What Is a Skip-Level Meeting and How Should New Executives Use Them?

As Global Head of Research & Leadership Advisory at JRG Partners, I have written this plain-English explainer because the question comes up in nearly every client conversation. A skip-level meeting is a meeting between a leader and employees two or more levels below them, skipping the intermediate managers. New executives use them to get unfiltered information, understand the organization directly, and build relationships, gaining insight that filters out as information travels up the hierarchy.
What follows is the practitioner’s version: the definition, how it actually operates, where it is commonly misunderstood, and what employers should take from it. It is written for people who have to make decisions with the concept, not merely recognize the term.

What a Skip-Level Meeting Is

A skip-level meeting is a direct conversation between a senior leader and people who report not to them but to their subordinates, skipping the level(s) in between. Instead of relying solely on what their direct reports tell them, the leader hears directly from deeper in the organization. Skip-levels can be one-on-one or group, and they are a deliberate way to access information and perspectives that the hierarchy would otherwise filter.

Why New Executives Use Them

Information distorts as it travels up a hierarchy, filtered, softened, and shaped by each level. New executives, especially, need unfiltered reality to understand what is actually happening, and skip-level meetings provide it: direct insight into the organization’s real state, concerns, and dynamics. They also build relationships and trust across levels and signal that the leader values input from throughout the organization, not just from their immediate reports.

How to Use Skip-Levels Well

Effective skip-level meetings require care, especially regarding the managers being skipped. The leader should be transparent about the purpose (understanding the organization, not going around managers), avoid undermining the intermediate managers, and use what they learn constructively rather than as a gotcha. The tone should invite candor, and confidentiality should be respected. Done well, skip-levels build trust; done clumsily, they can breed suspicion and undermine the managers in between.

Skip-Levels in the First 90 Days and Beyond

For new executives, skip-level meetings are especially valuable early, as part of the listening and diagnosis that a strong transition requires, providing ground-truth about the organization before decisions are made. Beyond onboarding, periodic skip-levels keep a leader connected to reality and to the broader organization. Used consistently and well, they are a simple, powerful tool for staying informed and building trust across a hierarchy.

How It Works in Practice

In practice, a new executive uses skip-level meetings during their first months to hear directly from employees two or more levels down, learning the organization’s real state, concerns, and dynamics without the filtering that occurs as information rises. They handle the skipped managers with transparency and care, framing the meetings as understanding the organization rather than bypassing anyone. What they learn informs their diagnosis and decisions, and the relationships built across levels serve them throughout their tenure.

Why This Matters for Employers

Skip-level meetings give leaders, especially new executives, unfiltered information and direct relationships that the hierarchy would otherwise obscure. Understanding how to use them well, with care for the managers being skipped, helps leaders access ground-truth and build trust across the organization.

Common Misconceptions

The misconception is that skip-level meetings undermine or go around the intermediate managers. Done well, they are transparent about their purpose, understanding the organization rather than bypassing anyone, and build trust across levels; done clumsily, they can breed suspicion, so care matters.

A Practical Example

Consider a new executive who relies only on their direct reports for information and gets a rosy, filtered picture that misses real problems deeper in the organization. A peer who conducts skip-level meetings, by contrast, hears directly from the front lines about issues the hierarchy had smoothed over, and can address them. The unfiltered insight from skip-levels, handled with care for the managers in between, gives the second executive a truer understanding and a stronger start. It is a simple tool with outsized value.

The Bottom Line

Understanding Skip-Level Meeting precisely, what it means, how it differs from adjacent concepts, and when it applies, helps employers and boards make cleaner decisions about structure, hiring, and accountability. For senior roles, that precision is not pedantry; it is what keeps expectations, contracts, and reporting lines aligned from day one.

Related Resources

For employers going deeper, see The First 90 Days.