Scholarship / Chevening essay on leadership - Servant leadership essay [6]

Hi all,

I am from Vietnam and planning to submit an application for Chevening scholarship this year. This is the first time I have posted my essay on essayforum.com. With the spirit of "The first draft of everything is sh*t", I am welcomed and highly appreciate comments from you all. Thank you all in advance.

Chevening is looking for individuals that will be future leaders or influencers in their home countries. Explain how you meet this requirement, using clear examples of your own leadership and influencing skills to support your answer.(500 words max)

study among Chevening leaders and influencers

When being a team leader or a team player, I always try my best to contribute to the team's goals and inspire other team members to show their best. For me, leader is not a title, but a group of characteristics. And I believe that my personal traits and working experience will make me to be able to become a future leader.

First, I have developed a sense of high commitment and perseverance to reach the goals of any project I involved. When having worked for ABC organization, my very first task was to produce one video and 10 radio episodes on raising local people' awareness on climate change and community forestry. In the team with me was DEF (name of person), an Australian Project Officer. For some reasons, the working process is lingered to 12 months, instead of six months as planned. Therefore, we had to work so many times with stakeholders for any tiny changes in the play screens and digital versions. At some points, DEF seemed to be restless and lost her patience. I showed her my perseverance by encouraging her to keep her good work and by discussing, editing, following up and carefully translating all changes for her update. After one year working continuously, the final products were published on the organization's website and broadcasted in four project provinces.

Second, I am able to inspire other team members to fulfill their potentials and make sure that their voices are always heard. To me, it is foremost important to direct and empower team members at the same time. This ability is proved clearest in the time I am the communication team leader of the GHI (name of the project) which is funded by the U.S embassy under Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative program. On February 2016, there was a decrease of interactions on the projects' social networks. To flip the situation, our communication team has launched a mini-project called "Humans of GHI" and weekly picture posts with interesting captions on life skills. In the next two month, our likes on Facebook have increased double, even fourth time higher than previous posts. Interestingly, these ideas came from my other team mates, and what I did was to boost the brainstorming session and to polish these concepts into practical and valuable solutions.

Through working experience in development projects, I learned to focus primarily on the growth and well-being of people and the communities to which I belong. Chevening scholarship will be a golden chance for me to be more motivated and inspired by Chevening leaders and influencers in order to better serve my country for its sustainable development in the future. (447 words)