Communicating and Influencing interview questions are designed to find out whether you can do more than explain something clearly.
The panel wants to understand how you judge an audience, adapt your approach, listen properly and get somebody to understand, agree or act.
The level changes with the job. At junior grades, that might mean helping a customer understand a difficult process. At EO, you may be persuading a colleague or manager to change an approach. HEO and SEO examples are more likely to involve several stakeholders or complex information. Grade 6 and Grade 7 answers usually need wider organisational significance and more senior influence.
Writing an application instead? See the Communicating and Influencing 250 Word Statement Example.
Need the wider behaviour guide? See Communicating and Influencing Civil Service.
What is the panel actually looking for?
A weak answer often tells the panel that you communicated. A stronger answer explains why you communicated in a particular way and how that changed the outcome.
I arranged a meeting with the stakeholders, presented the proposal and answered their questions.
There is nothing necessarily wrong with that, but it gives the panel very little evidence of judgement.
Now compare it with:
I realised the operational manager was not objecting to the proposal itself. Her concern was that the implementation date would leave her team carrying the delivery risk. I changed the conversation from explaining the benefits again to working through the implementation risk with her and agreed what safeguards would make the change workable.
The second version shows that the candidate listened, identified the real objection and changed their approach. That is the difference between describing communication and demonstrating Communicating and Influencing.
Common Communicating and Influencing interview questions
The wording varies, but the same themes come up again and again. You could reasonably prepare for questions like these:
| Theme | Example question |
|---|---|
| Persuasion | Tell me about a time you persuaded somebody to change their approach. |
| Different priorities | Describe a time you had to influence stakeholders with different priorities. |
| Complex information | Tell me about a time you explained complex information to a non-specialist audience. |
| Adapting communication | Give an example of when you changed your communication style for a particular audience. |
| Challenge | Tell me about a time you challenged somebody more senior than you. |
| Difficult messages | Describe a time you had to communicate a difficult or unpopular message. |
| Influence without authority | Give an example of when you influenced somebody you did not manage. |
| Negotiation | Tell me about a time you had to reach agreement between people who wanted different things. |
Do not prepare eight unrelated scripts. A strong example can often answer several versions of the same theme. You change the emphasis to match the question rather than forcing a memorised answer into it.
Use B-STAR to structure the answer
Interview Detectives uses B-STAR for behaviour answers: Belief, Situation, Task, Action, Result.
The Belief comes first and gives the panel a short sense of how you think about the issue before you move into the example. For Communicating and Influencing, it could be as simple as:
I believe influence starts with understanding why somebody holds their position. If I understand what they are trying to protect or achieve, I can communicate around the real issue rather than simply repeating my own argument.
Keep the Belief short. It should sound like something you would genuinely say, not a rehearsed mission statement.
Situation and Task
Keep them short. The panel needs to understand what was happening, who was involved and what you were responsible for. Get to the communication problem quickly.
Action
This should carry most of the answer. Explain what you learned about the audience and what you did with that information. If you changed your communication style, say what you actually changed and why.
Result
Show that the communication had an effect. Agreement, a changed decision, adoption of an approach or a difficult situation being resolved can all work. Use figures where they are real and useful, not because the answer looks incomplete without one.
Full Communicating and Influencing interview answer
Question: Describe a time you had to influence stakeholders with different priorities to reach agreement.
I believe influence works best when you understand what each person is trying to protect rather than assuming disagreement means they are opposed to the objective.
I was leading an improvement to an internal approvals process. The policy team wanted a new digital route introduced quickly because the existing process was creating delays. Operational managers supported the principle but opposed the proposed launch date because they were concerned their teams would have to deal with problems before the process had been properly tested.
I was responsible for getting the groups to a workable decision without losing the benefit of the change.
I met the operational leads separately before bringing everyone together. That helped me understand that their main concern was not the digital process itself but the lack of a clear route for unusual cases. I took that back to the policy team and challenged the assumption that every case needed to move through the new route immediately.
I worked with both groups to separate routine cases from exceptions and produced a revised proposal. Routine work would move into the digital process first, while complex cases would remain on the existing route during an initial trial.
At the joint meeting, I explained the revised approach in terms of what each group had told me mattered to them: faster processing for policy and controlled operational risk for the service teams. When one manager raised a valid concern about who would decide whether a case was exceptional, I paused the discussion and agreed the decision criteria with the group rather than trying to defend an incomplete proposal.
