Skip-Level Meeting

A meeting between an employee and their manager's manager, bypassing the direct chain of command.

A skip-level meeting is a one-on-one between an employee and a leader who is one or more levels above their direct manager — essentially 'skipping' a level in the org chart. Skip-levels serve multiple purposes: they give senior leaders direct visibility into what's happening on the ground, they give employees access to leadership they'd otherwise never interact with, and they create a feedback channel that doesn't rely entirely on a single manager.

Skip-levels are most valuable in larger organizations where the gap between senior leadership and individual contributors is significant. They're used to surface systemic issues, give leadership unfiltered perspective on morale and challenges, and give employees a platform to be known beyond their immediate team. They can also serve as an informal escalation path — if there's a breakdown in the relationship with a direct manager, the skip-level is often the appropriate first step.

The effectiveness of skip-levels depends heavily on whether they're actually candid. If employees feel that anything they say will get back to their manager and be held against them, skip-levels become performance theater. The best skip-level cultures are ones where senior leaders actively solicit hard feedback, follow up on what they hear, and make it clear that speaking up is valued.