Skip Level meetings provide a wealth of opportunities
Receiving Feedback
1-1 meetings are a great opportunity for direct reports to give feedback to their Managers, however Skip Level meetings afford the same opportunities. In the case that the feedback is not given or accurately received, the Skip Level Meeting gives the team member another chance to communicate feedback. The feedback can be specific to the team members manager, team processes, GitLab policies, GitLab leadership or whatever the team member would like to share about the company. This feedback can lead to strengthening of our CREDIT values. Here are a few results that have come from some of my Skip Level Meetings
Giving Praise
Skip Level Meetings are a unique opportunity for the Senior Manager to layer on the praise! The team members here at GitLab do such an awesome job, that we can't say thank you enough. However, Senior Managers are not sometimes privy to the day to day wins that don't make it quite to the level of a Discretionary Bonus. The Senior Manager can capture praise from the following locations and share with the team member during the Skip Level Meetings:
Information
During Skip Level meetings, the Senior Manager can learn about the work the team members are doing and also they can learn about the health of the team from a different perspective. Typically Senior Managers learn about how things are going with the team from the Manager's perspective, so this is additional data for the Senior Manager to learn more about the health of the team. The health of the team refers to the team morale, internal processes and results.
Coaching Opportunities
Skip Level meetings give the Senior Manager an opportunity to coach team members. Each team member has a support team. Their direct manager can serve as a coach as well as their direct manager's manager. We all want to see team members succeed so if there is an opportunity for a coachable moment during the Skip Level meeting, it is welcomed.
The Senior Manager meets with team members across the Create Stage in an effort to get a better sense of the work environment challenges facing the Engineers. Engineers have an opportunity to share their perspectives on everything GitLab.
This feedback will be a tool that we can use to improve communication and your work environment. For that reason, the feedback will be shared with your Manager. (If you have a topic that is sensitive in nature that you would like to discuss with me confidentially, we can reschedule a meeting specifically for that)
This is the template used by the Create Stage Senior Manager. However this template is available if anyone viewing this template finds that it would be useful for their Skip Level Meetings.
Senior Manager Prep
Typically the prep work for these meetings are pretty simple as all they require is scheduling and copying a default template.
Engineer Prep
Prior to the meeting, the Engineers are asked to:
The template below is used for the first Skip Level Meeting only.
Thank you for your contributions to GitLab
The Senior Manager will use this opportuntity to say thank you to the team member for their specific contributions to GitLab. There is some preparation required for this. Here are some ideas for how to prepare:
About You
About the GitLab Leadership (Sr. Manager and above)
About your Manager
About your team
About the Company
Additional Questions
The template below is used after the first Skip Level Meeting has taken place.
Thank you for your contributions to GitLab
The Senior Manager will use this opportuntity to say thank you to the team member for their specific contributions to GitLab. There is some preparation required for this. Here are some ideas for how to prepare:
Your Team
Giving Praise to your team
Your Manager
For the Senior Manager
The Senior Manager conducts approximately four Skip Level meetings a month. The Senior Manager will likely meet with everyone in their reporting structure a minimum of once a year. In many cases the Senior Manager will meet with team members twice a year.
The Skip Level meeting is shared with your manager and your manager will then directly begin to address the concerns that were raised during the meeting.