Leadership Grade 6 Example Statement (500 Words)

SI was asked to lead a national digital skills programme spanning 14 partner organisations, with around 200 staff directly involved in delivery across the network. Participation was entirely voluntary, early engagement was patchy, and the previous coordinator had left after a year with little to show. Three of the largest partners were privately doubting whether the programme was worth their time, and one was close to withdrawing altogether.

TMy responsibility was to build a shared direction and inspire leaders right across the whole network to commit their people and resources, knowing I had no direct line authority over most of them and could not simply instruct anyone to act.

AI started by visiting the chief executives of the three most sceptical partners, not to sell the programme but to understand what would make it worth their while. I also met the front-line teams who would actually deliver the training, because I wanted the direction to work for them, not just for their boards. Those conversations shaped a simple shared ambition, written in plain language: a digitally confident workforce in every partner organisation, with training that fitted around front-line work. I drafted it with the partners, not for them, so they owned it. I then built a coalition of champions, one senior person in each organisation, and gave them a real role in decisions rather than a talking shop. We met monthly with a tight agenda: progress, blockers, next steps. Where partners raised barriers, I removed them personally: I negotiated with the central team so training counted towards existing professional development, and I got materials adapted for shift workers after hearing that office-hours courses excluded them. I tailored the offer for each organisation, because a small regulator needed something different from a large operational body, and I said so openly rather than pretending one size fitted all. To keep momentum, I organised quarterly events where partners shared results, and I made a rule that credit always went to the partner organisation, never to the programme. When one partner fell behind, I visited them, listened, and re-scoped their commitment rather than blaming them in front of peers. I secured visible sponsorship from two permanent secretaries and asked them to open the first two events, which signalled to every board that this was a serious commitment. Throughout, I published progress openly, including honest figures where take-up was disappointing, so the network trusted what it heard. When my own team made a scheduling error that disrupted one partner's launch, I apologised to their chief executive personally and fixed it within a week.

RWithin nine months all 14 organisations had signed partnership agreements. In the first year, 3,500 staff completed training, digital confidence scores rose by 22% across the network, and the partner who had been closest to leaving became one of the strongest advocates. The programme was made permanent with secured funding, and two partners have since adopted the model for their own supply chains.