The Power of Skip-Level Listening

I’m working with a finance organization to help them create the culture and capacity to be trusted business partners. The organization supports several diverse business units and consists of a VP, directors, managers, and staff. Their vision is to grow well beyond the traditional role of finance to be true partners leading and supporting the growth of the business.

I led a coaching session recently for a group of the finance staff. This staff handles much of the day-to-day finance support for their business units. This group of young, eager, engaged professionals had previously gone through training sessions on business partnering; my focus was on coaching them to apply what they’ve learned to their day-to-day work. We spent the first part of the session creating a list of their most common situational challenges and the second part coaching on how to approach these situations.

The VP came to kick off the meeting and planned to stay for just part of the meeting.

He stayed for almost the entire time!

He spent almost two hours with them – mostly just listening as I led the session and the staff members talked through their issues. At key points, he shared his thoughts on how to approach certain situations and also how the organization might evolve over time to deal with these common challenges.

The feedback on this session – from both the finance staff and the VP – was outstanding.

The staff felt incredibly supported to see the investment in their development. They weren’t just being sent off to a seminar – they were being actively coached to apply what they had learned. In just a couple of hours, we helped the staff make some major shifts in thinking and approach.

While they really appreciated having an outside perspective (mine), they most appreciated the presence of their VP. They interpreted his presence as a signal that he really cares about this initiative – and more importantly, that he cares about them. The staff left the session with a huge surge in energy, commitment, and engagement.

(Note – in every leadership development program I’ve been a part of, one of the biggest values to the participants is executive exposure. When their senior leaders invest the time to really be with them, participants genuinely appreciate it and take it seriously. They are then much more engaged and committed to taking the learning back to their jobs.)

From the VP’s perspective, he found tremendous value in it as well. He told me a few days later that he was so fired up about it that he wanted to make it a regular session. Why? Because beyond the value that the staff gets out of it, he learns!

• He learns what is working and not working inside the organization.

• He gets to synthesize across all of the staff to see where there are breakdowns in systems or processes.

• He is able to see where his directors and managers need to focus to help their staff.

• He learns where there are opportunities to elevate the value proposition of finance at an organizational level by forging better relationships and agreements with the business units they serve.

Hence the power of the skip-level coaching session.

If you are a senior leader, consider arranging a skip-level session. Skip one or more levels below your direct reports, get your people together, and just listen to them. Learn about their world. You will help them and they will help you. Where else do you get this kind of return of investment on your time?