24 Skip level meeting questions to use for a positive outcome

Skip level meetings are a great way to build connections, support your managers, and gather feedback to strengthen teams. If you’re looking for a primer on skip level meetings in general, check out our article: Why you should be running skip level meetings at your company. 

This list of skip level meeting questions follows a co-created agenda between the skip level manager and the employees, beginning with building rapport, discussing concerns or issues, providing feedback, and wrapping up the session. 

We’d suggest that an actual list of questions included in a skip level meeting agenda includes 3-5 questions total from the skip level manager (from the concerns/issues section and the feedback section). Employees should then be able to add a few of their own questions to discuss. 

Rapport and personal connection 

Build trust and connection first by getting to know each other. The key is to demonstrate you care about them as an individual. 

1. What’s a good book you’ve read / podcast you’ve listened to / movie you saw recently?
2. What’s a new skill you’ve learned recently - work or hobby related? 
3. What’s a great vacation or staycation you’ve had recently? 
4. Take me back to your job search - how did you decide our company was right for you? 
5. What’s something you enjoyed about where you grew up? 
6. What initially led you to start on your career path? 

Concerns or issues to discuss 

It’s a good idea for skip level meeting agendas to be co-created. The skip level manager should choose some questions to discuss, and the employee should as well. If a specific concern or issue comes up, a great question to ask is: Have you talked to your manager about this concern/issue?

1. What challenges or obstacles are you facing ?
2. What support do you need from me or senior leadership?
3. What are your development needs as a team? 
4. What is contributing (positively or negatively) to your team’s results?
5. What are your individual career development needs and goals?
6. How did your last career development conversations with your manager go? 
7. Are you satisfied with how your career has developed here? Why or why not? 

Feedback 

It’s important to build trust by opening with rapport, meeting regularly, and following up on what you’ve discussed, in order to get feedback that is honest. For some employees, honest feedback is simple to provide, and for others, there may be internal politics, fear of retribution, or other complications that make it hard for employees to provide truthful feedback. Building trust and leading with empathy in skip level meetings can help. 

1. What should we start doing as a team/department/company?
2. What should we stop doing as a team/department/company?
3. What should we keep doing as a team/department/company?
4. If you could change one thing about how your team functions, what would it be?
5. If you were me, what would you do to improve ___________?
6. Based on your last big project, what’s one thing the team could improve on?
7. What do you wish <their manager> would do more of?
8. What do you wish <their manager> would do less of?
9. What’s one way you think we could collaborate better as a company?
10. Who on your team is doing great work?

Takeaways and next steps

1. What have we not covered that you’d like to talk about next time?

End the meeting by making it clear what you will do. This builds confidence in an employee opening up to you again later and providing honest feedback. If there are items you know you won’t be able to address or take action on, let them know. On the other hand, when you have taken action on something they said, let them know. Closing the loop reinforces the fact that their feedback matters.