9-Box Grid Generator: Performance and Potential Talent Grid
How does the 9-box grid work?
Each person gets two ratings: performance in the current role (low, moderate, high) across the bottom, and potential for bigger roles (low, moderate, high) up the side. The two place them in one of nine boxes, from box 1 (low on both) to box 9 (high on both). Managers then discuss the placements in a calibration meeting and agree a development step for each box.
Most 9-box templates make you drag names into boxes by hand. Paste the list here instead: one line per person with two ratings, and the grid draws itself.
It also checks the two problems that spoil most 9-box reviews: everyone rated into the middle, and potential rated as a copy of performance.
Built by Muhammad Shahzeb Anwar, MSc Industrial and Organizational Psychology. Performance appraisal, potential and succession are core I/O psychology topics; the warnings come from the research on rating errors.
Your team
Runs in your browser. Nothing you type is stored or sent anywhere.
Performance and potential are different questions
Performance is what someone has delivered in their current job, judged against its goals: evidence you can point to. Potential is a prediction about a role they have not done yet: how quickly they learn, whether they want a bigger job, and whether they show the abilities it needs. Silzer and Church (2009) reviewed how organisations define potential and found the definitions vary widely, which is why a grid is only as good as the definition the raters agreed beforehand.
A strong performer is not automatically high potential. Someone excellent at a specialist job may have no wish to manage, and someone new and still learning may have a great deal of potential. If almost everyone's two ratings match, the raters have probably rated performance twice.
Running the calibration meeting
Agree the rating definitions before anyone rates. In the meeting, go box by box starting with the corners (1, 3, 7 and 9), and ask the rating manager for one piece of evidence for each rating. Move people when the evidence does not support the box. Record the agreed box and one development action per person, and tell people about the action rather than the label: being told you are a "box 4" helps nobody.
The box names used here are plain descriptions; organisations use many different labels and numbering schemes. Keep the labels internal.
Common mistakes
Central tendency: most people in box 5 because nobody wants to argue. Halo: one strong impression drives both ratings. Recency: the last project decides the year. Forced quotas: requiring a fixed share in each box makes a small team's grid meaningless. And no follow-through: a grid that does not change anyone's development plan was a meeting, not a talent review.
What this will not tell you
The grid shows the ratings you enter; it cannot tell whether they are accurate or fair. Potential ratings are predictions and can carry bias, so check placements by gender, age and other protected groups before decisions are made, and do not use a box as the only reason for pay, promotion or dismissal. Nothing you paste leaves your browser.
Questions people actually ask
What are the 9 boxes in a 9-box grid?
Three levels of performance across and three of potential up give nine cells, from low performance and low potential (box 1) to high on both (box 9). Labels differ between organisations; the positions mean the same.
Is performance on the x-axis or the y-axis?
Most versions put performance across the bottom (x-axis) and potential up the side (y-axis). Some swap them; what matters is that everyone in the meeting uses the same version.
How do you measure potential for the 9-box?
Agree a definition first, usually some mix of learning agility, aspiration for larger roles and the abilities the larger role needs, and ask for evidence for each person. Without a shared definition, potential ratings mostly repeat performance ratings.
Should employees be told their 9-box placement?
Many organisations share the development plan rather than the box. Labels can be demotivating and are easily misread; the conversation about next steps is what helps.
What percentage of employees should be in the top box?
There is no correct figure, and forcing one distorts small teams. If more than half the people are in one box, the ratings are probably not separating people.
Sources
The 9-box is a practitioner tool rather than a published scale; the advice on potential and on rating errors comes from these papers, checked on 2 November 2026.
- Silzer, R., & Church, A. H. (2009). The pearls and perils of identifying potential. Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 2(4), 377-412: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1754-9434.2009.01163.x
- Murphy, K. R. (2008). Explaining the weak relationship between job performance and ratings of job performance. Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 1(2), 148-160: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1754-9434.2008.00030.x
Cite this tool
Free to use and free to quote. If a figure here is useful in something you are writing, a link back is all that is asked.
Muhammad Shahzeb Anwar, MSc Industrial and Organizational Psychology. 9-Box Grid Generator (Performance and Potential). Shahzeb Speaks. https://www.shahzebspeaks.com/nine-box-grid-generator/
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Running a full talent review?
The 9-Box Talent Review Kit does this in Excel or Google Sheets for up to 300 people, with rating definitions, a calibration log, succession readiness, development actions per box and a group check, plus an offline browser version and a meeting guide.