Skip-Level Meetings: How to Run Them

Quick answer

Skip-level meetings are a manager’s 1:1s with their reports’ reports — ground truth without the middle filter; run quarterly, with questions about the system, not about their boss.

The purpose

Hear the organization unfiltered — what work is actually like, what’s broken, what the middle layer isn’t passing up.

The format

Quarterly, 30 min, small groups or individuals — questions about process and obstacles, never ‘how’s your manager’.

The rules

Tell the middle managers it’s happening and why; share themes upward anonymously; act on what you hear or stop doing them.

What to ask

‘What’s slowing you down?’ ‘What should we stop doing?’ ‘What’s one thing you’d change?’

Bottom line

Skip-level meetings are a manager’s 1:1s with their reports’ reports — ground truth without the middle filter; run quarterly, with questions about the system, not about their boss.

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