How to Use 9-Box Succession Planning to Turn Top Talent Into Future Leaders

Succession planning is like the savings account for a business. You want to have a buffer for your personal finances in case of unexpected expenses. If some of your top talent leaves, you'll want a backup plan for your organization. ‍

Most managers are aware of this – yet the reality is that most companies do not have a solid succession plan in place.

9-box succession planning is one way of identifying the potential candidates for the top roles within an organization. 

But is it the best way for your company? 

As always, it depends. 

This article will: 

• Explain what the 9-box model is.
• Explain how you can use it for your organization's talent management.
• Analyze the pros and cons of using the 9-box model. 

🔍 What is 9-box succession planning?

The 9-box grid in succession planning is a tool used to evaluate and map an organization's talent pool based on two key dimensions: performance and potential. This matrix typically has three levels of performance (low, moderate, high) and three levels of potential (low, moderate, high), creating nine possible boxes where employees can be placed.

9-box succession planning outlines who will take over the throne for your most important roles.

The system is divided into nine boxes, each corresponding to a specific combination of performance and potential: The lower left box is low performance and potential, while the upper right corner represents high performance and potential. 

📈 How do you use the 9-box grid for succession planning?

Define roles where you need to plan for succession

Typically, you should do the succession planning for key roles where a suitable candidate cannot be found overnight. These are also the positions where another coworker can't jump in and take over with minimal training since the role requires deeper insights and skills. 

Create the ranking criteria for the 9-box matrix

Define the leadership performance and potential of each employee. Ideally, you'll choose potential leaders residing in the upper right box. 

Some boxes will showcase individuals who can grow into key leadership roles. If someone scores high on potential and lower on performance, they may be understimulated in their current position. 

Giving these individuals more challenging tasks will increase their performance since they are naturally hungry for growth. You'll find these employees in the upper row, in the leftmost and center boxes, indicating individuals with low or moderate performance but high potential. 

An essential part of 9-box succession planning is that it needs to be flexible. Be open to moving employees between the boxes as their potential or performance change.

Create 9 box assessment questions for succession planning 

The question remains: what determines in which box you'll place each employee? 

You'll need to define a suitable evaluation method. 

💡 Tip: Remember that if a single person does the evaluation, the results might be biased. 

Even for people with good intentions, there's the risk of unconscious bias. The risk of unconscious bias skewing the results decreases the more people are involved in the ranking since everyone has different biases, and the negative effects dilute. 

A possibility is to use 360 performance reviews that give a complete view of employee performance. In addition, you can ask your employees directly to avoid selecting individuals who might not be interested. 

Plus, use employee engagement surveys to single out the most motivated employees at work and eager to take on new challenges.

Assess the employees

You should have enough information to do the assessment and identify your future leaders by now. Assess employees and assign them to one of the nine boxes. 

💡 Tip: You may want to add a readiness rating to further rank and prioritize those showing high potential.

Discuss with employees 

Have a 1-on-1 meeting with employees that show potential for taking over strategic roles to determine whether or not they are interested in the opportunity. 

💡 Tip: Be as transparent as possible by telling them they might not leave their current positions immediately but will get training to be well-prepared when the day comes.

These meetings often motivate those in future leadership roles as they have something to look forward to and a reason to keep performing well.

📝 Check out our collection of one-on-one meeting templates for more meaningful and productive conversations. 

Plan for development 

You'll need a leadership development action plan when you have spotted suitable candidates. A leadership development plan is a business strategy where employees get training for future management or leadership positions.

Precisely what this training looks like depends on the employee's current position and existing skills.

Schedule catch-ups

It's crucial to schedule catch-ups to ensure your successors are still aligned. 

Check that they are motivated, follow the training program, and address any concerns they may have regarding the training or future role.

🔍 To learn more about how you can set up succession planning systems, check out the leadership competency model.  

