What happens if your star manager walks out tomorrow without notice and backup? If your stomach just dropped, it’s time to get serious about building a leadership pipeline. You need people ready to step up when it counts—without derailing business continuity.
Succession planning and internal mobility aren’t just HR checkboxes—they’re your edge in retaining and developing top talent.
👀 Did You Know: In fact, 28% of employees say they’d leave for a company that invests more in their growth. So why not focus on developing the talent you already have to lead the charge for the future?
Not sure where to start? A 9 box grid is a smart first step. It helps you assess employee performance and future potential in one place. You’ll quickly spot your high performers and future leaders worth investing in.
It also clearly identifies how to offer feedback, training, and development opportunities. That kind of support helps people grow and, more importantly, stay.
Free 9 Box Grid Templates for Succession Planning
- What Are 9 Box Grid Templates?
- What Makes a Good 9 Box Grid Template?
- Free 9 Box Grid Templates at a Glance
- 16 Free 9 Box Grid Templates
- 1. ClickUp Performance Review Document Template
- 2. ClickUp Comprehensive Performance Review Template
- 3. ClickUp Quarterly Performance Review Template
- 4. ClickUp Employee Evaluation Form Template
- 5. ClickUp Employee Weekly Report Template
- 6. ClickUp Performance Report Template
- 7. ClickUp 30 60 90 Day Plan Template
- 8. ClickUp Employee Action Plan Template
- 9. ClickUp Succession Planning Template
- 10. ClickUp Corporate Succession Planning Template
- 11. ClickUp Employee Development Plan Template
- 12. ClickUp Skill Gap Analysis Template
- 13. 9 Box Grid Template by Whatfix
- 14. 9 box Grid Template by Miro
- 15. 9 Box Grid Talent Review Template by TestGorilla
- 16. PDF 9 Box Grid Talent Review Template by Primalogik
- Shape Your Successors the Smart Way With ClickUp
Summarize this article for me pleaseWhat Are 9 Box Grid Templates?
Nine box grid templates are visual frameworks that help managers assess employee performance and potential using a simple 3×3 matrix. These performance review templates give teams a clearer picture of each person’s impact and future growth potential.
Think of a 9 box grid as a talent map that bridges the gap between talent development, performance management process, and succession planning. You get a zoomed-out view of your entire workforce. It makes it easier to spot the high performers, steady contributors, and those needing the right push to thrive.
Here’s what one looks like:
🤔 Feeling overwhelmed? Let’s break down the components of the 9 box grid template:
Vertical axis for performance (low to high)
This shows how well someone is doing in their current role.
- Low performance means they’re falling short of expectations
- Moderate performance shows they’re meeting goals but have room to grow
- High performance means they’re not just meeting expectations—they’re consistently exceeding them
Horizontal axis for potential (low to high)
This measures their future growth capacity.
- Low potential suggests a limited ability to take on more responsibility
- Moderate potential means they can grow with the proper support and development
- High potential signals they’re ready for more prominent roles or leadership opportunities
Now, let’s see what each of the nine boxes stands for:
- Low performance / low potential: Fails to meet expectations and requires reassessment for role fit
- Low performance / medium potential: Underperforms but shows growth potential with support or a better-aligned role
- Low performance / high potential: Underdelivers now but demonstrates strong leadership potential with proper guidance
- Medium performance / low potential: Meets basic expectations but lacks potential to grow beyond the current role
- Medium performance / medium potential: Performs steadily and shows some development potential with the right support
- Medium performance / high potential: Delivers consistent results and could take on greater challenges with focused development
- High performance / low potential: Excels in current role but may not be suited for senior or complex responsibilities
- High performance / medium potential: Performs strongly and could grow further with targeted training or new opportunities
- High performance / high potential: Stands out as a top performer, ready for leadership or high-impact strategic roles
👀 Did You Know: Only 6% of employees believe their organization excels at internal talent mobility, while 16% rate their efforts as inadequate.
Summarize this article for me pleaseWhat Makes a Good 9 Box Grid Template?
A Deloitte report found that 86% of business leaders consider planning an urgent and essential priority, but only 14% believe they do it well. Nine box grid templates can help you bridge that gap. But you must consider whether they have all the necessary components.
