Developing Self and Others AO Example — 250-Word Statement
At AO, assessors want proof you are coachable: you spotted a gap in your own work, sought feedback or training, and changed something specific because of it. Helping others can be small and informal — showing a new starter a process counts. One honest story with a measured improvement beats a list of courses.
Example statement
SI worked as a part-time sales assistant in a busy convenience store while studying. In my second month, my supervisor counted my till after a Saturday shift and found it short twice in one week.
TI needed to fix my cash-handling quickly, rebuild my supervisor's trust, and show her I could respond positively to criticism.
AMy supervisor talked me through where the errors happened. I asked her to show me the cashing-up routine again rather than guess, and I wrote down each step to check myself against. I noticed my mistakes came when the shop was busiest, so I asked an experienced colleague if I could watch how she handled queues and refunds. She kept a note of each refund as it happened instead of relying on memory, so I adopted the same habit with a small tally card by my till. I asked my supervisor to spot-check me every Friday for a month and to be honest about my progress. When she suggested counting notes back to customers twice, I practised it on every transaction, even with a queue waiting. At the end of the month I asked what I should tackle next; she suggested the lottery terminal, so I booked the training and asked a colleague to test me beforehand.
ROver the next two months my till balanced on all 34 shifts, my supervisor signed me off on the lottery terminal, and she asked me to train a new starter on the cashing-up routine.
Use this as a model, not a script. This is an original example written for this site. Adapt the structure to your own experience — copying it word for word risks plagiarism and will not reflect your evidence.
Why this scores well
- Shows the full feedback loop assessors want at AO: criticism received, specific changes made, and the supervisor asked what to work on next.
- Every action is personal and concrete — retraining, observation, a tally card, weekly spot-checks — the specificity that lifts a 4 to a 5 at this grade.
- The result is measured (34 shifts balanced) and ends with the writer training a new starter, so development flows outward to others.
What AO level requires
| Grade | What assessors expect |
|---|---|
| AO ← this page | At AO, Developing Self and Others means knowing your strengths and gaps, asking for feedback and acting on it, taking up training willingly, and helping colleagues with everyday tasks when you can. |
| EO | At EO, Developing Self and Others means actively building your own skills, sharing knowledge across the team, giving colleagues helpful feedback and coaching them through tasks when needed. |
| HEO | At HEO, Developing Self and Others means deliberately making time to develop others — coaching, mentoring and arranging learning — while showing you act on feedback about your own performance. |
Common mistakes at this level
- Listing courses and certificates with no example of applying any of them
- Claiming you welcome feedback without naming one piece you acted on
- Choosing an example where training was forced on you and you simply complied
Frequently asked questions
Anything that shows you learning deliberately or helping a colleague: acting on feedback after an error, shadowing a senior colleague and using what you saw, mastering a process then teaching it to a new starter. Retail, care, hospitality and volunteering examples are all equally valid — structure and honesty matter more than setting.
Most departments ask for 250 words per behaviour, but check the job advert — some ask for fewer, and the limit on Civil Service Jobs is sometimes a character count. Whatever the limit, keep the shape: two sentences of Situation, one of Task, most words on Action, and a Result with a number.
Yes. Education, volunteering, sport, caring and community roles all count at AO. Coaching younger players, training new volunteers, or learning a skill to support a family member can show the behaviour well. Make your own actions explicit and measure the result, exactly as you would for a workplace example.
Next step
Get the free AO statement template pack — the same STAR structure used in this example.
Download the template pack