Why do skip-level meetings?

Doing frequent 1 on 1 meetings is what separates great leaders from the good ones. If you are not already sold on this, go read this article.

Use this template

#1 - Icebreakers + Get to know each other (5 mins) 

Use this to put the team member at ease! Some fun questions to ask - 

• What’s your favourite place to vacation?
• What is the best concert you have ever been to?
• Pineapple on Pizza. Yay or Nay? 😇

Check out our list of 3300+ Icebreaker questions to get more inspiration 

#2 - Feedback from employee on team / company (10 mins) 

On to serious stuff now! Some helpful questions to get you started:

• What is #1 product feature we should fast track / build soon?
• What is 1 thing we did well in the past 3 months? What could we have done better as a team last month?
• How are we doing as a team on diversity, equality & inclusion (gender, age etc)

#3 - Check on employee morale / career growth (5 mins)

Don’t miss this opportunity to understand how the team member is doing. Some great questions:

• Are you worried about the progress of any team projects?
• How’s life outside work? All good?
• Are you clear about your goals for this quarter? What needs clarity?

An ideal skip level meeting template:

• Keeps everyone in the loop - Please don’t use this meeting to snoop on your middle layer of management! Make sure everyone knows why, how and when these take place.
• Uses Icebreakers - meeting their boss’s boss is overwhelming for everyone! Use technique like fun Icebreakers to put everyone at ease
• Focuses on the bigger picture - this meeting is not about project status updates! Zoom out a bit. Talk about the team’s vision and overall strategy.
• Helps you get feedback as a leader - ask a lot of questions about how you can improve your leadership style