By Andreas Pettersson, Founder, Leaders ADAPT
Every skip-level meeting template I have downloaded had the same shape: a box for the date, a box for "topics discussed", and a box for "action items." That is a form, not a template. It tells you nothing about the two emails that decide whether the meeting works, the sentence you open with, or what you write down so that the fourth conversation this year means something the first three could not.
Here is the whole kit on one page, as text you can copy. A 30-minute agenda by minute, the opening script, the note sheet, the invitation email to the employee, the heads-up to the manager, and the follow-up note that closes the loop. No download, no form. The reasoning behind each piece is short and sits under it.
Quick answer: A working skip-level meeting template has six parts: a heads-up email to the direct manager, an invitation email to the employee that names the topics, a 30-minute agenda (five minutes of framing, twenty of four open questions, five to close), an opening script that states what the meeting is not, a one-page note sheet with energy, topics, needs, red flags and commitments, and a follow-up note to the manager with themes and no names.
What a skip-level meeting template is for
A skip-level meeting template is the fixed structure a leader reuses for every conversation with an employee two levels down, so the meetings stay comparable and the manager in the middle stays informed. Comparable is the point. One skip-level tells you about one person. Twelve, run the same way and written up the same way, tell you about your managers.
The template is not a status update, not a performance review, and not an audit of the manager. If any of those creep in, the person across the table notices within a minute and the meeting produces a script. The complete guide to skip-level meetings covers the purpose and cadence; this page is the kit.
Skip-level meeting format: 30 or 45 minutes, one-on-one or group, in person or remote
Four decisions, made once.
Length: 30 minutes. Enough for four real questions if you do not fill it with your own talking. Go to 45 only for someone in a critical role after their first month.
One-on-one, not group. A group skip-level produces the group's average and protects everyone from saying anything. If you want a group, hold a town hall and call it that.
In person if you can, camera on if you cannot. You need to read energy, and you cannot read it through a black square.
Announced, never surprise. The invite goes out at least a week ahead, after the manager has been told. A surprise skip-level teaches the whole company that a calendar invite from you is a warning shot.
Step 1: how you tell the manager in the middle (send this email first)
Copy and edit:
Subject: Skip-level conversations with your team this quarter
Hi [Manager],
Quick heads-up before anything lands on anyone's calendar. This quarter I'm holding 30-minute skip-level conversations with [two or three] people on your team, as I'm doing across every team. This is a standing practice, not a response to anything.
The conversation covers four things: what's working, what's frustrating, what they'd change, and whether there's anything they find hard to raise in a one-on-one. I open every one by saying it isn't about their manager.
Afterwards I'll send you the themes I heard, without names, within the week. Anything that's yours to fix, you'll get first and you'll get the credit for fixing.
If there's context on anyone I should have before I sit down, tell me. Otherwise I'll send the invites on [date].
[Your name]
Why this email exists: a manager who learns about a skip-level from their own report has lost something you will not get back. The sentence "you'll get the credit for fixing it" is the deal that turns managers from skeptics into people who ask you to run more of them.
Step 2: the skip-level meeting invitation email to the employee
Copy and edit:
Subject: 30 minutes with me, [date]
Hi [Name],
I'm setting up 30-minute conversations with people across the company whose work I don't see closely enough, and I'd like one with you on [date, time]. [Manager] knows and is doing the same across the team, so this isn't about them and it isn't a review.
I want to hear how the work actually feels from where you sit. I'll ask about four things: what's working well, what's frustrating you right now, what you'd change if you could, and anything that's hard to raise in a normal one-on-one. No preparation needed beyond thinking about those for ten minutes.
Whatever you tell me stays with me. Anything I pass on goes back as a theme, never with your name on it.
Looking forward to it.
[Your name]
Why the topics are in the email: the person should never be ambushed, and a leader's reactions carry roughly ten times the weight the leader feels them at, so the employee needs time to decide what they are willing to say. Why there is no questionnaire attached: written answers to a senior leader get edited for safety before they are sent. Send topics, hear answers.
Step 3: the 30-minute skip-level meeting agenda
| Minutes | Block | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| 0 to 3 | Frame | The opening script below. State what the meeting is and is not. |
| 3 to 5 | Calibrate | "Energy today, one to ten?" Write the number down. |
| 5 to 23 | Four questions | What is working well. What is frustrating you right now. What one thing would you change about how we work. Is there anything you are not comfortable telling your manager. One at a time, silence after each. |
| 23 to 27 | Their turn | "What do you want to ask me?" Answer straight. |
| 27 to 30 | Close | Repeat back the one or two things you heard. Say what you will do with them and when. Thank them for the honest parts by name. |
Two rules of the agenda. The fourth question is asked last, after the first three landed well; asked cold it gets a polite no. And there is no block for your own updates. If you need to broadcast, that is a different meeting.
Step 4: the opening script
Say this, or your own version of it, before the first question:
"Thanks for making the time. This isn't about your manager, and it isn't a review. I want to understand your experience directly, because things reach me late and edited, and that's nobody's fault, it's just what happens two levels up. I'll ask four questions and mostly listen. What you tell me stays with me; anything I act on goes back as a theme, not with your name. Fair?"
The sentence "this isn't about your manager" is the one I published in The 5-Minute Leader, and it is the most important line in the kit. Say it even when it is partly about the manager, because it sets the terms of the honesty you are about to ask for.
Step 5: the skip-level note sheet
Fill this in during the last three minutes and right after, every time, the same way. It takes three minutes and it is the reason the twelfth skip-level teaches you something the first could not.
