Grade 6 Behaviour Statements

Grade 6 behaviours
Prepare Grade 6 behaviour statements that make senior judgement and wider impact visible
A Grade 6 application should demonstrate accountable leadership, judgement through uncertainty and consequences across a substantial service, programme or function.

A Civil Service behaviour statement is assessed against the behaviour named in the vacancy. The safest approach is to use the official wording as a check, choose one example with a clear Grade 6 responsibility and make the applicant’s decisions and actions easy to identify.

Grade 6 behaviour statement guides

Grade 6 Seeing the Big Picture Behaviour Statements
Understand the official criteria and build evidence around connecting your area of responsibility to wider government priorities, external developments and the needs of people affected by the work.
Open guide
Grade 6 Changing and Improving Behaviour Statements
Understand the official criteria and build evidence around creating useful change, involving people properly and responding quickly when an approach is not delivering the intended benefit.
Open guide
Grade 6 Making Effective Decisions Behaviour Statements
Understand the official criteria and build evidence around reaching clear, defensible decisions from complex evidence while keeping ownership at the right level and remaining open to challenge.
Open guide
Grade 6 Leadership Behaviour Statements
Understand the official criteria and build evidence around setting direction, creating an inclusive environment and taking responsibility for decisions while keeping people engaged through pressure and uncertainty.
Open guide
Grade 6 Communicating and Influencing Behaviour Statements
Understand the official criteria and build evidence around building trust through clear communication, adapting complex messages and influencing people with different interests without losing honesty or impartiality.
Open guide
Grade 6 Working Together Behaviour Statements
Understand the official criteria and build evidence around creating trusted relationships across boundaries so people can solve shared problems, challenge assumptions and deliver without excluding or exhausting colleagues.
Open guide
Grade 6 Developing Self and Others Behaviour Statements
Understand the official criteria and build evidence around building the capability needed for future delivery while making learning practical, inclusive and owned by the people doing the work.
Open guide
Grade 6 Managing a Quality Service Behaviour Statements
Understand the official criteria and build evidence around designing and controlling services so they meet varied customer needs, remain compliant and deliver reliable value for money.
Open guide
Grade 6 Delivering at Pace Behaviour Statements
Understand the official criteria and build evidence around creating the clarity, resources and performance discipline needed to deliver urgent outcomes without sacrificing quality, compliance or staff sustainability.
Open guide

How Grade 6 evidence differs from a routine management example

A strong Grade 6 example normally involves a meaningful outcome, several interests or teams, material risk and a decision for which the applicant remained accountable. The answer does not need to describe the whole organisation, but it should show why the issue mattered beyond a single task.

Use one focused example
Trying to cover several unrelated situations usually weakens a 250-word statement. Choose one example that allows the actions to demonstrate the behaviour and the role requirements together.
Members can unlock the Grade 6 behaviour selection matrix, a practical scoring checklist and guidance for distinguishing the nine behaviours before choosing and drafting examples.

Join our careers service to read more...

If everyone knew the best tricks and tips then they would no longer work! That is why the best guidance is for members only.

Subscribe to open the locked section on this page and get access to the full Civil Service Careers premium library.

Get help with applications, interviews, behaviours, personal statements, CVs, tests, workplace problems, promotions, and career decisions, all written for people who want a better result.

Already subscribed? Log in