Scholarship / Requesting review of Chevening "Leadership & Influencing" Essay [3]

Dear Respected Reviewers,
I am going to apply for Chevening scholarship, and would really appreciate your kind inputs on this essay. Thanks a million in advance.

In my childhood, when I had no idea what leadership was and what different types it had, I used to be one of the kindest, most flexible and the nicest kids around. I could never sit on my laurels being a one trick pony. So, I always used to get engaged in any form of extra-curricular activities, such as being part of school programs, sports events, study tours and picnic organizing groups. It helped me gain the respect of my peers as a social and capable kid, increased my likability because of my flexible and friendly attitude, and made me an integral part of those organizing groups. Therefore, I would say I was more of a facilitator than I was a leader at that time.

As I grew up into a high school teenager, I started studying the other people who I thought were better leaders or influencers than I was, and tried to figure out what transferrable skills set them apart in certain leadership criteria. I gradually singled out that confidence, effective communication and dependability are three important criteria for situational leaders. It spurred me to add these qualities to my repertoire, and gradually I established myself as an automatic choice for leading various school and social events. For example, I lead and managed the school cricket tournaments in my 10th, 11th and 12th grades; I managed the grand re-union of our school in the year of 2000, organized several blood donation programs for the Red Crescent Society of Bangladesh between 1997 and 2003, and distributed relief in 28 different villages during the great flood of 1998.

As I moved into my university life and professional life thereafter, I developed the passion of leading from the front. My communication ability has always been applauded and it helped me convey even the seemingly unpopular messages in a more digestible way. I firmly believe in the mantra that it is not what one communicates; it is how one communicates the messages. Unlike my boyhood days, while I'm still compassionate today, I am not afraid of taking unpopular decisions to fulfill my objectives. However, my ability to connect with people and my dependable personality has always enabled me to make it a smooth ride.

Forbes personality test reveals that I am predominantly a democratic leader today. However, as a leader I am flexible enough to adjust to different situations and people. In my professional leadership positions, I have managed numerous projects successfully, negotiated various conflicts peacefully, communicated with myriad levels of stakeholders effectively, and achieved organizational goals efficiently. For example, I have lead the USD 2 million ERP project for one of my previous employers (Hamid Fabrics), where I had to manage some very influential top executives and company owners, some notoriously bureaucratic mid-level executives, technically gifted software developers, technically layman end users and so on. On top of that, motivating people through the difficult change management process while adhering to project cost, quality and timeline was an achievement I am really proud of.

Writing Feedback / To persuade the policymakers and influential people in the government - Chevening "Networking" [3]

Dear Respected Reviewers, I would really appreciate your inputs/criticism of the below essay.

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.

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Social network is an invaluable resource nowadays, and a strong aptitude in networking is one of the most important criteria to succeed in today's professional world. It is easy to get most of the things done when one has a dependable and reliable network of people. It empowers the person in manifolds.

I consider myself a socially strong and extrovert person with empathy towards people irrespective of culture, gender and race. Thus, my strength in networking is rooted in my leadership ability of connecting with people-formally and informally. I confidently believe that I have an inherent reliability in my character which helps me get closer to others, and eventually establish a strong interpersonal connection. When I was working in Hamid Fabrics as Planning & Operations Manager, networking was probably the most important asset for me. It was a central position that required me to work in harmony with people ranging from top management, procurement, marketing, production, inventory, delivery and quality. Each of these functional groups had conflicting interest and agenda, and it was a monumental task to manage all of them and still getting the best out of them. In the early days, when the going was tough, I decided to establish close relationships with people who were proving to be difficult to work with. I invested time and effort to do that, and eventually I made it harder for them to say no to me. In parallel to getting closer to difficult people, I was also working on my close allies as a more reliable supporting network to fall back whenever required.

When I moved to New Zealand in 2012, I felt the importance of networking more than ever before. It was an alien land for me, with no meaningful support network to rely on. Slowly but steadily, I connected with people in government employment agencies, charity organizations such as Red Cross, the Bangladeshi community in New Zealand, and Banks. This process helped me landing the part time job with Auckland Health Board. Besides job hunting, this network also helped me settle in a country with different culture and social structure.

After coming back from New Zealand, I joined H&M-the 2nd largest apparel retailer in the world. After joining such a big company, establishing a solid and working network became all the more critical once more. Therefore, I stepped out of my comfort zone, and got involved in numerous cross functional activities, such as different supply chain projects, projects undertaken by country organization, and numerous events that take place here every year. It helped me become one of those common faces everyone knows in such a big organization.

In future, I want to take this skill to the next level, so that I can effectively persuade the policymakers, influential people in the government and other large organizations to bring about change in the field of sustainability-where my country has a lot of opportunity to create better lives, and most importantly, a better world for future generations.