Developing Self and Others Grade 7 Example Statement (500 Words)

SI headed a business area of 45 staff delivering specialist casework and customer support. A resilience review I commissioned produced an uncomfortable finding: six of our nine critical roles had no credible cover, and the postholders were either within five years of retirement or already being approached by other parts of the organisation.

TI owned closing that exposure within two years through deliberate succession planning: identifying and growing credible successors for every critical role, while keeping the experienced postholders engaged rather than alarmed, and without losing any of them in the process.

AI started by being straight with the postholders. In one-to-ones I explained the review, stressed that succession meant honouring their knowledge rather than pushing them out, and asked each to help me capture what only they knew. All six agreed, and two said they had waited years for someone to ask. I then ran a talent review with my three team leaders. We defined what each critical role actually required — not the job description, but the judgement calls, relationships and institutional knowledge — and assessed all 45 staff against potential, not just current performance. We identified eight people with the capacity to step up within two years. I met each of the eight personally. I was honest that no promotion was guaranteed, and asked what development would make stepping up feel possible. Together we built individual plans: each was paired with a postholder as deputy, given real delegated authority on rotating basis, and enrolled on relevant external development where gaps were technical. I negotiated protected time for the deputising arrangements, because shadowing fails when it sits on top of a full workload. When one postholder proved reluctant to delegate, fearing errors, I agreed a staged handover with him where he reviewed his deputy's decisions weekly, stepping back as confidence grew. One of the eight, a quiet caseworker named Sam, doubted he was leadership material. I gave him ownership of our monthly quality review, coached him before and after each session, and watched him become someone the team naturally turns to. To stop the pipeline becoming insular, I arranged for the eight to spend time with the partner teams they would depend on, so relationships existed before any promotion. Every quarter I reviewed progress with the team leaders, and we adjusted three plans where people were coasting or overwhelmed. I also reviewed my own sponsor behaviour, asking the eight directly whether I was accessible enough, and acted on their request for monthly skip-level lunches.

RWithin two years, all nine critical roles had a named, developing successor and five had fully signed-off deputies. Three of the eight have since been promoted into critical roles, including one retirement covered with zero service disruption. Knowledge captured from postholders became 14 process guides now used across the area, and our internal fill rate for senior posts rose from 40% to 75%. The review approach has since been adopted as the template for the wider directorate's annual succession cycle.