Step 4: Identify Successor Candidates

Building on the 9-Box Grid completed in Step 3, this step moves your organization from assessing talent to making succession planning decisions. In Step 3, the 9-Box Grid helped leaders visualize organizational talent, identify workforce strengths, and recognize development gaps. Expanding on those placements, we move forward to confirm talent pool categories and assess succession readiness for prioritized roles.  

Employees are not nominated as successors because of where they fall on the 9-Box Grid alone. They are nominated because their demonstrated performance and potential align with the specific requirements of a prioritized position.   

This step applies the 9-Box Grid performance and potential assessments from Step 3 to succession planning decisions. Leadership groups employees into broader categories based on their 9-Box Grid placements and compares those categories with the Succession Planning Profiles established in Step 2. This process helps determine succession readiness, identify bench strength for critical positions, and build a workforce pipeline of prepared talent rather than identifying a single replacement. 

The outcome of Step 4 is a clearer understanding of succession readiness, talent strengths, and potential successor candidates for prioritized positions. This prepares the organization to develop targeted development action plans in Step 5.