Communicating and Influencing is a Civil Service Success Profiles behaviour that looks at how clearly you communicate purpose and direction, how well you adapt your message to the audience and whether you can influence people while respecting different needs, views and responses.
The behaviour is much wider than public speaking. Written communication, difficult conversations, stakeholder management, explaining complex information and gaining agreement can all provide strong evidence. The important point is that your communication has a purpose and that you can show it had an effect.
The job advert will tell you whether Communicating and Influencing is being assessed and which selection method will be used. You can also check the current Civil Service Success Profiles behaviour guidance.
What Communicating and Influencing means
Strong communication starts with clarity. The other person should understand what you are asking, why it matters and what you need them to do. Strong influencing goes further. It shows that you understood the audience, listened to their position and used an appropriate approach to gain support or move the discussion forward.
The best examples usually involve some difficulty. The audience may have lacked technical knowledge, a stakeholder may have disagreed with you or the message may have been unpopular. That gives you space to show how you adapted your language, communication method or evidence rather than simply delivering a message in the same way to everyone.
Good answers also show listening. Influencing is not about talking until the other person gives in. You should be able to show that you understood their concerns, responded to them and changed your own approach when that was appropriate.
What the behaviour looks like by grade
| Grade | What the evidence should show |
|---|---|
| AA / AO | Put forward views clearly, use appropriate communication channels, use plain language, listen and ask questions, and consider the needs of different audiences. |
| EO | Communicate clearly in writing and verbally, choose effective channels, respond constructively to challenge and handle difficult conversations with confidence and sensitivity. |
| HEO / SEO | Communicate purpose and priorities clearly, tailor messages for different stakeholders, explain complex issues, build trust and use communication to gain support for delivery. |
| Grade 7 / Grade 6 | Explain complex or difficult issues simply, influence senior or diverse stakeholders, deliver difficult messages well, remain open to challenge and improve communication across the wider business area. |
Choosing a strong example
Choose a situation where communication changed something. You might have persuaded a stakeholder to change a decision, explained a complex problem to a non-technical audience, delivered bad news, dealt with resistance to change or brought several groups with different priorities towards agreement.
A simple presentation where everyone agreed from the start is usually weaker because it gives you very little opportunity to show influencing. The strongest examples contain a real obstacle and make it obvious how your communication helped overcome it.
Communicating and Influencing 250 word statement
In a 250 word statement, make the audience and the communication challenge clear early. Explain what you needed them to understand, decide or do, then show how you chose the message and the communication method. If you faced resistance or challenge, explain how you handled it.
The result should show what changed because of your communication. Agreement, a different decision, improved understanding, reduced resistance or a better customer outcome are all stronger than simply saying the meeting went well.
Communicating and Influencing example
The existing example below scored 6/7 and is worth retaining because the communication had a real outcome rather than simply describing a presentation or meeting.
Communicating and Influencing interview questions
Typical Communicating and Influencing questions include:
- Tell me about a time you influenced a difficult stakeholder.
- Tell me about a time you communicated bad news.
- Describe a time you had to explain something complex to a non-expert audience.
- Tell me about a time somebody strongly disagreed with you.
- How do you decide the best way to communicate with different audiences?
- Tell me about a time your first communication approach did not work.
- Describe a time you had to gain agreement across several teams or stakeholders.
The same example will not fit every question, so prepare different stories that show persuasion, difficult communication, adapting to an audience and handling challenge.
Common mistakes
- Describing a presentation with no evidence that the audience understood or acted.
- Focusing on confidence rather than understanding the audience.
- Calling something influencing when the other person had no real choice.
- Ignoring challenge or disagreement in the example.
- Using a senior example with very little stakeholder complexity.
At senior grades, a one-to-one conversation can still be useful, but the evidence should normally show a level of influence that matches the role.
Need an example for your grade? Choose the relevant statement or interview question below. Each guide is written for a different level of responsibility, so use the one that matches the vacancy rather than copying a more senior example.