Scholarship / My former supervisor at Tanzania Cigarette Company had the best leadership and influencing skills [12]

Dear Ivy,
Thank you very much for your comments. I have incorporated the same in my revised draft. I have included the revised essay below, kindly assist in checking whether there are other corrections required. Thank you very much for your time and consideration.

Dear Louisa,
I am very thankful for your comments to my essay. I have tried to add some information you asked me to. I hope I have addressed your concerns. Below find the revised essay for additional comments. Thank you in advance for your time and consideration.

The Second draft

Talking about leadership and influencing skills, there is only one person comes to mind, my former supervisor at Tanzania Cigarette Company (TCC), Mr. Mwana Mwakabonga. He has been very instrumental in honing my leadership skills and unleash my innovative skills. Mr. Mwakabonga's leadership style is a Transformational leadership. He empowers his team and delegates, he assist personal development of team members, he inspires innovations, he coaches and mentors his team, he shows concern for the team and lead by example. From him, I have learned the following lessons about leadership; that a leader is someone able to influence others, motivate them, mentor them, train them and get them to be good leaders too. Backed with his influence, I am proud to call myself an upcoming young leader.

In practicing leadership and influencing skills I have acquired, I was able to lead the team through two successful Annual and Strategic Planning cycles (A&SP). This was possible because I was able to learn planning instructions quickly and system knowledge requirements from other JTI (the mother company of TCC) markets and transfer the knowledge to the rest of the team. Moreover, I organized video conference with the experts from JTI head offices in Manchester and Geneva, to help team members execute challenging tasks. Being a team leader in A&SP has given me a tremendous experience on how to lead a team and motivate them. The biggest challenge I encountered in the due process was how to communicate technical information to branch managers who had no or poor background of budgets. To overcome such obstacle, I had to adjust myself to their level of understanding so we could speak the same language and get things done. In my view, one of the best ways to influence the team is to equip them with necessary skills to execute their duties.

I believe leadership skills extend beyond our professional capacity or areas to the society. In 2013, I with the other University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) alumni formed a local club dubbed Mabibo Bullets Basketball Club (MBBC). The main goals of the club were to enhance UDSM alumni unit through sports, to assist current students in their studies, and to extend the social relationship between UDSM alumni, current students and indigenous of Mabibo area. Through MBBC, I was able to mentor students about their preparation of after university life, the right balance between sports and studies and professional life, especially in Accounting and Finance career. So far we have succeeded to attract a number of UDSM students and others who came to the University grounds for physical exercises. Moreover, most of the students who joined the club have been employed immediately after graduation.

With all these leadership skills and the desire to develop into a great leader, I believe Chevening scholarship will assist me to learn from the best and use those skills to influence my society.

Scholarship / My former supervisor at Tanzania Cigarette Company had the best leadership and influencing skills [12]

Thank you, Louisa. I am working on your advice and you will soon get the feedback.

Scholarship / My former supervisor at Tanzania Cigarette Company had the best leadership and influencing skills [12]

Here is another Chevening essay please assist!

Qn. Chevening is looking for individuals with strong networking skills, who will engage with the Chevening community and influence and lead others in their chosen profession. Explain how you meet this requirement, using clear examples of your networking skills, and how you hope to use these skills in the future

Frankly speaking, I have come to understand the importance of networking skills at the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM). During those times, my target was to get prepared for my professional career. I was lucky to meet different students who were in their second and third years at the University. Such kind of networking helped me to shape my career and to secure my first job at XYZ Bank few months after graduating from the University. One of my colleague who graduated a year earlier recommended me to the HR of XYZ and, therefore, I was called for an interview and finally I got a position as a Cashier at the Bank.

There are key avenues I have been utilizing to enhance my networking skills and broaden my network. The top three areas include; sports activities, association, and online social networks. Sports especially basketball has played a major role in my networking experience because I played for UDSM basketball team and currently I am playing for Mabibo Bullets Basketball Club (MBBC). Through sports, I am able to meet new people and exchange new ideas. Meanwhile, I have been utilizing Social networks, especially Linkedin for professional development and network expansion. So far, I have got two mentors through Linkedin; one from Nigeria and the other one from Zimbabwe. These guys are helping me out with my current mission to develop and provide the maximum contribution to capital markets in Tanzania. Moreover, associations such as UDSM alumni, CMSA workers association, MBBC are keeping me closer to my society and help me to understand social challenges from the investment point of view.

My present job involves supervision of all market players in the capital markets in Tanzania. These market players include; stock market dealers and brokers, custodian of securities, stock exchange, investment advisors and others. The key issue which have made me successful in my current job is networking with the firms under my supervision. Networking with market intermediaries has made supervision work easy and has influenced them to comply with easy. In additional to that, I have also enhanced my internal network at my workplace by build a close relationship with my superiors, heads of other departments and colleagues. Unlike other staffs who segregates themselves from the managers and directors, I am very close to them. This has built confidence and made it easy to contribute my innovative ideas to the Authority.

