9 Box Succession Planning: Model, Template & Best Practices
9 box succession planning gives HR teams a simple way to connect employee performance with future potential.
The framework places employees in a 3x3 grid based on two dimensions: how well they perform in their current role and their potential to take on broader responsibilities. The resulting nine boxes can help leaders identify potential successors, development priorities and gaps in their leadership pipeline.
But the grid itself is only the beginning.
Effective succession planning requires organizations to gather credible performance evidence, define potential consistently and discuss ratings across managers. Most importantly, leaders need to turn 9-box placements into development plans.
This guide explains how the 9 box model for succession planning works, what each box means and how to build a practical process around it.
What is 9 box succession planning?
9 box succession planning is a talent assessment process that evaluates employees based on two factors:
- Performance: How effectively is the employee succeeding in their current role?
- Potential: What evidence suggests the employee could succeed with broader or more complex responsibilities?
Employees receive a low, medium or high assessment on each dimension. Combining the two assessments creates nine possible positions.
The terminology organizations use for the boxes can vary. What matters more is that each position leads to an appropriate talent conversation.
Someone in the upper-right corner may be worth evaluating for future leadership roles. A strong performer in the lower-right may be an important expert whose career path should emphasize mastery instead.
The grid should help leaders ask better questions. It should not automatically decide who gets promoted.
For a broader overview of the framework, see PerformYard's 9-box grid template and talent management guide.
What is the 9 box theory of succession planning?
The phrase 9 box theory of succession planning is commonly used to describe the thinking behind the 9-box model. In practice, the 9-box grid is better understood as a talent management framework than a scientific theory.
Its central premise is straightforward:
Current performance and future potential are related, but they are not the same thing.
An employee can perform extremely well today without being the best candidate for a substantially different role. Another employee may still be developing in a current position while demonstrating capabilities that could make them successful with greater responsibility later.
That distinction matters for succession planning.
Organizations that equate their highest performers with their highest-potential successors can overlook important differences between current contribution and future capability.
A more useful sequence is:
Performance → Potential → Readiness → Succession fit
Each step answers a different question.
Performance considers an employee's current work. Potential looks forward.
Readiness asks when someone could realistically step into a larger role. Succession fit considers whether that employee actually matches the requirements of a particular position.
Keeping these concepts separate makes succession decisions more useful.
How the 9 box model for succession planning works
The 9 box model for succession planning starts by assessing performance and potential independently.
1. Assess current performance
Performance should reflect documented results and behaviors in an employee's current position.
Managers can draw from sources such as:
- Performance reviews
- Goal progress
- Ongoing feedback
Organizations may also incorporate 360-degree feedback when colleagues or other stakeholders have useful perspectives on an employee's work.
The goal is to prevent the performance rating from becoming a manager's general impression of the person.
A structured performance review process creates a stronger foundation because leaders can evaluate employees using common criteria.
2. Assess future potential
Potential is harder to evaluate because managers are making a forecast.
Instead of simply asking whether an employee has "high potential," define what potential means.
For example:
What evidence suggests this employee could successfully handle materially broader or more complex responsibilities during the next one to three years?
Managers might consider how the employee responds to unfamiliar challenges or increasing complexity. They can also consider whether someone applies lessons from one situation to another.
Potential should not simply reflect whether the employee wants a promotion.
An employee's career aspirations and succession readiness should be evaluated separately.
Someone may have the capability to lead a department but have no interest in doing so today. Another employee may have significant long-term potential but require several years of development before becoming a credible successor.
3. Place employees on the grid
Once performance and potential have been assessed, employees can be plotted on the 9-box grid.
Organizations that already use detailed performance rating scales do not necessarily need to replace them.
For example, a five-point performance scale can be mapped into three broader categories:
Potential can be evaluated directly using three categories.
Notice the wording of the final category.
"Low current evidence of broader potential" is more useful than simply labeling an employee "low potential." Potential is a forecast rather than a permanent employee characteristic.
What do the nine succession planning boxes mean?
There is no requirement to give each box a particular name. Organizations should focus on defining the action associated with each placement.
High performance + high potential: Succession pool
These employees are usually the most obvious candidates for further succession assessment.
That does not necessarily mean they are ready for promotion now.
Identify possible future roles and evaluate their readiness. Then create experiences designed to close remaining gaps.
Medium performance + high potential: Emerging talent
These employees may demonstrate the capability to take on substantially more responsibility but have not yet reached consistently high performance.
Development should focus on helping them convert potential into stronger results.
Low performance + high potential: Transition or unlock
This combination deserves careful discussion.
Why is someone who appears capable of more responsibility struggling today?
Possible explanations could include a role mismatch or a recent transition. The employee may also need additional support.
Leaders should address the current performance problem before treating high potential as a reason to accelerate advancement.
High performance + medium potential: Broaden or expert leader
These employees provide significant current value and may still have room to expand their impact.
Their next move does not have to involve traditional people management.
Organizations can consider technical leadership or broader functional responsibility.
Medium performance + medium potential: Core talent
The middle box can contain many valuable employees.
The objective is not to push everyone toward the upper-right corner. Instead, look for realistic opportunities to improve capability and strengthen performance.
Low performance + medium potential: Stabilize and develop
Start with current-role expectations.
Clarify what successful performance looks like and address meaningful gaps. Reassess broader potential after there is stronger evidence.
High performance + low current evidence of broader potential: Critical expert
These employees can be among the most important people in an organization.
A lack of evidence for substantially broader scope does not reduce the value of their current contribution.
Organizations should provide meaningful recognition and career paths for employees who want to deepen their expertise rather than move into management.
Medium performance + low current evidence of broader potential: Valued contributor
Focus on sustaining performance and developing relevant skills.
There may be opportunities to increase responsibilities over time, but the organization does not currently have enough evidence to project substantially greater scope.
Low performance + low current evidence of broader potential: Performance recovery or role fit
The first priority should be addressing current performance.
Leaders may need to clarify expectations or determine whether the employee's strengths are better suited to another role.
9 box succession planning template
A useful 9 box succession planning template should include more than the final grid.
Managers need a structured way to determine where employees belong and what happens after placement.
Here is a simple template organizations can adapt:
This structure keeps several concepts from being combined into one ambiguous "potential" score.
The attached research specifically recommends treating performance evidence, potential evidence, aspiration and readiness as distinct parts of the assessment.
HR teams looking for additional examples of what should happen after talent identification can also review these succession planning goals and examples.
Using PerformYard for 9 box succession planning
PerformYard can connect the information used during succession planning with the performance management processes HR teams already run.
Teams can use reviews to collect structured performance assessments and potential ratings. Goal data and feedback can provide supporting evidence.
PerformYard's reporting and analytics tools include 9-box grid placements alongside other performance data. The platform's reporting capabilities can compare performance and potential across employees or groups.
Once a calibration discussion identifies development needs, HR teams can use goal management to turn those needs into trackable objectives.
That creates a more useful operating model:
Performance evidence → Performance and potential assessment → 9-box calibration → Succession assessment → Development goals → Reassessment
The grid becomes part of the performance management process rather than another spreadsheet HR has to rebuild each year.
Organizations evaluating how succession planning fits into their broader HR technology stack can also read PerformYard's succession planning software guide.
