Administrative Assistant (AA) – Leadership Behaviour Statements

What is Leadership?

Leadership is about taking responsibility for your work and acting in a way that supports the people around you.

For an Administrative Assistant role, this usually means showing a positive attitude, taking ownership of your tasks, meeting your objectives, treating people fairly, and understanding how your actions affect the wider team.

At AA level, leadership is usually shown through personal behaviour. You may take responsibility for a task, support a colleague, stay calm during a busy period, help the team meet a deadline, or make sure people are treated with respect.

A strong AA Leadership example should show that you cared about doing the work properly and understood how your behaviour affected others.

The best answers often show that you took ownership without needing to be chased. You understood what was expected, acted fairly, listened to other people, and helped the team move in the right direction.

What are the criteria at AA level?

The scoring guide for AA Leadership has 6 key criteria.

Your statement should show that you can:

“show enthusiasm for your work and take personal accountability for your role”

“demonstrate responsibility for your own objectives”

“act in a fair, inclusive and respectful way when dealing with others”

“be considerate and understanding of other people’s points of view”

“understand and support the objectives of the wider team”

“demonstrate consideration of the wider consequences of own actions”

To hit the first point, show that you approached the work positively and took ownership of your part. This could involve dealing with a task properly, volunteering to help, staying focused during a busy period, or making sure your work was completed to the right standard.

To hit the second point, show that you understood your own objectives. At AA level, this could mean completing assigned work, meeting a deadline, following a process, keeping records accurate, or supporting a team target.

To hit the third point, show that you treated people fairly and respectfully. This should be visible in your actions, such as giving people clear information, listening properly, using the same process for everyone, or adapting your approach when someone needed support.

To hit the fourth point, show that you considered another person’s view. This could involve a colleague under pressure, a customer who was frustrated, or someone who saw the situation differently.

To hit the fifth point, show that you understood the team objective. Your example should connect your actions to something wider than your own task.

To hit the sixth point, show that you thought about the effect of your actions. This might include how a delay, mistake, poor handover, or unfair approach could affect colleagues, customers, or the service.

A high-scoring answer should show maturity, ownership, and awareness of other people.

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 needed to be done, and why your role mattered.

The task should explain your responsibility. For Leadership, this should make clear what you needed to take ownership of and how it linked to the team’s objective.

The action section should be the strongest part of the statement. Explain what you personally did and show how you took accountability. This could include organising your own work, supporting someone else, listening to another point of view, acting fairly, keeping people updated, or thinking about the wider effect of your actions.

The result should explain what happened because of your actions. Keep it practical. A good AA result might show that work was completed, a colleague was supported, a customer was treated fairly, the team stayed on track, or a problem was avoided.

For Leadership, make sure your answer shows how you behaved. The assessor needs to see responsibility, respect, and team awareness.

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

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