Scholarship / Ownership makes leadership - Chevening - Leadership and Influence essay [2]

Hi again, I'm applying for Chevening and this is my leadership essay. I appreciate any feedbacks!

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.

(minimum word count: 100 words, maximum word count: 500 words)

OWNERSHIP MAKES LEADERSHIP

I believe leadership is about ownership and initiatives. It was when I worked for Da Nang tui (DNT) - a non-profit organization, that I developed those leadership characteristics intensively. When we were preparing and raising fund for our first art exhibition project in 2018, the leader of our Creative Team, composed of 6 members, quitted due to the stress over enormous responsibilities, which put the team into a critical situation. I then took the initiative to lead and move the team forward.

Learning from the previous leader's failure to distribute responsibilities, I re-organized our team structure into a self-managed team in which each member was in charge of certain aspects based on their expertise, and was empowered to be the decision-maker and be responsible for their own outcomes. I also re-designed the organization's branding identity, and implemented a quality control guidelines that the team's outputs must meet before being published. This allowed them to truly develop their creative potentials while staying within the identity scope. Besides, I also built a team culture that encouraged my members to voice their opinions, to manage up, and to be authentic to their true selves.

In the end, we accomplished our 6 month marketing campaign for the art exhibition with more than 1,000 participants and 50,000 digital audience reached. But what mattered the most to me wasn't the metrics, but the fact that my team successfully sticked together through those 6 months without anyone falling off.

These leadership qualities continued to develop and served me well in my professions. When my former company was hit with a severe financial crisis in August 2019, all employees was asked to either retreat to the head quarter in HCMC or have their contracts terminated. In that light, my respective team in Da Nang decided to establish a new business venture to take over the properties that we were managing at the time.

It was a hard decision for the team and some were perplexed and uncertain. I took the courage to represent my team to hand over the finance and other accounting related work and at the same time, formed a new finance reporting scheme and trained my team members on finance and budget management. I also initiated to work closely with my team leader on negotiation with each property's respective owners in regard to new directions and strategies for their current businesses. My initiatives clearly resulted in advancing the transition and ignite the team's enthusiasm.

At the time of this writing, the new business venture was taking off and I was trusted to take on a new role of marketing executive. I also became a leadership member of DNT as we were preparing for the second exhibition. Alongside my accomplishments, I learnt that when I embraced ownership, others were empowered to do the same and the organization would be able to move on difficult circumstances. I aspire to be such leader, and would hold onto this core value in everything I do.

Scholarship / The development of creative and cultural industries in Viet Nam - Chevening - Career Plan Essay [2]

Hello all, I am a new member. Please help me review my essay below. I would appreciate it a lot!

The development of creative and cultural industries in Viet Nam

Chevening is looking for individuals who have a clear post-study career plan. Please outline your immediate plans upon returning home and your longer term career goals. You may wish to consider how these relate to what the UK government is doing in your country. (minimum word count: 100 words, maximum word count: 500 words)

building a self-sustainable cultural community

Upon returning from the UK, my plan is mostly concerned with the development of the creative and cultural industries in Viet Nam, and especially in my city, Da Nang. As one of those who have been actively building the said community in Da Nang, and with concrete belief that the cultural industry is the main stimulating force for socio-economic development, I see the pain of the current reality as well as rooms for positive changes, and the promising future once the changes are made.

My short term objective is to come back to Da Nang Tui (DNT), which is currently a biennial art exhibition project, and establish it into a cultural and creative hub (CCH). One of the weaknesses of our current cultural industries is the underdeveloped domestic market and the lack of public awareness. In contrast to HCMC and Hanoi, this concept is poorly - perceived in Da Nang despite being appointed as one of the strategic cultural industrial centers. This is where my specialization in marketing and communication plays a vital role. By having exposure to the UK's education and its outstanding MarCom models, I will utilize my accumulated market evaluation skills and in-depth understanding of the cultural industries to formulate new effective models to help DNT become the most active CCH in Da Nang in 5 years. This is broken down into three smaller objectives: continuously developing the current nature of DNT - art exhibitions; expanding the networking of artists and creators; and providing an open sharing platform about art and culture for the general public.

With regard to my long-term plan which I will hopefully have accomplished in 10 years, I aim to be an advocate of creative and cultural industries' roles in the socio-economic growth. By this point of time, I am convinced that the approaches of DNT will have proven its efficiency in shaping the demands and forming the market, as well as its scalability. With this ground, I will foster and provide consultancy to the younger CCH generations, and replicate the successful models. This will help accelerating and facilitating the growth of the cultural industries, and at the same time creating a stronger network. My ultimate goal is to build a self-sustainable cultural community which will serve back to the society and economy of Da Nang in particular, and in Viet Nam in general.

This plan aligns with the partnership program between the British Council (BC) and Vietnam National Institute of Culture and Arts Studies (VICAS), named Cultural and Creative Hubs Vietnam, which is part of the National Strategy for the Development of Cultural Industries to 2020, vision 2030, whose development process is supported by the BC's expertise and advocacy. With the amalgam of support from the above mentioned programs and the Chevening award, I am determined to be the leading figure in the cultural industries's development of my country and take it forward.