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You are leading a digital organization and things seem to be going fine. Your retention numbers are better than average, and people seem to like being there.
But you’ve never been comfortable with assuming. And retention is a lagging indicator. By the time it hits you, it’s too late to change.
So how can you stay ahead of the curve and know how your culture is doing WAY before it’s a problem?
Employee engagement scores are helpful and should be a part of your regular review. But just like with your customers, some qualitative information goes a long way to connect the dots and tap into the narrative.
Enter skip level meetings.
By meeting with those you don’t directly manage, you gain the insight you need to make decisions and run a successful business. That’s a win-win scenario you can’t afford to ignore.
What is a skip level meeting and what is its purpose?
Skip level meetings are a variant of the one on one meeting. But rather than meeting with someone you interact with all the time, a skip level meeting connects you with employees you don’t manage directly. In most cases, you “skip” the manager between you and the employee.
There are three purposes behind a skip level meeting:
- To get the inside scoop on a different level of your business
- To gain valuable insight and feedback that can propel your business to the next level or stage
- To build relationships with people on your team that you rarely meet with
Why don’t more leaders do skip level meetings?
Skip level meetings sound like no brainers, but there are a few great reasons you don’t do them right now.
Time. Yes, meeting with everyone in the company sounds like a great idea, but who has time for that? You’ve got a lot of other things to spend your time on, and don’t need one more.
Fairness. If you can’t meet with everyone, how do you choose who to meet with? Will people get bitter and frustrated if they never get to meet with you? How do you navigate that?
Trust. You hired the managers around you to lead their teams. If you meet with their direct reports, will they feel like you don’t trust them to give you accurate information? Does it seem like you are trying to micromanage around them?
Fear. If an employee gets a note that they are meeting with the CEO tomorrow, that might cause some anxiety. If they are nervous and clam up, it ruins the point of the meeting.
Messiness. What if the opposite happens, and employees come with a long list of stuff they want you to fix? Will a skip meeting bring a sense of entitlement that you will solve all of their problems?
How do you solve the issues that skip level meetings bring up?
Don’t just jump into skip level meetings without giving a lot of context and expectations. Here are a few ways that you can get ahead of the potential issues.
1. It’s not dependent on you
Whoever said you were the only one that had to do skip level meetings? They are most effective when lots of people around the organization are having them. If you feel like you are the only one who can impact the culture, everything will crumble around you. Culture is everyone’s responsibility. Make sure everyone has skip level meetings on their calendar.
2. Set clarity on what it is and isn’t
Before you start putting meeting requests on someone’s calendar, be clear about what the meeting is about. It’s a chance to learn about how things in the company are going, share ideas, and get to know one another. This is not a promise to fix every grievance that everyone has.
3. Reassure your leaders
Make sure your leaders know this is not a matter of checking up on them. Let them know ahead of time if information gained in skip level meetings will be used as a part of their evaluation or not. If it will be used, be very explicit how this will be done and give a significant amount of time before it rolls into place to make sure your systems work.
How often should you have skip level meetings?
Skip level meetings should be happening throughout the organization all the time. How often you individually have them is up to you. It depends on your own schedule and how important these meetings become to you. Starting with fortnightly meetings is a good place to start and then increase or decrease as required.
Like other types of meetings, you should only hold a skip level meeting when it contains a benefit or advantage for both you and your employees. Don’t have them just to have them.
What makes a digital skip level meeting different?
A digital skip level meeting mimics an in-person one in most facets. The main difference is the environment of the meeting. In the office, a skip level meeting might take place in the CEO’s office or some other intimidating setting. As a digital meeting, it’s done on a screen.
For this reason, be aware of your video background when meeting with someone who has never had a conversation with you. They’ll immediately get a sense for your personality and how formal the conversation should be.
Also, if it’s not already clear in your ground rules for meetings, make it clear if you expect the other person to start with their video on.
Questions to ask during a skip level meeting
Think about what you want to learn from skip level meetings. Is it just to make a connection with other people? Do you want to ask the same questions every time? Are you looking for specific data to back up employee engagement information? Do you want to keep the answers somewhere to use later, or is this just a personal call?
Once you get the purpose down, you’ll know what questions you want to ask.
If you decide to ask a specific list of questions, you might want to consider sending those ahead of time so that the other person has time to prepare and isn’t caught off guard.
Following up
The follow up is essential to set before you start scheduling skip level meetings. If you are just using them to make a personal connection and get to know people better, then no one should expect a follow up.
If you plan to listen to people’s ideas and/or grievances, then you’ll need to let them know how you plan to follow up at the end of the meeting.
If you are collecting data, people will want to know if they can view that data later once it is collected.
Skip level meetings can be the best communication channel you have to know what’s really going on in your company. But it’s not something that you should just start doing without a plan. Let everyone know why you are starting these meetings and what they should expect.
What do you feel like is the most interesting lesson you’ve learned from skip level meetings?
