Developing Self and Others at every grade
The same behaviour looks different at AO and at Grade 7. At junior grades it centres on your own learning and acting on feedback; by HEO you should be developing others deliberately; at senior grades it becomes organisational. Here is what each level expects.
Why grade expectations matter
Assessors score against the level descriptor for the grade in the advert, not against a single generic definition. An example that would score 6 at AO might only score 4 at HEO, because the HEO descriptor expects you to be developing other people, not just yourself.
Use the table below twice: first to check your example is big enough for your target grade, then to check you are not overshooting. A Grade 7-style story about transforming a directorate can undersell an AO application, because it leaves no room for the personal, specific detail AO assessors want to see at that level.
Grade-by-grade expectations
| Grade | What assessors expect | Typical strong example |
|---|---|---|
| AA / AO | Openness to learning, acting on feedback, helping colleagues with tasks | Acting on feedback after a mistake; shadowing a senior colleague and applying it |
| EO | Building your own skills, sharing knowledge, giving helpful feedback | Completing a course and applying it to fix a real problem; peer coaching swaps |
| HEO | Deliberately developing others alongside your own growth | Mentoring a new starter through their first month; building a team skills matrix |
| SEO | Planning team development, spotting and growing talent | Supporting an apprentice to a qualification; rebuilding team development plans |
| Grade 7 | Building a learning culture across a business area | Learning needs analysis across several teams; succession planning for critical roles |
| Grade 6 | Capability building at organisational scale | Sponsoring a cross-division talent programme; a division-wide development strategy |
| SCS | Setting the tone and strategy for learning organisation-wide | Executive succession pipeline; sponsoring department-wide talent schemes |
Notice the direction of travel: the focus moves from yourself, to named individuals, to teams, to the whole organisation. Your statement should sit squarely on the row for your grade.
How the emphasis shifts as you move up
Junior grades: self-awareness and responsiveness
At AA to EO, assessors want to see that you know your gaps, welcome feedback and act on it. Helping others is welcome but informal. The strongest junior statements pair a specific personal weakness with a specific change and a measured improvement.
Middle grades: deliberate development of others
At HEO and SEO the balance tips. Your own learning still matters, but most of your Action should be about someone else's growth: a mentee, an apprentice, a team. Show structure — plans, sessions, adjustments — rather than one-off help.
Senior grades: systems and culture
At Grade 7 and above, individual mentoring stories are too small on their own. Assessors look for learning needs analyses, talent pipelines, succession plans and programmes you sponsored — with the numbers to prove organisational reach.
Match your example to the grade
Read the level descriptor in the advert, then stress-test your example against three questions. Whose development does it show? Over what timescale and structure? How wide is the impact? If the answers are 'mine, one afternoon, my desk', the example is junior-grade whatever your job title.
Tip
Applying for a promotion grade? Write to the descriptor for the grade you want, not the one you hold. Your example can come from acting up, volunteering or a stretch project — the level of the evidence is what counts.
If your best example sits between two rows, keep it but adjust the telling. Spend more words on the parts that match the higher descriptor — the planning, the people you grew, the numbers — and cut the rest. If it clearly sits on the row below, save it for a different behaviour where its scope matters less, and find a development story with real reach.
Frequently asked questions
Yes, more than most behaviours. At AO it is mostly about your own learning and acting on feedback. By HEO assessors expect you to be developing others deliberately. At Grade 7 and above they expect learning cultures, talent pipelines and succession plans with organisational numbers.
Rarely. The same story retold can work across adjacent grades if you shift the emphasis — your own growth for EO, your mentoring of others for HEO. But a story that scores well at SEO usually needs bigger scope than an EO example can offer, so most people need grade-specific examples.
Do not inflate it — assessors spot padding. Either find a bigger example from acting up, volunteering or a stretch role, or refocus the story on the part that matches the descriptor, such as the colleague you developed rather than the course you took.
They are published in the Success Profiles guidance on GOV.UK (gov.uk/government/publications/success-profiles). The job advert will state which grade — and therefore which descriptor — applies. As of July 2026 that remains the authoritative source, alongside the advert itself.
Next step
Get the free STAR template — the same structure used in every example on this site.
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