How to find Leadership examples in your own history
You almost certainly have Leadership examples already; the problem is recognising them. This guide shows you where to look across work, volunteering, education and caring, and how to turn what you find into statement material.
Start with moments, not job titles
Most people search their history for management roles and come up empty. Search instead for moments when a group needed direction and you provided it: a busy shift, a confused project, a new starter, a plan that fell apart. Leadership evidence is any time people went one way because of something you did.
Write down every candidate moment before judging any of them. Ten rough candidates give you choice; three polished ones give you tunnel vision.
Set a 30-minute timer for this search. Speed matters because your first instincts are usually the honest ones, and overthinking at this stage tends to produce examples you think you should have rather than ones you actually lived.
Search these four places
Work is the obvious source, but look beyond your job description: covering for an absent supervisor, running handovers, training colleagues, leading a small improvement. Paid work is not required, though.
Volunteering is rich territory: rota-building, event marshalling, committee roles, coaching a youth team. Education counts too: group projects where you organised the chaos. And caring responsibilities involve constant prioritisation and bringing people with you, which is leadership in its most practical form.
For example, a carer who coordinates four family members and three services around one person's needs has direction, support and fairness to draw on, even though nothing about it feels like management.
If you are stuck, ask two people who have worked with you: when did I make things easier for a group. Others often remember your leadership moments more clearly than you do, because they felt the effect of them.
Follow these steps for each candidate
List the moment
One line only: where, when, who was involved and what was at stake. Do not draft yet.
Name your responsibility
Write the single sentence that says what was yours to sort. This becomes your Task sentence later.
Reconstruct your actions in order
List six to ten things you personally did, in the order you did them. Verbs only: asked, planned, checked, changed, thanked.
Find the people
Mark which actions supported an individual or made things fairer. A Leadership example with no people in it will not score.
Count the result
Write down every number you can honestly attach: people, days, pounds, percentages, scores. You need at least one.
Check the level
Compare the moment with the descriptor for your target grade. Right scale, keep. Wrong scale, park it for a different grade.
Repeat for your three strongest candidates, then draft the best one. Our Leadership AO example and Leadership HEO example show what the finished shape looks like.
Tip
Keep every candidate, even the rejected ones, in a single evidence document. Your second-best Leadership example is often your best Developing Self and Others or Working Together example, and future applications will thank you.
Match the example to the grade
The level test is scope and time. AA to EO examples can span a day or a few weeks and centre on your immediate group. HEO and SEO examples should span weeks or months and a whole team. Grade 7 and above need other leaders, organisational change, and a year or more. The grade expectations guide maps this in detail.
Final checks before you draft
- The moment has a clear start, middle and end, not an ongoing state of affairs.
- You can name at least six actions you personally took.
- At least one named individual was supported or treated fairly.
- You can attach at least one honest number to the result.
- The scale matches the level descriptor for the advertised grade.
- The example is not one you are also using for another behaviour.
Frequently asked questions
Almost certainly yes. At junior grades Leadership means enthusiasm, direction and supporting colleagues: buddying a new starter, coordinating a busy shift, rebuilding a rota, organising volunteers. Any moment when a group moved in a direction because of you is raw material. The finding steps above help you surface them.
There is no fixed rule, but examples from the last two to three years are safest because you remember details and can discuss them at interview. Older examples are usable if they are your strongest evidence, especially for senior grades where examples may legitimately span years. Always check the job advert for any stated limits.
Yes, adapted each time. Re-angle the story to the level descriptor of the advertised grade and emphasise the actions that match it. Never paste the same statement unchanged into applications for different grades, because the scope expectations differ between AO, HEO and Grade 7.
Next step
Get the free STAR template — the same structure used in every example on this site.
Download the template pack