Finally, with this important skill and my thirst to expand my network into international sphere, Chevening scholarship will be paramount to reach my goal. Having a mixed group of people within my network, I am sure I will get the most out of them and contribute to the development of capital markets in Tanzania.

Scholarship / My former supervisor at Tanzania Cigarette Company had the best leadership and influencing skills [12]

Thanks, Louisa, I didn't know where to start or what to write. You have opened up my mind. I will come out with a better version soon.

Scholarship / My former supervisor at Tanzania Cigarette Company had the best leadership and influencing skills [12]

Dear Louisa,

Below I have pasted two paragraphs of leadership and influencing skills essay I have corrected. Basically, Annual and Strategic Planning cycle involves the whole activities from departmental budgeting, consolidation, agreement and uploading the same in the system. Moreover, the cycle continues to oversee the implementation of commitments made in budgets and collect feedback from departmental heads and take the corrective action whenever the actual result are far out from the original planned budget. Therefore, I could not find the shortest straight words to express all these activities due to words limitation to 500 max. Moreover, I apologise for some delays, I have some difficulties in accessing computers and the internet for the moment. Thank you.

the revised paragraphs

In practising leadership and influencing skills I have acquired, I was able to lead the Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A) team through two successful Annual and Strategic Planning cycles (A&SP). This was possible because I am a fast learner and therefore, I understood the instructions and system requirements quickly and transfer the knowledge to the rest of the team. Moreover, I organized video conference with the experts from JTI (the mother company of TCC) head offices in Manchester and Geneva, to help team members to execute challenging tasks. Being a team leader in A&SP has given me a tremendous experience on how to lead a team and motivate them. The biggest challenge I encountered in the due process was how to communicate technical information to branch managers who had no or poor background of budgets. To overcome such obstacle, I had to adjust myself to their level of understanding so we could speak the same language and get things done. In my view, one of the best ways to influence the team is to equip them with necessary skills to execute their duties.

I believe leadership skills extend beyond our professional capacity or areas to the society. In 2013, I with the other University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) alumni formed a local club dubbed Mabibo Bullets Basketball Club (MBBC). The main goals of the club were to enhance UDSM alumni unit through sports, to assist current students in their studies, and to extend the social relationship between UDSM alumni, current students and indigenous of Mabibo area. Through MBBC, I was able to mentor students about their preparation of after university life, the right balance between sports and studies and professional life, especially in Accounting and Finance career. I did this through personalized advice to students on a case by case basis. In all cases, I set myself as an example of someone who fully participated in sports and achieved good academic results. To inspire my mentees, I always tell them my success story on how I grew from a bank teller to an analyst within two years.

Scholarship / My former supervisor at Tanzania Cigarette Company had the best leadership and influencing skills [12]

Dear Louisa, thanks again for you valuable contribution. Below find the corrected version of networking skills essay. Please be free to comment as to whether I have addressed your concerns or not. Thank you.

It was a tough day at the university, standing in a long queue of more than 500 first year students waiting for registration. This was my first day at the University of Dar es Salaam. I was holding several forms and the university map to guide me around the campus. I could not tolerate spending the whole day at the queue; therefore I opted to find someone to give me alternatives shortcut to registration. That is when I started networking with other students at the University and here is where I came to understand the importance of networking skills.

Being nominated to play with the University of Dar es Salaam basketball team at Interuniversity competition in Tanga, 2009, was not an easy task for me. My networking skills helped me a lot. I did not only go to the University grounds for physical exercise, but also I went for networking purposes. The strategy was to get together with my teammates after regular exercises and engage them in talking about the life beyond sports and academic. Through this technique, I succeed to convince my team captain who helped me to improve my performance at the ground and got a chance to play with the University basketball team.

My current role as an analyst has given me greater opportunity to network with different stakeholders in capital markets in Tanzania. This year I attended a workshop on market liberalization for East African Community countries in Dar es Salaam. In this conference, I met with peoples from different sectors, ministries, and regulatory authorities. The workshop involved dialogues in groups and I opted to be the leader of the financial sector group to know my colleagues and familiarize with the whole group. During tea and lunch breaks, I meet in person with many attendants to discuss different issues apart from the workshop. This helped me to capture many participants attention and at the end of the workshop everyone was familiar with me. After the workshop, I created a spreadsheet with all contracts and add their contacts in my phonebook.

My plan is to expand my network in international context. Chevening scholarship offers a great opportunity for me to meet different colleagues and professional from different cultures and background. Therefore apart from studying I will spend a great deal of my time connecting with students, professors and other professionals in the UK. My plan is to involve myself with different students associations, attending workshops, participates in sports and volunteer in different community activities once I get a chance to study in the UK.