Here are some essential elements that make a 9 box grid template effective:
- Box labels or titles: Clear headings like “High Performer” or “Future Leader” that make each category easy to understand at a glance
- Defined box descriptions: Brief explanations for every grid section to ensure consistent employee evaluation
- Clear criteria and flow: Specific definitions for low, medium, and high performance or potential to make evaluations smoother and more objective
- Employee information section: Space to record name, role, department, and review date for organized, trackable records
- Notes and comment fields: Designated areas to add comments and assign review actions to relevant stakeholders for collaborative planning
- Development recommendations: Skill-building suggestions tied to training, promotions, and performance software—ideally with numeric scoring for consistency
- Color coding: Visual cues (like red, yellow, green) to highlight patterns, supported by a legend explaining each label and score
- Team or department filters: Custom filters by team, role, or location for easier analysis across company segments
- Dynamic assignees: Task assignments with tracking for who’s responsible and when actions are completed, ensuring accountability
- Integrations: Syncing with goal-tracking and project management tools to centralize data and streamline succession planning
Summarize this article for me pleaseFree 9 Box Grid Templates at a Glance
| Template name | Download template | Ideal for | Best features |
| ClickUp Performance Review Document Template | Get free template | HR professionals, managers, and team leaders reviewing individual employee performance | Skill and growth assessment, self/peer reviews, goal/objective tracking, performance improvement planning |
| ClickUp Comprehensive Performance Review Template | Get free template | HR teams, managers, and employees for career planning and structured reviews | Self-appraisals, collaborative feedback, progress bars, career mapping |
| ClickUp Quarterly Performance Review Template | Get free template | Evaluating short-term objectives and achievements | Goal/OKR tracking, performance summaries, soft skills evaluation, rating scale |
| ClickUp Employee Evaluation Form Template | Get free template | Daily/weekly employee assessments | Task/milestone tracking, star ratings, awards/milestones, improvement plan guidance |
| ClickUp Employee Weekly Report Template | Get free template | Encouraging self-evaluation and addressing weekly challenges | Weekly activity tracking, self-evaluation, improvement plan support, retention strategy |
| ClickUp Performance Report Template | Get free template | Visualizing project-based performance and leadership potential | Real-time KPI monitoring, visual charts, trend analysis, contribution tracking |
| ClickUp 30-60-90 Day Plan Template | Get free template | Leadership potential evaluation and succession planning | Goal/milestone tracking, calendar view, structured evaluation, training needs identification |
| ClickUp Employee Action Plan Template | Get free template | Addressing performance issues with actionable roadmaps | Incident reporting, improvement tracking, digital signatures, corrective initiatives |
| ClickUp Succession Planning Template | Get free template | Detailing leadership transitions and talent management | Role mapping, hierarchy outlining, skills/abilities tracking, performance monitoring |
| ClickUp Corporate Succession Planning Template | Get free template | Scheduling and automating succession tasks | Task automation, feedback delivery, agenda detailing, resource management |
| ClickUp Employee Development Plan Template | Get free template | Targeted training for future leaders | Personalized growth plans, collaborative feedback, training/resource tracking |
| ClickUp Skill Gap Analysis Template | Get free template | Identifying and bridging skill gaps for leadership | Custom skill fields, target scoring, dashboard visualization, upskilling options |
| 9 box grid template by Whatfix | Download this template | Succession planning and talent management | Customizable fields, clear grid definitions, training needs identification |
| 9 box Grid Template by Miro | Download this template | Start-ups and teams new to succession planning | Editable fields, color coding, clear axis criteria |
| 9 Box Grid Talent Review Template by TestGorilla | Download this template | Visual mapping of employee contributions | Ready-to-use Excel, customizable, project participation tracking |
| PDF 9 Box Grid Talent Review Template by Primalogik | Download this template | Reference for building custom 9 box grids | PDF format, clear grid layout, skill gap identification |
Summarize this article for me please16 Free 9 Box Grid Templates
You could build a 9 box grid from scratch—mapping axes, scoring systems, and role definitions yourself. Or you could skip the setup and use ClickUp’s free templates.
