What to talk about with your skip level manager
Summary
TLDRIn this episode of the Corporate Etiquette Show, Laura discusses the importance of having monthly one-on-one meetings with your skip-level manager. She debunks myths, emphasizes the benefits for both parties, and offers advice on how to make these meetings productive. Laura suggests discussing broader company priorities, seeking feedback, and identifying opportunities for career progression. She also encourages initiating these meetings and using them to address departmental issues and team morale.
Takeaways
- 😀 It's perfectly acceptable and even recommended to have regular meetings with your skip-level manager.
- 🔍 If your direct manager is against these meetings, it could be a red flag indicating issues within the company or team.
- 🗓 The frequency and length of skip-level meetings will differ from those with your direct manager, typically being less frequent and shorter.
- 🤝 Skip-level meetings are mutually beneficial, providing value to both parties and should not be approached with guilt over taking up time.
- 💡 You should feel empowered to initiate skip-level meetings rather than waiting for your manager to do so.
- 🌟 Focus on discussing larger picture items and company priorities during skip-level meetings, not day-to-day tasks.
- 🔎 Ask probing questions about company decisions and priorities, and how your work aligns with these broader goals.
- 📊 Seek honest feedback on what's going well and what's not within your department or team from your skip-level manager.
- 🔄 Use feedback to improve your visibility and address any misconceptions your leadership may have about your work.
- 📈 Provide feedback to your skip-level manager about team morale and issues affecting the team, giving them a chance to address problems.
- 🛠 Ask for help with your career progression and gain insights into potential future opportunities within the company.
- 🔑 Listen for opportunities during meetings that could lead to a 'quiet promotion' by taking on and resolving pressing issues mentioned by leadership.
Q & A
Why should one have a month-to-one meeting with their skip level manager?
-A month-to-one meeting with a skip level manager is beneficial for understanding broader company priorities, discussing career progression, and addressing any large-scale issues that may impact the team or individual performance.
What are some common myths about meeting with a skip level manager?
-Some myths include the belief that it's not okay to meet with them or that they are unreachable, and that such meetings should only be initiated by the skip level manager. In reality, these meetings are recommended and can be initiated by the employee.
Why might a line manager be against having a skip level meeting?
-If a line manager is against skip level meetings, it could be a red flag indicating issues with their management style or potential problems within the team or company that need attention.
How frequent should skip level meetings be compared to direct line manager meetings?
-Skip level meetings should be less frequent than direct line manager meetings due to the larger number of reports a skip level manager may have. They could be half-hour sessions every other week or once a month.
Why is it important to discuss big picture items in skip level meetings?
-Discussing big picture items helps align individual and team goals with company priorities, and allows for a deeper understanding of the company's direction and how one's work contributes to it.
What kind of feedback should one seek from their skip level manager during these meetings?
-One should seek feedback on what is going well and what is not within the department or team, as well as personal performance and how it fits into larger company priorities.
How can giving feedback to a skip level manager benefit an employee?
-Giving feedback allows the skip level manager to be aware of issues that may not be visible from their perspective, enabling them to address problems and improve team morale or processes.
What career-related topics should an employee discuss with their skip level manager?
-An employee should discuss their career aspirations, how they fit into the department's future, and any potential changes in job roles or teams that may affect their career progression.
How can an employee use skip level meetings to improve their visibility within the company?
-By actively listening for opportunities and addressing problems that the skip level manager identifies, an employee can demonstrate their initiative and capability, enhancing their visibility and promotion potential.
What immediate opportunities might arise from skip level meetings that can benefit an employee's career?
-Immediate opportunities could include being assigned to solve a large-scale problem or getting involved in a new project that the skip level manager identifies as a priority but is currently not functioning well.
How should an employee prepare for a skip level meeting to ensure it is useful?
-An employee should come prepared with questions about company priorities, their role in those priorities, and any issues or opportunities they wish to discuss, ensuring the meeting is focused and productive.
