how to make a skip level 1-1 and enhance the trust with your managers.

Our VP gave a department all-hands meeting last week. I sent him a “Thank-you” email after the meeting. In the email, I expressed my interest in learning about the company’s business. He scheduled a 1-1 with me next week. Can you please give me some advice on how to prepare the skip level 1-1?

(A little background is that I am from the R&D team, and the VP has a lot of sales/business experience. The VP is 3-level up, and we did not have formal 1-1 before.)


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itadmin replied
4 Years

Elizabeth:

Tell your boss. You would like to suggest you to have a one-on-one with your boss before the skip level meeting. Ask your manager if there’s anything you should say to sell the team and his/her accomplishments, or be careful about talking to the VP. 

You may ask your boss: You are a caring leader. You provide a lot of leadership to our group, so our team is very successful. I grow a lot and enjoy working with you. I want to use the opportunity to demonstrate your and our group’s success. Can you advise which area I should emphasize?

Every 2-3 months, write a short email to the VP to update him/her about what his/her advice you have put in practice, please copy your boss, and your message should include what your boss has helped your growth.

itadmin replied
4 Years

Elizabeth:

You can prepare two pages of slides.

1. The first slide is about your career progress (refer to Elizabeth’s example taught in the class).

Introduce yourself and your future goal. Be concise. Use no more than ten words to introduce yourself. Regarding your future goal, you may say in the long run, I want to be XXX.

2. On the second slide, you can say I am from the technical team. How can I learn more about the business and the customer requirement? What can I do to make the company more successful? Remember the 4-level winning. Customers win; the company wins; manager chain wins; sponsors win, then you have the career win/advancements. 

Possible answers to the questions:

When there is a customer issue, build a core team to help resolve it.

Make educational videos for sales/marketing if the technical team has a new feature/product; write articles.

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