Skip-Level Meetings: Finding Grains Of Truth For Influence, Culture, Decision Strategy

Samantha Tassone, GrowthFuel President. Brain-based Leadership, Influence and Communication Coach.

Read Article:  Published on Forbes.com

Leaders can achieve breakthrough thinking in many ways and via different techniques. Many would say you first have to get off the conventional well-worn path of unconscious default mode—where you tend to revert to handling things the same way you always do—because you think you are the expert. Other times, your decisions are based on limited sources of other’s point of view, mostly your direct reports and peers.

As a true strategic leader, you want to actively seek grains of truth from as many stakeholders as possible, formally and informally, as time allows. Breakthrough thinking is a critical component of strategic thinking. Your ability to see the whole pie by folding in those grains of truth from multiple layers in the organization helps you to see the big picture, anticipate consequences, recognize patterns and determine trade-off and risks with greater confidence. Said another way, are you actively seeking more divergent thinking before you converge to make the final decision?

To lean into this, consider deploying skip-level meetings. These are meetings with the employees below your direct reports. I coach many leaders, mostly at the director level and above, and only a handful deploy this critical tool. I was skeptical at first; there’s so much that can go wrong—or so much that can go right. What matters is how you leverage this meeting tool. It can help you to tap into broadening your strategic view and see the consequences, patterns and risks of your future ideas.

Source: Forbes.com
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