Skip-Level Pulse

Why is it hard to know what’s happening two layers down?

Because the truth is filtered twice before it reaches you. People tell their manager a softened version, and their manager passes on a softer one. By the time it reaches you, “we’re struggling” has become “a few challenges”. Skip-level contact, done with your managers’ knowledge, is how you hear it closer to the source.

Take Skip-Level Pulse: twelve questions, about four minutes. Answer for the last quarter.

What does the test look at?

Four areas, three questions each:

• Contact. Whether you talk with people two layers down outside big meetings.
• Unfiltered news. Whether bad news reaches you before it becomes a crisis.
• Recognition. Whether good work two layers down hears from you.
• Career conversations. Whether you know where people two layers down want to go.

What do I get at the end?

A pulse score out of 100 and the two areas where your view is thinnest, each with one thing to try on Monday. The bands are “Close to the ground” (70 and above), “A filtered view” (40 to 69) and “Two layers away” (below 40).

Skip-Level Pulse is built for people two layers down to answer anonymously. Team mode is coming. For now, you rate yourself.

How is it worked out?

Each answer runs from 1 (never) to 5 (always). Six of the twelve questions describe a healthy habit, such as “Bad news from two layers down reaches me before it becomes a crisis”, and are flipped before scoring. Each area’s average shows how thin your view is there. The overall average becomes the score, from 0 to 100.

The questions, areas, bands and advice are a draft written with AI and are waiting for a coach’s review. Treat the result as a mirror, not a verdict.

What should I read or take next?

Read how to run a skip-level meeting for a format and questions. For your own direct team, Blind Spot shows your side of the gap, and how to find out what your team really thinks of you helps you ask. Every tool for this stage is on the Managers of managers page.