Communicating and Influencing: what each grade expects

The behaviour stays the same from AO to SCS, but the scope changes completely: a clear conversation at AO, a national negotiation at SCS. Use this page to check what your grade expects before you choose an example.

Why the same behaviour looks different at each grade

Success Profiles uses level descriptors that rise with seniority. For Communicating and Influencing, three things scale up: the audience (a customer, then teams, then boards, then ministers and industry), the stakes (a misunderstanding, then adoption, then money, then reputation), and the time horizon (a conversation, then a campaign, then a strategy).

Assessors score against the level advertised, not against a universal standard. A statement that would score 6 at AO might score 3 at Grade 7, purely because the descriptor expects more.

Grade by grade expectations

Junior grades: AA, AO and EO

At AA and AO, show clear everyday communication: an unhappy customer calmed, instructions explained, a message adapted for its listener. Listening counts as much as talking, so show you checked understanding.

At EO, add deliberate adaptation: you thought about different audiences and chose words or channels for each. A staff brief, a short presentation or a tricky email chain all work, as long as the audience thinking is visible.

Middle grades: HEO and SEO

At HEO, the behaviour becomes persuasion: someone disagreed or needed convincing, and your communication changed the outcome. Negotiating with a supplier, winning over a sceptical team or resolving a complex complaint are the classic shapes.

At SEO, add scale and strategy: several groups, no line authority, and a planned approach rather than one persuasive conversation. Assessors look for stakeholder awareness, sequenced messages and scepticism turned into support.

Senior grades: Grade 7, Grade 6 and SCS

At Grade 7, expect to brief the most senior people and negotiate outside your organisation: ministers, directors, partners. At Grade 6, add boards and coalitions: decisions worth hundreds of thousands of pounds, rival directors aligned, hundreds of staff brought through change.

At SCS, you own the narrative on the hardest issues the organisation faces: mergers, national agreements, public controversy. The audiences run simultaneously, staff, unions, ministers, media, and your job is keeping one honest story consistent across all of them.

For example, briefing a director before a televised hearing suits Grade 7; negotiating a national compact with industry bodies and mayors is SCS territory.

Check the level before you write

Adverts do not always name the level, but the grade tells you which descriptor applies in most cases. Run three checks before you commit to an example.

1. Read the descriptor verbs for your grade and list them before drafting.
2. Map your example's audience, stakes and outcome against the table above.
3. If the match feels stretched, find a bigger example rather than inflating a small one.

Inflated examples are easy to spot at sift, because the actions never quite reach the descriptor's verbs. Honest scale, well told, scores better every time.