How to Make the Most of Skip-level Meetings as the Junior Employee

Resources, best practices and tools to help you take advantage of your skip-level meetings.

thelighthouse.us
4 min readFeb 10, 2021

Skip-level meetings might sound daunting — especially if you haven’t had one before. That’s why we put together this guide to help you understand and succeed when your boss’ boss comes knocking.

In this post you’ll find answers to:

  • Why does my organization hold skip-level meetings?
  • What am I supposed to discuss in skip-level meetings?
  • What can I do to prepare for my skip-level meeting?
  • Additional resources (articles & podcasts)
Photo by LinkedIn Sales Navigator on Unsplash

Why does my organization hold skip-level meetings?

Usually your skip-level manager is responsible for making sure the right projects are getting prioritized by each of the teams that report to them. Anything related to this is worth talking about. Some reasons why your skip-level manager might want to hold a meeting:

  • Sometimes things get lost in translation going through the front line manager.
  • Something you talked about with your manager might not have registered as important, but it might to be important to your skip-level manager.
  • Your skip level manager may want to get “soft” feedback about your manager (things sometimes “break” in middle management) that they might not have gotten otherwise without a formal review process.
  • They want to develop your trust and relationship relationship.

But most importantly:

  • They are genuinely interested in how their department is running, and
  • They want to discuss broader business strategy — where the company is going, what some of the big initiatives for the quarter (or year) are, and how they sees your team’s work (and potentially your work) fitting in with the big picture of the company.

Some questions they might ask to narrow the focus:

  • What are the most important things currently going on at work for you? What keeps you up at night?
  • How is working with our department?
  • Is there anything I can do to help you and your team?
  • What would you do differently if you were the manager of your team?
  • Why is project A being chosen over B?
  • Are there tools that would let your whole team work better?
  • What are other teams working on and how does that relate to your work?
  • How could we better leverage your “unique” skill set?
  • What is your least favorite part of the company
  • How would you change things if you were in my shoes?

What am I supposed to discuss in skip-level meetings?

Ideally, you need to already have a genuine interest in where your company is headed. Ideally, your company has an equally genuine interest in you and your development.

Photo by Amy Hirschi on Unsplash

Some things you may want to consider thinking / talking about:

  • How your piece fits into a bigger puzzle and how your team’s goals support the company’s success.
  • What other projects or programs are being worked on that you might find interesting.
  • What efficiencies or inefficiencies you identify, based on your work and the conversation.
  • How your career development fits in the goals of the organization in the short to medium term (think 2–5 years).

What can I do to prepare for a skip-level meeting?

  • Make a list of all your recent accomplishments — things you love about your job.
  • Assuming you don’t already know, look up your skip-level manager’s LinkedIn or internal company profile so you have an idea who you are talking to.
  • Ask your direct manager for insight on your skip-level manager. Your direct manager should already know and approve of your skip-level meeting.
  • Take a page out of this playbook from DocketHQ.

Anything else I should know?

  • Make sure you protect yourself and ask for confidentiality.
  • Skip-level meetings also put a face to your name, so come review time they might fight for you a little stronger than normal!

Articles

Podcasts

The Five Levels of Listening

  • Listening and how to digest information to make meaningful changes,
  • The unsaid meanings in how more experienced people speak to lower level employees, and
  • How to use language to be specific about what you mean.

How Can I Get More Feedback From My Boss

  • How to get negative feedback out of your higher ups (areas of improvement), and
  • How to ask what your shortcomings are compared to your direct manager in order to position yourself to be a manager one day.

How to Prevent Management Messes

  • How to make the most of a 1 on 1,
  • Why being a good listener is key to career development,
  • How to be a leader even when you aren’t in a leadership role, and
  • How to make your personal goals clear in a 1 on 1 situation.

Have any advice or resources that should be on this list? Email us at yourfriends@thelighthouse.us or leave us a comment below!

Written & Edited by Athena Maria Kalamaras & Meera Keskar

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