Outlines
🤝 The Importance of Skip-Level Meetings
In this paragraph, Laura introduces the topic of skip-level meetings with managers and emphasizes their importance. She dispels myths, stating that it's not only acceptable but encouraged to meet with skip-level managers. Laura advises that if a direct manager is against such meetings, it could be a red flag. She also clarifies that while these meetings may not be as frequent as those with direct managers due to the larger span of control at higher levels, they should still be regular. The paragraph concludes by encouraging viewers to initiate these meetings themselves, highlighting the mutual benefits of such interactions.
🔎 Gaining Insight and Providing Feedback in Skip-Level Meetings
Laura discusses the value of using skip-level meetings to gain insight into the bigger picture of the company and to understand departmental performance. She suggests asking about company priorities and how one's work aligns with them. Laura also recommends seeking honest feedback on what is going well or poorly within the team and department. The paragraph stresses the importance of this feedback for self-improvement and visibility, and it also touches on the potential benefits of giving feedback to the skip-level manager about team morale and other issues that may not be apparent from their perspective.
💼 Career Progression and Team Support Through Skip-Level Meetings
This paragraph focuses on leveraging skip-level meetings for personal career progression and team support. Laura advises asking for guidance on how one's aspirations fit into the department's future and seeking advice on navigating career decisions. She also suggests discussing any large-scale problems affecting the team and exploring how the skip-level manager can assist in resolving these issues. The paragraph highlights the opportunity to learn from the manager's career experiences and to identify immediate opportunities for career advancement, such as taking on projects or solving pressing problems that have been highlighted by leadership.
🚀 Seizing Opportunities for Career Advancement
In the final paragraph, Laura emphasizes the importance of identifying and seizing immediate opportunities for career advancement during skip-level meetings. She suggests actively listening for areas of opportunity that can lead to more interesting projects or solving significant problems, which can bolster one's case for promotion. The paragraph concludes by reiterating the value of these meetings in advancing one's career within a corporation and encourages viewers to take action on the insights gained from their skip-level managers.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Corporate Etiquette
💡Skip-Level Manager
💡Career Progression
💡Feedback
💡Mutual Benefit
💡Organizational Priorities
💡Line Manager
💡Initiate Meeting
💡Team Morale
💡Career Aspirations
💡Opportunities
Highlights
It's recommended to have a monthly one-on-one meeting with your skip level manager.
Skip level managers are approachable and having regular meetings with them is beneficial.
Line managers should not be against skip level meetings, as it could be a red flag if they are.
Skip level meetings are less frequent than direct line manager meetings due to the broader span of control.
Skip level meetings should be regular but shorter and less frequent than direct reports.
These meetings are mutually beneficial and should not be seen as taking up the manager's time.
Initiating a skip level meeting is encouraged and should not be seen as presumptuous.
Meetings should focus on larger picture items rather than day-to-day tasks.
Ask about company priorities and how they align with your work during these meetings.
Discussing challenges and inconsistencies with company priorities is encouraged.
Skip level meetings are an opportunity to get unscripted feedback on department and team performance.
Use feedback to improve visibility and communication with leadership.
Giving feedback to your skip level manager about team morale and issues is crucial.
Skip level managers need to be aware of issues to address them effectively.
Discussing career progression and aspirations with your skip level manager is valuable.
Ask for help with large-scale problems impacting your team and seek their guidance.
Actively listen for opportunities to get involved in interesting projects or solve significant problems.
Immediate opportunities to contribute should be seized to bolster your career progression.