ClickUp, the everything app for work, gives you everything in one spot: build talent profiles, set growth checkpoints, assign feedback, and track succession plans across teams.
With ClickUp, you can build talent profiles, create checklists, and track future leaders. Plus, its evaluation tools let you assign development plans, set growth checkpoints, and more— all in one place for seamless employee performance management and succession planning.
1. ClickUp Performance Review Document Template
You can’t identify next-gen talent without first understanding how your team performs today. The ClickUp Performance Review Document Template helps you spot those high-performing employees from the talent pool and prepare them to hold the baton with actionable feedback.
You can use this template to:
- Assess skills, growth trajectory, and current role fit
- Collect self and peer reviews for balanced insights
- Set clear goals and objectives within a specific timeline to streamline performance management and talent mapping
- Highlight achievements to boost morale
- Create a performance improvement plan using built-in performance management software features to deliver timely support
🔑 Ideal for: HR professionals, managers, and team leaders to review individual employee performance.
2. ClickUp Comprehensive Performance Review Template
Help your employees reflect, grow, and own their impact as successors with the ClickUp Performance Review Template. Team members can use it to run self-appraisals, and managers can deliver structured feedback to plan career growth opportunities for each employee.
This career map template helps you:
- Empower employees with self-appraisals and set goals for performance review appraisals
- Monitor their growth through progress bars for performance reviews
- Hold collaborative career conversations to plan the employee’s future in the company
- Assign employee performance review tasks to managers and stakeholders
🔑 Ideal for: HR teams, managers, and employees to evaluate performance, support career planning, and hold structured conversations about future growth.
3. ClickUp Quarterly Performance Review Template
👀 Did You Know: 63% of people leave their jobs because of insufficient or low-quality feedback? Without structured and regular feedback delivery, you risk losing promising workers and derailing your entire succession plan.
Make feedback a routine with the ClickUp Quarterly Performance Review Template.
You can use it to:
- Categorize and add attributes to track goals, OKRs, and other KPIs
- Offer summaries on current performance, goal achievements, improvements, and work ethics
- Identify areas of improvement in soft skills like problem-solving and communication
- Highlight their achievements and deliver constructive criticism for the quarter
- Rate contributions on the scale of Excellent, Good, Fair, and Poor, and build a stack ranking for employee performance
🔑 Ideal for: Evaluating employees’ alignment with short-term objectives, recognizing achievements, and setting SMART goals every quarter.
4. ClickUp Employee Evaluation Form Template
Regular evaluations highlight which employees consistently meet or exceed expectations. These people are most likely to handle more prominent roles successfully in your company.
With the ClickUp Evaluation Form Template, you can easily track performance and milestones, spot top talent early, and confidently plan for succession.
You can use this template to:
- Track how many hours an employee has contributed
- Evaluate how many tasks they have completed to measure team performance and efficiency
- Monitor their pace of reaching milestones to understand their potential and growth
- Highlight the awards and milestones they have achieved, and give star ratings to the employee’s skill set
- Guide your performance improvement plan
- Ensure that evaluations are based on consistent, objective criteria
🔑 Ideal for: Daily and Weekly assessments of employees’ performance and milestones.
🧠 Fun Fact: Jack Welch, GE’s legendary CEO, coined the “4Es and a P” formula—energy, Energize, Edge, Execute, and Passion—which later helped inspire the 9-box grid framework.
5. ClickUp Employee Weekly Report Template
The ClickUp Employee Weekly Report Template isn’t a 9 box grid itself, but it’s a powerful complement that helps employees evaluate their progress and surface blockers early.
It also gives your teams a platform to voice their challenges and issues for that week. That way, you can address the problems quickly, improve workplace satisfaction, and retain your top talent employees.
You can use this template to:
- Track weekly activities, time spent, and employee contributions—all in one place
- Spot and solve recurring workplace issues—including employee retention strategies—to improve the employee experience and support success
- Encourage self-evaluation using the built-in rating scale
- Guide employees in creating their improvement plan and offer support where needed
🔑 Ideal for: Encouraging self-sufficiency in successors and promptly addressing common issues they face.
