Civil Service Communicating and Influencing Behaviour Guide

What does Communicating and Influencing really ask for?

There are two halves. Communicating means getting a message understood by the particular people receiving it, using the right channel, plain language and enough listening to know whether it landed. Influencing means changing what someone thinks or does, honestly and respectfully, without relying on rank.

Honesty and attention to the audience's needs run through every grade. The difficulty rises from clear everyday messages to complex material, difficult news and people who disagree with you.

How does the expectation change from AA and AO to the Senior Civil Service?

The wording below paraphrases the official descriptors. Read the full text for your target grade.

• At AA and AO, you put your views across clearly and considerately, pick a suitable method for each person such as an email, call or conversation, use plain language and check written work for errors, think about the effect of your language on different groups, stay honest, and listen and ask questions to be sure you understand.
• At EO, you communicate clearly and concisely in speech and writing, choose the best channel for the audience, respond constructively and objectively to comments and questions, value different views, and handle challenging conversations with confidence and sensitivity.
• At HEO and SEO, you communicate in a straightforward, honest and engaging way, choose styles that maximise understanding and impact, make sure communication has a clear purpose, share information and check understanding, and deliver important messages respectfully across a range of interests.
• At Grade 7 and Grade 6, you build trust, explain complex issues simply, deliver difficult messages with clarity and sensitivity and are persuasive when required, stay open-minded and impartial, and monitor how effective your own and your team's communications are, acting to improve them.
• At Deputy Director level (SCS1), you put communication strategies in place that reflect individual needs, build a culture of varied, value for money methods, communicate honestly and with conviction in tough negotiations, respect audience diversity, and influence external partners to secure mutually beneficial outcomes.
• At Director and Director General level (SCS2 and SCS3), you promote honesty, integrity, impartiality and objectivity, ensure cost effective, digitally current communication infrastructure, communicate purpose and direction with clarity and enthusiasm, overcome objections to gain acceptance of the department's vision, and use your influence across the Civil Service and externally.

What does strong evidence look like?

Good evidence names the audience, why the message was hard, your choices and the effect. These examples are plausible illustrations with invented details, not real cases.

Example at AO. "Customers kept phoning about a confusing form. I rewrote the cover letter in plain language, removed internal terms, asked two colleagues to read it cold and checked it for errors. Calls on that question dropped over the following month."

Example at EO. "A stakeholder was angry that their request had been refused. I rang them rather than emailing, listened without interrupting, explained the policy reason plainly and offered an alternative route. They accepted the decision."

Example at Grade 7. "I had to tell a director that a flagship programme date would slip. I wrote a one page briefing setting out the options and risks, then talked it through with them in person. When they pushed back, I held to the evidence but agreed weekly updates. They accepted the revised date."

Illustrative example at Deputy Director. "A partner body opposed our delivery model in a tough negotiation. I met their chair twice, listened to their concerns and set out the evidence plainly. We agreed a revised model with shared reporting that both sides could defend."

Which mistakes lose marks?

• Right behaviour, wrong level. Writing a clear email is good AO evidence but too modest for Grade 7 or SCS level, where the panel expects complex material, difficult messages, negotiation and a culture of effective communication.
• Team actions instead of your own. "We briefed the board" does not show what you personally said, wrote or decided.
• Duties instead of outcomes. "I write the weekly newsletter" describes a task, not what changed.
• Influencing as winning. The descriptors stress honesty, impartiality and respect for other views, so an example where you simply got your way may not help.
• Jargon in the application itself. If the panel struggles to follow it, your claim suffers.

How do you evidence it with STAR or STARR?

Open with a short Situation naming the audience and the difficulty. Use the Task for what you were responsible for getting across. Spend most of the answer on Action, covering how you chose the method, adapted for different people and handled disagreement. In the Result, state what changed and, where you honestly can, how you knew it worked. Reflection, the second R in STARR, is expected from SEO upwards, and it is worth adding below that grade if you can. At interview, a behaviour answer runs around five minutes spoken, so choose an example with enough substance to fill that time.

Strengths are different. They are assessed mainly at interview, are not named in adverts and are not answered with STAR stories.

Where Koda fits

Koda helps you apply this to your own experience. It works from your real evidence and matches it to the role and grade, with nothing invented, and you stay in control of every word.

Frequently asked questions

Related guides

• The 9 Civil Service Behaviours, Explained
• The STAR Method for Civil Service Applications (and STARR)
• Civil Service Working Together Behaviour Guide