Transcripts
hello and welcome to another episode of
the corporate etiquette show where we
break down the corporate world so you
can make better sense of it my name is
Laura and in this episode I want to talk
about why you should have a month-to-one
meeting with your skip level manager and
how to make this meeting useful so if
that sounds interesting to you then do
give this video a thumbs up because it
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time I put out a new video so let's jump
right into it first I do want to take a
little bit of time to kind of demystify
this meeting with your skip level
manager and kind of address some of the
myths that I have heard said to me or
circulating around the office at various
points in my career first and foremost
it has to be said that it is totally
okay and is actually recommended to have
a meeting with your skip level manager
they are not God himself never to be
talk to it's totally fine to set up a
recurring meeting where the two of you
can have a chat and I don't honestly
that if your line manager is for some
reason against this meeting whatever
that reason might be to be honest I
think that is a red flag and I think you
should start paying a little bit more
attention to how your job is going and
what your manager is saying and doing in
relation to your job at the company
currently the second thing that I want
to highlight of course is that this
meeting with your skip level manager
cannot be as often as the one with your
direct line manager right if you look at
the organization which tends to be kind
of pyramid shaped obviously if your
manager has let's say four direct
reports it's easy to have an hour a week
with those four people however if you go
one level up your skip level manager
might actually have a total of 16 or 18
reports both direct and then one line
below obviously having an hour or even a
half an hour with all of these people
every week is
challenging to say the least so it will
not be as frequent or perhaps as lengthy
as the meeting that you have with your
direct line manager however it does not
mean that it is not as regular it'll
still be a regular occurrence however
it'll be shorter in length and simply
not as frequent so if you are meeting
your direct line manager let's say every
week for an hour as I recommended in one
of my other videos that I will link up
here then you will probably meet your
skip level manager let's say for a half
an hour every other week not every week
similarly if your skip is very high into
the corporate career and their schedules
are very very busy you might even meet
them just once a month the third thing
that I want to highlight before we get
started is that if done write this
meeting is actually mutually beneficial
so both of you are getting something out
of it that's why you should have it so
don't feel guilty for taking up their
time there is no such thing and I will
guide you through how to make the most
out of this meeting over the course of
this this video and last but not least
number four I do want to say that it is
okay also for you to initiate this
meeting so don't wait around thinking
well you know at one point my skip level
manager is going to want to talk to me
and then I will be ready and prepared no
similar to how I said at point one it is
totally okay to talk to your skip level
manager and you also don't have to wait
for them to initiate this meeting you
can simply drop them a line and say hey
I'd like us to have a regular meeting is
it okay if I put a half an hour in your
calendar every other week or once a
month tell me what frequency would work
for us to sync before we get into how to
make the most out of this skip level
meeting I do want to take the time to
think the two people that voted in my
community poll if you haven't noticed
YouTube has decided to give me a
community tab now so I'll try to make
more polls to get your opinions about
what you would like to see in videos so
keep an eye out for that and again thank
you to the two people that actually
voted I wish I could also give you a
like but I can't but thank you for
voting all right so first and foremost
when you meet your sleep level manager
forget the day-to-day unlike the meeting
with your direct line manager this
meeting is definitely not about giving
them the rundown of what you did the
past two weeks and what you're going to
do the next two weeks I am pretty sure
if they are any sort of good at their
job they have other mechanisms of
figuring out how things are going so
they really don't need to have these
meetings in order to really get those
types of details instead you should
focus this time talking about bigger
picture stuff or even just big picture
stuff for example you should ask about
the company priorities and how did we
get to those priorities why is that what
we choose to focus on as a company
similarly you can ask more challenging
questions such as why perhaps some
actions of the company seem to go at
odds with these stated priorities what
is going on there and what is the
reasoning behind this and if you want to
narrow it down just a little bit more
you should also ask them how does your
work fit into these larger priorities
how are you contributing towards them
ask them about bigger picture things
that are coming up May maybe some things
that are not very visible from where
you're standing but it's very clear to
them from where they are looking at
things the next thing that you should be
doing in these meetings is actually try
to put your finger on the pulse just a
little bit and ask them about what do
they think is going well in the
department and within your team and also
what do they think is going not quite
well within your department within your
team or perhaps even with you
specifically if should they have this
type of feedback if you ask these kinds
