A skip-level meeting is a meeting during which a manager's manager meets directly with team members without the direct manager present.
The goal of skip level meetings is to help the senior leader be a better manager of themselves, of the report of their function, and the rest of the management team. While 1-1s facilitate communication between a team member and their manager, skip levels should facilitate communication between a team member and their manager's manager.
These meetings between a senior leader in the company and their "skips" serve to promote communication across the leader's whole team, not just their direct reports.
It also gives the skips and senior leaders an opportunity to:
It's important to note that the following are not purposes for the skip level meetings:
Having a large organization is not a reason to not conduct skip-level meetings. Senior leaders with a a large organizations can opt to conduct skip-levels in a rotational fashion. If meeting with everyone is not scalable, instead meet with a new group of skip-level team members each quarter (or more frequently).