sekarshd
Oct 24, 2018
Scholarship / Creative brainstorming - Chevening Leadership [5]
Prompt: Chevening is looking for individuals who 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
In 2015, I co-led a team of 300 people to create X-a series of the biggest IT competitions, workshops, and exhibitions in Malaysia. We pledged to create events that are free to ensure inclusivity, and thus fundraising was a fundamental part of our event. At one point, we found ourselves short of money. Although eventually we managed to reach our target, but at that time we had to make several tough choices based on the money we currently had.
The Event and Public Relations divisions were disagreeing over the money that we had left. The Head of Event thought we should use the money to invite a popular band like previously to get people interested. Meanwhile, the Head of Public Relations (PR) argued that we should use the money for more paid advertisements because no matter how popular the band is, people wouldn't know that there is an event without any advertisement. The Finance team which was directly under my lead had troubles solving this issue because both of them had valid points.
I believe one of the most important traits of a leader is the ability to handle difficult situations. Thus, I decided I should address the matter immediately as discomforting as it could be for everyone. I gathered all of my direct reports to do a brainstorming session together and asked them to see the big picture: what do we want to achieve? What was our objective? Many people are not aware of Malaysia's IT potentials and we are here to educate them on that. So, we need as many and diverse people as possible to come.
Given our financial limitation, how can we achieve that? I made sure that I acknowledge the Head of Event's and Head of PR's original plans, but I gave each of them a challenge: is there a way to do so while minimizing the cost? For instance, is the online advertisement plan initially proposed truly effective? The Head of PR did further research and it turns out only one social media had a good conversion rate. We decided on a paid advertisement but only for that platform. All of us agreed to rely on our team's own network and media partners and focus on making memorable contents. Meanwhile, I encouraged the Event team to find other ways to attract people and one of us suggested lucky draws. Most people love free stuff and the prizes only cost 1/10 of the cost for the band.
Through the brainstorming session that I initiated, I influenced my team to reframe their perspectives: first, this is not a "me versus them" situation-the money will go to wherever it is needed most. Second, we can use this financial limitation to our advantage. These creative workarounds did work successfully because years later, our event would be remembered for its creative campaigns and the 10.000 participants involved-a significant increase from the previous years.
Prompt: Chevening is looking for individuals who 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
Malaysia's IT potential
In 2015, I co-led a team of 300 people to create X-a series of the biggest IT competitions, workshops, and exhibitions in Malaysia. We pledged to create events that are free to ensure inclusivity, and thus fundraising was a fundamental part of our event. At one point, we found ourselves short of money. Although eventually we managed to reach our target, but at that time we had to make several tough choices based on the money we currently had.
The Event and Public Relations divisions were disagreeing over the money that we had left. The Head of Event thought we should use the money to invite a popular band like previously to get people interested. Meanwhile, the Head of Public Relations (PR) argued that we should use the money for more paid advertisements because no matter how popular the band is, people wouldn't know that there is an event without any advertisement. The Finance team which was directly under my lead had troubles solving this issue because both of them had valid points.
I believe one of the most important traits of a leader is the ability to handle difficult situations. Thus, I decided I should address the matter immediately as discomforting as it could be for everyone. I gathered all of my direct reports to do a brainstorming session together and asked them to see the big picture: what do we want to achieve? What was our objective? Many people are not aware of Malaysia's IT potentials and we are here to educate them on that. So, we need as many and diverse people as possible to come.
Given our financial limitation, how can we achieve that? I made sure that I acknowledge the Head of Event's and Head of PR's original plans, but I gave each of them a challenge: is there a way to do so while minimizing the cost? For instance, is the online advertisement plan initially proposed truly effective? The Head of PR did further research and it turns out only one social media had a good conversion rate. We decided on a paid advertisement but only for that platform. All of us agreed to rely on our team's own network and media partners and focus on making memorable contents. Meanwhile, I encouraged the Event team to find other ways to attract people and one of us suggested lucky draws. Most people love free stuff and the prizes only cost 1/10 of the cost for the band.
Through the brainstorming session that I initiated, I influenced my team to reframe their perspectives: first, this is not a "me versus them" situation-the money will go to wherever it is needed most. Second, we can use this financial limitation to our advantage. These creative workarounds did work successfully because years later, our event would be remembered for its creative campaigns and the 10.000 participants involved-a significant increase from the previous years.