📮ClickUp Insight: 92% of knowledge workers use personalized time management strategies. However, most workflow management tools don’t yet offer robust built-in time management or prioritization features, which can hinder effective prioritization.
ClickUp’s AI-powered scheduling and time-tracking features can help you transform this guesswork into data-driven decisions. It can even suggest optimal focus windows for tasks. Build a custom time management system that adapts to how you work!
6. ClickUp Performance Report Template
Performance management can get complicated quickly, especially when scaling your team and considering succession planning. Who’s handling what? Are they improving over time? With so many moving parts, the ClickUp Performance Report Template gives you a clearer view. It brings everything together with smart, easy-to-read visuals that help you stay on top of employee growth and project progress.
You can use this template to:
- Monitor progress and KPIs in real-time
- Measure the cost overruns during the program/project/milestone timeline
- Quantify time spent, progress, and budget through visuals and charts
- Analyze employee performance trends to identify the best performers and their leadership potential
🔑 Ideal for: Visualizing project-based performance and contribution to understand the employee’s leadership potential.
7. ClickUp 30 60 90 Day Plan Template
Create checkpoints for the employee performance evaluation with the ClickUp 30-60-90 Day Plan Template. This 9 box grid will help you evaluate the employees you are considering for more significant responsibilities and choose the best ones from them.
Moreover, this can help you measure performance and progress. Identify training needs and offer support every thirty days to groom them for critical roles.
This template will let you:
- Set individual goals and tasks for the employees and monitor progress accordingly
- Assess how employees who got recent promotions are settling into their new roles
- Monitor milestones with calendar view
- Find the best people for leadership roles through periodic performance evaluation
- Use a structured evaluation process to assess new employees’ leadership potential
🔑 Ideal for: Finding the best employees for leadership roles.
📖 Also Read: Best Skills Management Software (Reviews & Pricing)
8. ClickUp Employee Action Plan Template
Want your employees to thrive in future leadership roles? Set them up for organizational success with the ClickUp Employee Action Plan Template. It gives them a clear, actionable roadmap to build the skills, mindset, and experience they’ll need to grow into leadership with confidence. Managing talent has never been easier.
You can use this template to:
- File incident reports to ensure accountability in both employees and their supervisors
- List your findings, and support them with data
- Create an action plan for improvements to develop a high-performing team ready to take on leadership roles
- Add timelines, status, and notes for each improvement action in the “Corrective Initiatives” section
- Track progress according to the issue and set success criteria as pass or fail
- Take digital signatures of employees and reviewers
🔑 Ideal for: Helping employees address specific performance issues with an actionable roadmap.
👀 Did You Know: Just over 20% of organizations expect a CEO transition within the next 18 months, yet 45% worry they won’t have even one internal candidate prepared to step into the role.
9. ClickUp Succession Planning Template
The performance evaluation templates will show you where each employee stands in terms of leadership capabilities. Now it’s time to outline the role transition and talent management strategies with the ClickUp Succession Planning Template.
It will help you:
- Map out who your leadership team will be and their hierarchy
- Outline exactly how their roles and responsibilities will shift with the promotion
- Clarify the skills and abilities they must develop for the role
- Develop a pipeline of leadership talent to support your future goals
- Track potential successors’ performance to outline future leadership roles
🔑 Ideal for: Detailing current and future leaders’ hierarchy, roles, and responsibilities for a smooth transition.
10. ClickUp Corporate Succession Planning Template
The ClickUp Corporate Succession Planning Template is another talent management framework you can use to map the responsibilities of your company’s future successors. This template is excellent for ensuring your successors receive the best possible guidance.
This template will help you:
- Turn your succession plan into tasks to ensure all stakeholders are pulling their weight in grooming the new leaders
- Automate feedback delivery to high-potential employees to hone their skills continuously
- Detail the agenda for every leadership role and provide the necessary resources
🔑 Ideal for: Scheduling and automating tasks and actions to build leadership pipelines.
11. ClickUp Employee Development Plan Template
Proper succession planning requires more than finding the right people to be your successors. You also need talent management action steps to equip them with the necessary training and resources to handle bigger responsibilities.
