip level meetings, including how to set an agenda, what questions to ask, and why you should do this especially now. To get my top 10 questions to ask in a skip level meeting, check out: https://www.shannaahocking.com/blog/2020/10/13/skip-level-meetings-a-guide-for-managers Your One Bold Move: Schedule a skip level meeting to get broader insights into the organization and what your team needs from you.