Scholarship / Chevening Leadership & Influence Essay: my understanding and examples [4]

qualified with leadership personalities

Note: This is the first time I apply for Chevening and I'm worried about my essay quality. I really appreciate that if you could give me some improving tips. Many thanks!

I'd like to illustrate my understanding of leadership and influencing skills from three following aspects. And my own examples will be quoted to support why I'm qualified with these personalities.

Leadership and influence is about inspiring and motivating others. I joined CYG SUNRI Co.,Ltd right after graduating from Hunan University and in the second year, I was appointed as the supervisor of the newly recruited team that consisted of over 200 new employees. At the entrance of career, they were at a loss about how to transfer identity from students to engineers. I could feel their inside passion and enormous vigor for work. I felt obliged to guide them and help them to find a sense of belonging here. At the beginning of each program, I would share my stories in training and work last year, encouraging them to exploit strengths to the full and make progress step by step. They could find my words convincing and motivating because I genuinely hope to inspire them to dream more, learn more, do more and become more. I constantly revised and tailored the training program according to members' specific situations so as to tap into the depth of their potential and make them qualify for their positions.

Leadership and influence is about achieving goal and building trust. I worked as the project manager for overseas market and one of the key project was Malaysia mobile substation. This was the first Demonstration project for our company with a very tight schedule. At the project launching meeting, I organized a detailed discussion with leaders from every concerned departments and made a clear goal that we must finish within 8 months. Tasks were divided to specific parts and distributed to each department. Once any risk appeared, I would negotiate with every concerned manager to find out proper solution. Trust was built through cooperation to achieve the same goal and giving them freedom to make the most of their strength.

Leadership and influence is about confident, proactive and accept challenges. When I joined the International Working Team of our company, my boss asked me if I was willing to be the first project manager of Solar power plant in Italy, which was a brand new field for the whole company. Without hesitation I accepted this challenge and treated it as a cherish opportunity to create more value for my team. In order to accumulate more experience in this field, I visited and researched the solar plants in shanxi province, making preparation for the Italian project in advance. During the implementation process, I stayed in project site for over 3 months, arranging various kinds of work like civil construction, electrical commissioning, transportation and clearance, finding local partners and maintain good customer relationship. Finally, with close cooperation of the whole project team, we finished our task on time in high quality, winning recognition from our clients.