Bi-Monthly Skip Level Reviews - Part 2

Submitted by mauzenne on Mon, 08/15/2011 - 05:57.
in

This guidance concludes our discussion on how to learn about your skips and develop your direct report managers by discussing your skips on a regular basis.

We get asked all the time, "Should I have One on Ones with the directs of my directs? If relationships are good, relationships with everyone in my organization would be very good, right?" By this reductio ad absurdum logic, of course, the CEO "should" be having One on Ones with everyone, right?" That math doesn't work, and so the only question becomes, where to draw the line.

Others ask us, "How CAN I have One on Ones with my skips? I can barely fit in my directs' One on Ones. This is killing me!" Well, we don't know what else to say, but thank you for making our point to the other guys, and hey, we never told you to have O3s with your skips anyway. But, alas, one of our listeners and good friends tells us we once said the only day of the week to have O3s was Thursday. Whoa. I think what we said was only have One on Ones on days that end in Y.

It boils down to: What do we do about cultivating some sort of knowledge about our skips, for whose work we are responsible?

An even smarter question is How do I get the most out of my entire organization? It's not enough to see them in groups, as we recommend in our Skip Level Meetings guidance. How can we consider them wisely in our succession planning? Because, you know, you're supposed to be thinking about succession planning for your directs' positions, right?


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EJNIV's picture
Submitted by EJNIV on Thu, 08/18/2011 - 09:22.

Several thoughts ...

As always, kudos for such a great resource and tools.

"Retention Tools:"  You mentioned perhaps that would be the focus (with tongue in cheek).  But, you already provide "retention tools."  They're called one-on-ones and coaching.  I emphasize in one of the coaching courses I deliver the importance of "engagement reviews" that are essential for retention (since only 3% of "average" employees are looking to leave but about 25% of hipos are likely to leave - I think those stats are from a Corporate Leadership Article I read).  To retain high performance employees, coaching and one-on-ones can focus on strengths, passions, etc.  A great little book called "Coaching Questions" by Tony Stoltzfus (Amazon link:  http://tinyurl.com/3tm4bdb) includes a series of "engagement questions."  Employee wants, wishes, goals change predictably, and managers benefit from having regular (yearly, every six months) discussions that center on what keeps the employee engaged, motivated, passionate, etc.

Filters and bias:  If skip level discussions are based solely on the feedback the manager gives his/her manager, what assurance is there that the information is accurate?  For example, an employee and manager may not see eye to eye.  Yet, the employee is a top performer, exceeds goals, etc.  Yet, when the manager provides the skip level input, the message is "s/he is OK."  Of course, we would hope for stop gap measures (e.g., level setting meetings in which other managers who interact with the employee offer impressions), but if the only input the manager's manager is getting is based on the subjective impressions of the manager, what impact could that have on the employee's progression, etc.?

Just wondering.

Ed