Leadership is about setting direction, creating an inclusive environment and taking responsibility for decisions while keeping people engaged through pressure and uncertainty. For a Grade 6 role, this usually means leading managers or specialist teams, representing the area with senior stakeholders and shaping a culture that supports both performance and challenge.
A strong example should make clear the direction you set, how you created inclusion and challenge, and the decisions or team actions you were prepared to defend. The result should show sustained engagement, improved performance, stronger inclusion, resolved organisational conflict or successful delivery through a difficult period.
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What are the Leadership criteria at Grade 6 level?
The official senior-grade behaviour guidance contains 5 points for Leadership. Your vacancy may assess only selected parts, but the statement should make the relevant wording easy to see in your evidence.
promote diversity, inclusion and equality of opportunity, respecting difference and external experience
welcome and respond to views and challenges from others, despite any conflicting pressures to ignore or give in to them
stand by, promote or defend your own and your team’s actions and decisions where needed
seek out shared interests beyond your own area of responsibility, understanding the extent of the impact actions have on the organisation
inspire and motivate teams to be fully engaged in their work and dedicated to their role
How to structure your statement
Use a simple structure: Situation, Task, Action and Result. Do not place these labels in the final statement unless the application specifically asks for them.
Situation
Use one or two sentences to set the context. State the service, programme, policy or professional area and the problem that made the example important.
Task
Make your accountability explicit. For Leadership, the task should identify the direction you set, how you created inclusion and challenge, and the decisions or team actions you were prepared to defend.
Action
Give most of the words to the decisions and actions that demonstrate Leadership. Explain how you used evidence, led or involved others and responded when the situation changed. For this behaviour, keep the action centred on the direction you set, how you created inclusion and challenge, and the decisions or team actions you were prepared to defend.
Result
Show what changed because of your action. A strong result may include sustained engagement, improved performance, stronger inclusion, resolved organisational conflict or successful delivery through a difficult period. Use accurate measures where they help, but keep the result tied to the behaviour.
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