Both teams agreed to the pilot. The trial ran without the disruption the operational managers had feared, and they supported moving further case types onto the digital route at the review point.
Why this answer works
The candidate does not win the argument by talking louder. They first establish why the stakeholders disagree.
Policy wants faster implementation. Operations wants lower risk. Once the candidate understands what sits behind those positions, they can build an option that addresses both.
There is also a useful moment where the candidate does not pretend the revised proposal is perfect. A manager raises a legitimate concern about exception decisions and the candidate changes the approach. That makes the influence more credible.
The result shows an actual shift in stakeholder behaviour: the managers agree to the pilot and later support wider adoption.
Want more questions and worked answers at your grade?
The full grade-specific interview guides give you more Communicating and Influencing questions, worked answers and examples of the depth expected at your level. They are designed to help you test your own evidence rather than memorise somebody else’s script.
Prepare across all nine Civil Service behaviours
The grade-specific interview guides cover all nine behaviours with realistic questions and worked answers pitched at the level you are applying for.
What would make the answer weaker?
Imagine the same scenario written like this:
I held regular stakeholder meetings and communicated the benefits of the new process. I listened to concerns and reassured stakeholders that risks would be managed. Through effective communication I gained agreement and the pilot was successful.
It sounds tidy, but it tells the panel almost nothing. We do not know what anybody objected to, what the candidate learned, what they changed, how they persuaded anyone or why the stakeholders eventually agreed.
Phrases such as “I communicated effectively”, “I adapted my style” and “I influenced stakeholders” are conclusions. The scoring evidence is the detail underneath them.
Expect follow-up questions
The first answer may only be part of the assessment. A panel could ask why you spoke to stakeholders separately, what you would have done if they still refused, whether you changed your own view, or how you knew they had genuinely understood rather than simply agreed in the meeting.
Those questions are easier when the example is genuinely yours. You are explaining decisions you made, not trying to remember a script.
What changes by grade?
AA/AO
The emphasis is usually clear information, active listening, respectful communication and checking understanding. A customer or colleague example can be completely appropriate.
Executive Officer
EO answers should normally contain more independent judgement. You might persuade a colleague or manager, explain why an existing approach needs to change or gain support for a practical solution.
HEO/SEO
The communication problem usually becomes more complex. Think varied audiences, difficult messages, competing stakeholder interests, recommendations or influence outside your immediate team.
Grade 6/7
The communication should normally matter at a wider organisational level. Challenging senior leaders, gaining cross-organisational agreement or communicating a contentious decision can all work where the example is real and the outcome matters.
How many examples should you prepare?
Do not prepare one example and hope every question fits it, but you do not need twenty scripts either.
A small group of strong examples is more useful. One might involve resistance, another complex information, another a difficult message and another influence without authority. Know them well enough to change the emphasis when the wording changes.
You are trying to build flexibility, not memorise a set of scripts.
Do not confuse a behaviour question with a strength question
A behaviour question normally asks for evidence of something you have done, which is why a detailed B-STAR example works.
A strength question is testing something different: how naturally and regularly you approach a type of work and how you feel about doing it.
So if the panel asks, “Tell me about a time you influenced a difficult stakeholder”, this page is preparing you for the right kind of answer. If they ask something much shorter such as, “Do you enjoy persuading people?”, do not automatically launch into a five-minute B-STAR story.
Common mistakes
Giving everybody the same message. If the example involves several audiences but you communicate with all of them identically, there is little evidence of adaptation.
Skipping the disagreement. If the stakeholder changed their mind, explain what their concern was and what moved them.
Confusing persistence with influence. Repeating your argument until somebody gives in is not necessarily good influencing.
Making the stakeholder look foolish. Strong answers usually show that you understood the other person’s position, even when you disagreed.
No real outcome. A meeting going well is not much of a result. What did somebody decide, understand or do differently?
Using a senior audience as the evidence. Talking to a director does not automatically make the answer senior. Your own judgement and the significance of the outcome still matter.
Ready to prepare across all nine behaviours?
AA/AO interview guide: all nine behaviours -
Need help with the written application instead? Go to the Communicating and Influencing 250 Word Statement Example.
