This YouTube talk (by Clegg) explains what a skip level meeting is, why organizations should run them, and how to run them well. A skip level meeting is when a senior leader meets with employees one level removed from their direct reports; it is meant to be transparent and not a "gotcha" session. Clegg lists five benefits: building trust, encouraging open communication, identifying hidden issues, supporting career development, and increasing transparency. Practical guidance includes frequency (recommended at least once a quarter; monthly may be appropriate for small teams), privacy limits (employees must know what will be shared with their supervisor; sensitive issues may be kept private up to a point and escalated to HR), and orchestration advice (clear objectives, reminders to supervisors, organization-wide rollout). He also prescribes a 603010 meeting time split: 60% on performance, 30% focused on questions about the employee's supervisor for coaching purposes (not professional development), with example coaching questions provided.
Chapters
Part two of the four steps to developing deeper relationships with your employees. A skip level meeting is where the senior leader meets with at least one level removed from their direct report, bypassing the immediate supervisor. This meeting is not a gotcha meeting. This is very transparent and it's part of the overall process that the entire organization is aware of. The employee that the senior leader is going to meet with has to understand that the information shared in this meeting will be shared with their boss. However, if there are significant concerns, and I will say from time to time that does happen, where the employee may not trust their supervisor in those particular cases, then you can let them know that they can speak freely and that those things will remain private up to a certain point. They have to understand what that the senior leaders role is to resolve these issues. And if it's that bad, then obviously that's something that likely at that point needs to have human resources involved. But for the overwhelming majority, skip level meetings are fantastic way to start creating transparency in the organization. There are five reasons that you should be doing a skip level meeting. The first reason is it builds trust. It creates an open dialogue between senior leadership employees. And these meetings can really help build strength across the organization. Number two, encourages open communication. Now this doesn't happen overnight, but it does happen in time when the skip level meetings are done with some regularity. My recommendation overall is to do them at least once a quarter. Once a month is probably a little too much depending on the size of the team. But if you've got a smaller team, once a month is great. Number three, identify hidden issues. These are things that oftentimes the employee supervisor may not be aware of or they could be things that the supervisor is just missing. Nonetheless, it creates a great coaching opportunity for the supervisor. Number four, career development support. When a senior leader gets to have the opportunity to spend time talking about the goals and the long term outcomes of employees, it really helps drive the entire career development pathway which is really critical and important that the employees can connect their goals with their work today. Number five, as I've mentioned, it opens transparency. Direct communication from senior leadership actually helps to demystify organizational structure changes or any other key initiative that has recently happened or happened in the past. Now I'll say this, skip level meetings need to be well orchestrated because they need to be effective, they need to be open and the dialogue itself needs to provide clarity. There need to be clear objectives to this meeting. Good thing for you is we've got the same formula as we do in the one on ones we call that the 603010 60% is still performance. But in the skip level, the 30% is not about professional development. The 30% is focused on asking questions regarding the employee's supervisor. This is for coaching purposes only. Questions like what's the best part of working with your supervisor? Or questions like what does your supervisor do? Well, and obviously a great question is what are things that your supervisor can do to improve? Or what areas can they improve? These are great questions that help senior leaderships put together a coaching program for their employee. But as a reminder, make sure that your employee, the supervisor is reminded of the Skip level meeting. Right? And once again, if there's consistency in the frequency of these meetings, it's going to be no problem. If this is something new that you're launching in your organization, I certainly make sure to roll this out inside of your entire organization so that your employees have an opportunity to address any questions or concerns that they have. Because not every organization does skip level meeting, but I highly recommend them. Please share this content Go ahead and subscribe to the YouTube channel where all things are leadership and personal development.