🕵️‍♀️ Pros & cons of using the 9-box model for succession planning

🙌 Pros of using the 9-box model for succession planning

• All team members get measured by the same metric. Assuming we can accurately determine potential, the levels of performance and future potential are good predictors of suitable successors. (However, potential has drawbacks as an evaluation factor, as seen below.)
• Rightly used, it allows for easy comparison between team members. Assuming an accurate evaluation of each employee, you will get a clear and visual overview of the most suitable candidate, the second most relevant, and so on.
• It allows you to monitor change over time. 
• The 9-box model is balanced since it looks at the past, present, and future. Performance talks about the past and present, while potential assesses the future.

🙅 Cons of using the 9-box model for succession planning

• While we listed all team members getting measured by the same metric as a pro, it can also be a con since different positions and business units require different skill sets and competencies. A person can have a high potential for one role but moderate or low potential for another. A way around this could be to use one 9-box model for each role to be filled.
• There's no reliable way of measuring potential. You can determine the performance by looking at key metrics, but the potential is more vague and subjective. This is a general shortcoming of the 9-box model, but mainly when used for succession planning since the potential is the central pillar for identifying successors. 
• Ultimately, the manager is the one to decide in which box to place each employee. The 9-box model is thus highly subjective, and unconscious bias is real – meaning employees from diverse or marginalized backgrounds are more likely to receive lower ratings. A 360 model paints a more multifaceted picture of each employee and avoids things like personal relationships or how talkative someone is to affect the rating. 
• While it outlines someone's successor potential, it doesn't mention the employee's motivation. The 9-box succession planning model thus needs to be used together with tools for evaluating performance, for example, motivation and engagement surveys.
• No one wants to be labeled a bad hire by being placed in the boxes for low potential or performance. Unnecessary friction may occur if employees disagree with their classification. This is why some employers choose not to disclose the performance scores to their employees since the lower ratings can be disheartening and demotivating. 
• Temporary performance dips can cloud the manager's vision. For example, an employee can be highly suited as a successor but is going through a personal loss and not performing at their best. Labels tend to stick in our minds, so if an employee is labeled "low potential," it might be challenging for the manager to mentally remove that label and objectively assess their potential moving forward.

⏭️ 5 Reasons succession planning is vital for your organization

Succession planning is essential within your company for several reasons:

1. It saves time and money. Sure, the planning requires some time, but you will thank yourself if someone unexpectedly quits or falls ill. Emergency hires can be very costly. The need to pause activities and projects can lead you to lose money and clients.
2. It makes onboarding the successor faster since you can train them for the position. When an unexpected staff change happens, they'll be better prepared to join the leadership team.
3. Succession planning signals your workforce that they are safe and won't suddenly be without leaders. Employees who feel secure at their workplace are more likely to stay. 
4. It helps you keep projects going even when someone unexpectedly quits – it benefits your people, reputation, and finances. 
5. It incentivizes your employees to stay since the successors can see a clear career path and receive training to be prepared for it. 

Despite these benefits, many companies don't have excellent succession planning. A Deloitte study showed that 86% of leaders think succession planning is essential, but only 14% think they are doing it well. 

➡️ Develop your new generation of leaders with Zavvy

Whether you choose the 9-box model or any other system, succession planning is an important safety net for your organization. Many companies shy away from it because of the inevitable administration that follows. 

And that's where we enter the picture! 

Zavvy handles the organization of your succession planning so that you can focus on selecting the proper assessment criteria and communicating with your employees.

With Zavvy, you can strategically use 9-boxes for succession planning with our review software and feedback analytics.

If you like the idea of the 9-box system but want it to be more granular, you can design your own 9-box succession planning template with more boxes (ex 16 or 25 boxes). 

You can also run less biased and more comprehensive assessments with a 360 assessment approach. 

We have done the hard work for you – you can "plug and play" and start to use 9-box or 360 evaluations for succession planning!

📅 Book a demo to find the best solutions for your team.