Name / team / manager:
Date:
Energy (1 to 10):
Working well:
Frustrating:
Would change:
Hard to raise with manager (yes/no, and what):
What they own / can decide alone:
What they asked me:
Red flags:
My commitments (with dates):
Themes to pass to manager (no names):
Two fields carry most of the value. Energy over time: four quarterly readings of 7, 6, 6, 5 describe someone sliding toward the exit, and no single conversation shows you that. Red flags across people: three sheets in a row saying "I don't really know what I own" or "my one-on-ones are just status updates" is not three people problems, it is a management problem. If you are not documenting, you are not seeing patterns.
Step 6: what you send the manager afterwards (within the week)
Copy and edit:
Subject: Themes from this quarter's skip-levels
Hi [Manager],
As promised, the themes from the [three] conversations with your team. No names, and nothing here is a verdict on anyone.
Working well: [one or two specifics people volunteered]
Friction: [one or two themes; the release process came up more than once]
Ideas people raised: [one or two]
One thing I'd like you to pick up: [the single most useful item, framed as yours to fix]. Tell me what you decide, no need for a plan.
I've committed to [what you personally committed to], and I'll tell the people involved that it came through you.
Thanks for lending me the time with your team.
[Your name]
Why this note is the most skipped and the most important: the promise in Step 1 was themes within the week. Every manager watches whether that promise is kept. Kept, it makes the next round easy. Missed, the manager assumes the meetings were about them after all.
Matching the channel to the clock applies here too: a promise of "within the week" that arrives in three weeks is a broken promise, not a late one.
A skip-level meeting template versus a one-on-one template
The skeleton is shared: context before, a calibration number, one growth or problem thread, visible commitments. Three things differ. The coaching block softens, because you have not earned meeting-to-meeting trust. The fourth question, about the manager, does not exist in a one-on-one. And the note sheet has a "themes to the manager" field that a manager's own notes never need.
For the manager's version, use the one-on-one meeting template and the one-on-one meeting agenda with its one-problem rule.
What to ask beyond the four core questions, and what healthy and worrying answers sound like, is on skip-level meeting questions. If you are the employee receiving one of these invitations, the preparation is on how to prepare for a skip-level meeting as an employee.
Frequently asked questions about the skip-level meeting template
What should a skip-level meeting template include?
A complete template includes six parts: a heads-up email to the direct manager sent before any invitation, an invitation email to the employee that names the topics, a 30-minute agenda with time blocks, an opening script that states the meeting is not about the manager and not a review, a one-page note sheet with fields for energy, topics, needs, red flags and commitments, and a follow-up note to the manager that shares themes without names within the week.
What is a good skip-level meeting agenda?
A 30-minute agenda works in five blocks: three minutes to frame the meeting and state what it is not, two minutes for a one-to-ten energy check, eighteen minutes for four open prompts asked one at a time (what is working, what is frustrating, what the employee would change, and what is hard to raise with the manager), four minutes for the employee's own asks, and three minutes to repeat back what was heard and commit to next steps.
How do you write a skip-level meeting invitation email?
State that the meeting is part of a standing practice across teams, that the direct manager knows, and that it is not a review. Name the four topics you will ask about so nobody is ambushed, say that no preparation is needed beyond ten minutes of thought, and promise that anything you pass on goes back as a theme without the employee's name. Send it at least a week ahead, and only after the manager has been told.
What is the 40/20/40 rule for meetings, and does it apply to skip-levels?
The 40/20/40 rule, as usually described, splits meeting effort into preparation before, the meeting itself, and follow-up after, with the meeting as the smallest share. It applies well to skip-level meetings: the heads-up and invitation emails are the preparation, the 30-minute conversation is the middle, and the note sheet plus the themes note to the manager are the follow-up. Skipping the last 40 percent is the most common reason skip-level programs fail.
Should skip-level meetings be one-on-one or in a group?
One-on-one. A group skip-level produces the group's average answer and gives every participant a reason to stay quiet, since colleagues are listening. The purpose of a skip-level is to hear one person's unfiltered experience, which requires privacy. If a leader wants to hear from a whole team at once, a town hall or team meeting is the right format and should be labeled as such rather than called a skip-level.
What should you write down after a skip-level meeting?
Record the date, the employee's energy on a one-to-ten scale, what they said is working and frustrating, what they would change, whether anything was hard to raise with their manager, what they own and can decide alone, what they asked you, any red flags, your own commitments with dates, and the themes to pass to the manager without names. Using the same fields every time is what lets patterns appear across people and across quarters.
What this template is not
It is not a way to manage a manager you do not trust. If that is the problem, the skip-level will tell you so within two conversations, and then the work is a direct one with the manager, not a dozen more skip-levels.
The skip-level meeting template is for the ordinary case: a company that has grown enough that the truth takes two hops to reach you, and a leader willing to spend thirty minutes a week hearing it early. Copy the six blocks, run them the same way for a year, and keep the note sheets. The sheets are the product.
The system the template comes from
The opening line, the four prompts and the note sheet are lifted from The 5-Minute Leader, the operating system I wrote for leaders with no spare hour. Its one-on-one protocol is what the skip-level agenda borrows from, and its delegation checks tell you whether the authority you think you pushed down the org chart actually arrived. If your skip-level notes keep saying "I don't know what I own", that is the chapter to read first.
Andreas Pettersson led an AI company through its growth to more than 150 people, with teams in Europe, Japan and the US, as one of Canon's youngest CEOs. He wrote The 5-Minute Leader and founded Leaders ADAPT.