of questions I'm prompted you will most
likely get a very honest answer and a
very unscripted answer so it is really
off the top of their head what is going
well and what is not going well within
your department this is a very
interesting thing to note I think it's
not very often that we really get that
unscripted opinion and really find out
what does our leadership think of us how
is my team's work really viewed on top
and once you have this information this
actually puts you in the unique position
to make some decisions and perhaps
dispel some myths that they might I'd
have clarify some wrong assumptions or
maybe figure out that you know what the
frequency or the type of communication
that you have been sending out about
your work is actually not working
because it's really just not reaching
your leadership so you can take this
feedback and consider what can you do to
improve the visibility to prevent these
misunderstandings or wrong assumptions
from forming in the heads of your skip
level managers and above and I can
definitely tell you that you want to do
this because well one if your skip level
doesn't seem to have any sort of idea
about what you are doing or what you are
contributing to similarly what your team
impact is that's not a really good place
to be in in your career people have to
know and appreciate what you are doing
before they can actually support let's
say a promotion and this is
unfortunately true even if the work that
you are doing is important and of a high
quality standard but you're simply not
marketing yourself or your team properly
then it's I'm not going to say that that
all of that hard work is useless because
that's not true but it might be
overlooked and it might not get the
rewards that it actually merits simply
because people are not aware of it so
the key takeaway from here is that you
need to figure out from your skip level
if you are marketing yourself well
enough and if you are marketing your
team well enough and if you're not then
what actions can you take in order to
remedy this next just as you have asked
them for feedback you can also give them
some feedback and I do want to stress
that I know I know that this is a very
daunting task to actually give somebody
feedback face to face Maybe somewhat
more unscripted and in a more informal
way than let's say in the annual reviews
where you actually have to write
something down but I cannot stress this
enough you giving them feedback is
actually one of the key components that
make this meeting mutually beneficial
they need to get feedback from you about
the things that are not going well and
one of the best examples that I can find
here is actually that of when the
company morale or the team morale is
actually very low and I can assure you
that if you have a reasonably good skip
level they will be very very interested
in knowing that the team morale is low
and figuring out what is the root cause
and how they can address it of course
you do always run the chance that you
might have also a toxic skip level
manager which you know is very
unfortunate but that is beyond what we
can control so I suggest that we don't
really focus on that still I do want to
make the point that your skip level
manager cannot fix what they are not
aware of so give them an opportunity to
fix these wrong perceptions to fix some
wrong processes or or to come in and
help your team with their vote with
their endorsement with their support to
make sure that leadership decisions are
properly communicated and understood and
people are on board with them give them
an opportunity to fix what is wrong and
I know that sometimes we assume well you
know thermostat level manager of course
they know what's going on isn't that why
they're their manager right I I know
that this is a very tempting mindset to
have however let's also just admit that
well
unless you're working for a robot your
skip level manager is probably also
human and they have their own
limitations so let's give people the
opportunity to fix what is wrong before
we jump to conclusions that they simply
don't care and on the flip side of
course you should give them feedback
about things that don't work or that are
bothering the team or that are causing
low morale but you can also give them
feedback about what is working well what
do you like about your department what
do you think is making you happy to come
to work every day for example if you
like the learning opportunities that are
offered at the company make sure to
mention this so that they understand
that this is an important factor in your
decision to continue working at this
company perhaps you like how team events
are organized or maybe you like the fact
that you can go to conferences and get
to enhance your knowledge by talking to
other professionals from your domain
make a point to mention the things that
keep you motivating the things that they
are doing well or the things that the
company is doing well so that in the
back of your manager's head there can
always be a checklist of things that
should definitely be continued so if
there is a budget discussion and
somebody suggests that they cut the
learning opportunities they can actually
have some arguments to say no we should
try to keep those learning opportunities
because you know what this is what my
people tell me makes them happy the next
thing that I think you should consider
doing in your skip level meeting is
actually do ask for their help and I'm
going to split this section actually
into two because you can ask them help
for yourself but you can also ask help
for your team so let's break this down
when you are asking help for yourself
I'm specifically talking about asking
help with your career progression talk
about your aspirations and ask how they
actually fit into the larger scale of
the department or the future of the team
