Developing Self and Others is the Civil Service behaviour about continuous learning and development for yourself, other people and the organisation. Strong evidence shows that you identify capability gaps, take action to close them and can demonstrate what improved as a result.
The behaviour is wider than attending training. Learning can come from coaching, mentoring, feedback, stretch work, shadowing, knowledge sharing, formal courses or deliberate practice. At higher grades, the assessor will expect you to think about team capability and future delivery rather than only your own development.
The current Civil Service Success Profiles behaviour guidance sets out different expectations by grade.
What Developing Self and Others means
At junior grades, good evidence can show recognising a gap in your own knowledge, setting a development goal, acting on feedback and sharing what you have learned with colleagues.
At EO, stronger examples can include identifying team skill gaps, supporting other people’s development plans, delegating work to help someone learn and encouraging developmental feedback.
At HEO and SEO, the behaviour includes capability planning, coaching or mentoring, supporting succession and continuously acting on feedback. At Grade 7 and Grade 6, strong evidence should show a broader learning culture: role-modelling development, planning for future capability and making development opportunities available fairly.
What the behaviour looks like by grade
| Grade | What strong evidence should show |
|---|---|
| AA / AO | Identify your own skill gaps, set development goals, act on feedback and share useful learning with colleagues. |
| EO | Identify gaps in your own and the team’s capability, support development plans, delegate to build skills and encourage developmental feedback. |
| HEO / SEO | Identify capability gaps, set and achieve development objectives, coach and mentor others, support succession and act continuously on feedback. |
| Grade 7 / Grade 6 | Role-model continuous development, plan capability for future objectives, help colleagues own their learning and make development opportunities accessible and inclusive. |
Choosing a strong example
Choose an example where development solved a real capability need. You might have coached somebody whose performance was holding back delivery, built a new skill yourself for an unfamiliar piece of work, created a knowledge-sharing approach or identified a future capability gap in your team.
The strongest examples show a deliberate development decision rather than learning by accident. Explain how you identified the gap, why you chose the development approach and how you knew it had worked.
Developing Self and Others 250 word statement
For a 250 word statement, describe the capability gap and why it mattered, then use most of the space on what you personally did. If you were developing somebody else, explain how you adapted the support to that person rather than describing generic training.
End with the change in capability or performance. A new qualification can be useful evidence, but the stronger result is often what somebody could do afterwards that they could not do before.
Developing Self and Others example
The existing example below is useful because it gives a specific development situation and outcome rather than simply listing courses or training attended.
Developing Self and Others interview questions
Typical Developing Self and Others questions include:
- Tell me about a time you helped somebody develop a new skill.
- Describe a time you identified a capability gap in yourself or your team.
- Tell me about a time you gave developmental feedback that led to improvement.
- How do you decide which development opportunities will have the greatest value?
- Tell me about a time you coached or mentored somebody.
- Describe a time you changed your approach after receiving feedback.
- How have you shared knowledge so that a wider team could benefit?
Common mistakes
- Listing training courses without showing why they were needed or what changed afterwards.
- Focusing entirely on your own learning in a role where the behaviour expects development of others.
- Giving somebody advice once and calling it coaching.
- Ignoring different learning needs or accessibility requirements.
- Using a senior example with no evidence of capability planning, succession or wider team development.
Find an example for your grade. Select the level of the job you are applying for. These examples show different levels of responsibility, so tailor the evidence and decisions to your own experience.