Administrative Assistant (AA) – Develop Self & Others Behaviour Statements

What is Developing Self and Others?

Developing Self and Others is about learning from experience and helping other people learn too.

For an Administrative Assistant role, this usually means noticing where you need to improve, asking for feedback, learning a new task or process, and sharing what you have learned with colleagues.

At AA level, this behaviour is usually practical. You may learn a new system, improve how you handle customers, become more accurate with records, take feedback from a colleague, or help someone else understand a task.

A strong AA Developing Self and Others example should show that you took your own development seriously. The assessor wants to see that you recognised a skills gap, made a clear effort to improve, listened to feedback, and used what you learned to help the wider team.

The best answers often show progress. You started with a gap, took action to improve, and then shared that improvement in a useful way.

What are the criteria at AA level?

The scoring guide for AA Developing Self and Others has 4 key criteria.

Your statement should show that you can:

“identify gaps in your skills and knowledge and make plans of how to develop these”

“take time to achieve development objectives”

“listen to and act on feedback from colleagues to find areas you can develop”

“share knowledge and skills learnt with colleagues to contribute to the learning and development of the whole team”

To hit the first point, show that you noticed a specific gap. This could be a system you did not know, a process you were unsure about, or a skill you needed to improve.

To hit the second point, show that you gave the development proper time. A strong answer should include the steps you took, such as reading guidance, practising, shadowing, using feedback, or setting a small target.

To hit the third point, show that you listened to feedback and changed what you did because of it.

To hit the fourth point, show that your learning helped someone else. At AA level, this could mean sharing a note, showing a colleague a process, explaining a common error, or helping a new starter.

A high-scoring answer should show learning that led to practical improvement for you and the team.

How to structure your statement

Use a simple structure:

Situation
Task
Action
Result

For a 250-word AA behaviour statement, keep the situation short. Explain where you were, what skill or knowledge gap existed, and why it mattered.

The task should explain your responsibility. For Developing Self and Others, this should make clear what you needed to learn, improve, or help someone else understand.

The action section should be the strongest part of the statement. Explain what you personally did to develop. This could include asking for feedback, reading guidance, practising a process, shadowing a colleague, setting a target, or changing your approach after feedback.

The result should explain what improved because of your actions. Keep it practical. A good AA result might show that you became more accurate, completed work faster, handled a task with more confidence, helped a colleague learn the same process, or supported the team’s learning.

For Developing Self and Others, make sure your answer shows movement. The assessor should see what you learned, how you learned it, and how that learning helped others.

Subscribers can unlock guidance on how to turn the official criteria into a high-scoring AA development statement, plus three full Developing Self and Others example statements written around the AA-level scoring guide.

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