or the future of the department how do
they see this role playing out in the
organization in the years to come and
you should also especially be doing this
if you are in a position where you are
considering either changing your job
within the same company or perhaps even
leaving the company if you are still
trying to decide what is best for you
this information from your skip level
manager can actually give you some sense
of what the future holds should you
choose to stay are there any exciting
new projects coming up that you would be
part of automatically or perhaps you can
transition to or actually do you see a
point in the future where your team
might actually be disbanded and of
course you can also see what the plans
for the other teams in your department
are and try to figure out again how does
your team fit into those future plans or
perhaps how do they not fit in at all
and another thing that might help
especially assuming that your skip level
manager is of the same craft as you is
actually to ask them what their career
progression look like of course I do
feel like I should have a disclaimer
here namely that I don't index a lot on
these discussions however it can be
interesting to understand what are the
decisions that they made and how they
got in the position that they are in now
and probably the things you are most
looking to get is number one what are
the best decisions that they ever made
for their career and number two what are
some of the decisions that they really
really regret regarding their career and
if they could go back in time they would
either do something else or not do that
thing at all again it doesn't
necessarily mean that you will ever face
the same decisions as they did just
because you are in the same domain as
them however it is interesting to have
this in the back of your head to
potentially avoid making bad decisions
in the future should you encounter
something at least remotely similar
secondly when you are asking for help
from your skip level manager you should
also ask for help about large-scale
problems that impact you for example if
you see that your department or your
team always has a really tough time a
really tough working relationship with
another department there is always
friction or there is a really broken
process these are the kinds of things
that you should be bringing to your skip
levels attention for example you can
mention that you know there seems to be
be a larger scale misalignment going on
and this is really impacting your team
and then try to understand from your
skip level manager how are these
alignments done can you be invited when
these things are decided when will this
alignment take place who will be on the
invite list and again is your skip level
even aware that you are having these
types of issues in your team try to ask
for help and also understand what could
they do or what could they task you to
do in order to try to smooth things out
and really improve the day-to-day work
that you are doing last but most
definitely not least I do want to say
that there is another thing that you can
do in your skip level meeting that will
really just make this super super super
useful meeting to have and namely you
should be taking the opportunity when
you are discussing with your skip level
manager you should be actively listening
for what areas of opportunities are
being highlighted to you and can you
jump on any of them in order to get
assigned to a more interesting project
do be assigned to solve a large-scale
problem and so on of course this
contrast to what I was telling you
before to figure out what the future
opportunities are and you still should
do that but there might also be
immediate opportunities that you can
take advantage of in order to progress
your career given the nature of large
corporations and the corporate world It
generally has a bit of lag when we talk
about the future right the future is you
know ideally six months away but it
could also be like one two three four
years away so if you're really just
waiting for the future opportunity
that's a really long time to not do
anything for your career so we really
want to look at what are some more
immediate opportunities that we can jump
on so for example anything that your
skip level is complaining that is a
problem try to assess is this something
that I can involve myself in and try to
fix and drive to completion and that'll
be a really really good opportunity for
you to get noticed in the video on quiet
quitting which I will link also up here
I think I really mentioned and I hope
that I drove it home the point that
there is no actual promotion without a
quiet promotion happening first and when
I say a quiet promotion by that I mean
you know you do things beyond your scope
and then you know the actual promotion
in title and money actually follow and
in terms of identifying opportunities to
actually make that promotion case for
yourself well is there really any better
opportunity than something that your
leadership is complaining is not working
well you already know that this problem
not only has scope but it also has
immediate visibility because it's off
the top of their head they're telling
you that this is not working and it is
bothering them getting involved and
contributing or even fixing by yourself
this type of a problem will really take
your promotion case from it might happen
to we need to make this happen because
we need to keep this person happy and
ultimately that is the kind of
opportunity that you really looking for
constantly in your career that is it for
today thank you very much if you have
stuck around so far if you haven't
already do give this video a thumbs up
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new video that's it for today have a
good one
[Music]
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