Photo by LinkedIn Sales Solutions on Unsplash
You are leading a digital organization and things seem to be going fine. Your retention numbers are better than average, and people seem to like being there.
But you’ve never been comfortable with assuming. And retention is a lagging indicator. By the time it hits you, it’s too late to change.
So how can you stay ahead of the curve and know how your culture is doing WAY before it’s a problem?
Employee engagement scores are helpful and should be a part of your regular review. But just like with your customers, some qualitative information goes a long way to connect the dots and tap into the narrative.
Enter skip level meetings.
By meeting with those you don’t directly manage, you gain the insight you need to make decisions and run a successful business. That’s a win-win scenario you can’t afford to ignore.
What is a skip level meeting and what is its purpose?
Skip level meetings are a variant of the one on one meeting. But rather than meeting with someone you interact with all the time, a skip level meeting connects you with employees you don’t manage directly. In most cases, you “skip” the manager between you and the employee.
There are three purposes behind a skip level meeting:
- To get the inside scoop on a different level of your business
- To gain valuable insight and feedback that can propel your business to the next level or stage
- To build relationships with people on your team that you rarely meet with
Why don’t more leaders do skip level meetings?
Skip level meetings sound like no brainers, but there are a few great reasons you don’t do them right now.
Time. Yes, meeting with everyone in the company sounds like a great idea, but who has time for that? You’ve got a lot of other things to spend your time on, and don’t need one more.
Fairness. If you can’t meet with everyone, how do you choose who to meet with? Will people get bitter and frustrated if they never get to meet with you? How do you navigate that?
Trust. You hired the managers around you to lead their teams. If you meet with their direct reports, will they feel like you don’t trust them to give you accurate information? Does it seem like you are trying to micromanage around them?
Fear. If an employee gets a note that they are meeting with the CEO tomorrow, that might cause some anxiety. If they are nervous and clam up, it ruins the point of the meeting.
Messiness. What if the opposite happens, and employees come with a long list of stuff they want you to fix? Will a skip meeting bring a sense of entitlement that you will solve all of their problems?
How do you solve the issues that skip level meetings bring up?
Don’t just jump into skip level meetings without giving a lot of context and expectations. Here are a few ways that you can get ahead of the potential issues.
1. It’s not dependent on you
Whoever said you were the only one that had to do skip level meetings? They are most effective when lots of people around the organization are having them. If you feel like you are the only one who can impact the culture, everything will crumble around you. Culture is everyone’s responsibility. Make sure everyone has skip level meetings on their calendar.
2. Set clarity on what it is and isn’t
Before you start putting meeting requests on someone’s calendar, be clear about what the meeting is about. It’s a chance to learn about how things in the company are going, share ideas, and get to know one another. This is not a promise to fix every grievance that everyone has.
3. Reassure your leaders
Make sure your leaders know this is not a matter of checking up on them. Let them know ahead of time if information gained in skip level meetings will be used as a part of their evaluation or not. If it will be used, be very explicit how this will be done and give a significant amount of time before it rolls into place to make sure your systems work.
How often should you have skip level meetings?
Skip level meetings should be happening throughout the organization all the time. How often you individually have them is up to you. It depends on your own schedule and how important these meetings become to you. Starting with fortnightly meetings is a good place to start and then increase or decrease as required.
Like other types of meetings, you should only hold a skip level meeting when it contains a benefit or advantage for both you and your employees. Don’t have them just to have them.
What makes a digital skip level meeting different?
A digital skip level meeting mimics an in-person one in most facets. The main difference is the environment of the meeting. In the office, a skip level meeting might take place in the CEO’s office or some other intimidating setting. As a digital meeting, it’s done on a screen.
For this reason, be aware of your video background when meeting with someone who has never had a conversation with you. They’ll immediately get a sense for your personality and how formal the conversation should be.
Also, if it’s not already clear in your ground rules for meetings, make it clear if you expect the other person to start with their video on.
Questions to ask during a skip level meeting
Think about what you want to learn from skip level meetings. Is it just to make a connection with other people? Do you want to ask the same questions every time? Are you looking for specific data to back up employee engagement information? Do you want to keep the answers somewhere to use later, or is this just a personal call?
Once you get the purpose down, you’ll know what questions you want to ask.
If you decide to ask a specific list of questions, you might want to consider sending those ahead of time so that the other person has time to prepare and isn’t caught off guard.
Following up
The follow up is essential to set before you start scheduling skip level meetings. If you are just using them to make a personal connection and get to know people better, then no one should expect a follow up.
If you plan to listen to people’s ideas and/or grievances, then you’ll need to let them know how you plan to follow up at the end of the meeting.
If you are collecting data, people will want to know if they can view that data later once it is collected.
Skip level meetings can be the best communication channel you have to know what’s really going on in your company. But it’s not something that you should just start doing without a plan. Let everyone know why you are starting these meetings and what they should expect.
What do you feel like is the most interesting lesson you’ve learned from skip level meetings?
Photo by LinkedIn Sales Solutions on Unsplash