The ClickUp Employee Development Plan Template can do that for you with a quick and actionable employee growth plan.
You can use it to:
- Create personalized career development initiatives for each employee
- Collaborate with teammates and management to deliver feedback
🔑 Ideal for: Helping employees grow into leadership roles with targeted training maps and keeping your succession plan on track.
📖 Also Read: Best Employee Performance Review Software
12. ClickUp Skill Gap Analysis Template
Not everyone will ace every skill—and that’s okay. But your future leaders should be adaptable, strategic, and open to growth. The ClickUp Skill Gap Analysis Template helps you pinpoint where support is needed and guides your team toward the development they need to step up with confidence.
You can use it to:
- Set a target score and use it as a benchmark to measure skill
- Create Custom Fields for skills fitting your company’s leadership roles
- Customize ClickUp Dashboards to visualize and track skill gaps by team or role
- Offer targeted upskilling options accordingly
🔑 Ideal for: Applying target development plans to bridge the gaps between your employees’ current skills and those they need for future leadership roles.
📊🎥 Watch this video to learn how ClickUp Dashboards can help you visualize data, track progress, and make informed decisions.
13. 9 Box Grid Template by Whatfix
9 box grid template by Whatfix is a straightforward talent management framework that clearly defines each grid, so you know exactly how to use it. You can also customize the fields to fit your organization’s needs and steer your succession planning in the best direction for you.
This template lets you:
- Identify employees as high performers and high-potential ones easily
- Manage succession planning and leadership development.
- Highlight specific training needs to help employees grow
- Provide a structured approach for talent management action steps and discussions among team leaders and managers
- Allocate resources to employee development efforts
🔑 Ideal for: Facilitating effective succession planning through identifying and developing high-potential talents for leadership roles.
14. 9 box Grid Template by Miro
The 9 box Grid Template by Miro is a great starting point if you’re new to succession planning. It’s detailed yet easy to follow, with clear performance and potential criteria marked along the X and Y axes—so you won’t be left guessing what each grid means.
You can use this template to:
- Categorize employee performance and potential as high, medium, or low on both axes
- Compare them with what’s expected from your company’s leadership roles
- Customize color and edit fields as per your needs
🔑 Ideal for: Start-ups without experience in succession planning and talent development.
15. 9 Box Grid Talent Review Template by TestGorilla
The 9 Box Grid Talent Review Template by TestGorilla is a ready-to-use Excel worksheet designed to help you easily evaluate employee potential and performance.
It has a ready-to-use reference layout to see exactly how a 9-box grid works. Then, you can tweak the customizable fields to fit your own succession planning needs.
This template lets you:
- Analyze employee performance over the past three to six months
- Simplify evaluating performance and participation in key projects and outcomes
- See how they work with other team members
🔑 Ideal for: Visually mapping out the contributions of each employee for accurate succession planning.
🧠 Fun Fact: Since we’re discussing succession planning, did you know the hit TV show Succession was initially pitched as a feature film? It was supposed to follow one powerful media family, but lucky for us, it turned into the drama-packed series we binge-watch today.
16. PDF 9 Box Grid Talent Review Template by Primalogik
Want to create a 9 box grid template from scratch? The PDF 9 Box Grid Talent Review Template by Primalogik is a solid starting point. It lays out precisely what to include in each grid to effectively measure employee performance and potential.
You can use this template to:
- Review the talents and assess their suitability to hold more senior leadership positions
- Identify and address skill gaps and training needs
🔑 Ideal for: Using as a reference to create a 9 box grid template from scratch.
Summarize this article for me pleaseShape Your Successors the Smart Way With ClickUp
Companies that place high performers in key roles each quarter are 2.2x more likely to outperform competitors. Want the same edge? Use 9 box grid templates for talent management decisions and succession planning. These help you identify top talent, assess potential, and build a solid leadership pipeline.
With ClickUp, you can manage all your 9 box grid templates in one spot—free. Customize them for different roles, set reminders, and automate talent tasks. You’ll also get a clear view of each employee’s progress on ClickUp Dashboards.
Build your leadership pipeline—without the chaos.
Start using ClickUp to map talent, track growth, and plan succession in one place. ✅
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