Scholarship / My responsibility. Kindly assist with review of my Leadership and Influencing Skills essay below [4]

Leadership and influencing skills

Being a first born in my family, it has always been my responsibility to look after and care for my younger siblings. My mother raised us as a single parent, she looked up to me most of the time to help her with chores around the house and to take care of my siblings as she was working most the time. I had to learn at an early age to lead by example and be an inspiration to my siblings as they looked up to me. My family background has always encouraged me to push further in my studies and I am glad I managed to go to university and still looking forward to advance my studies further and do my masters to improve the living standard in my family.

I am currently working in an environmental consultancy company, Royal Pioneers Investments (Pty) Ltd. I joined the company on the 1st of November 2018, thus far I managed to lead and get approvals for three (3) Environmental Impact Assessment projects; "Operation of a Feedlot at Mmamashia by Walgreen Investments", "Refurbishment of a filling station at Tlokweng by T. Z Highway Investments" and "Jwaneng Northern Wellfields Expansion at Magagarape by Debswana Jwaneng Mine".

Carrying out an Environmental Impact Assessment report involves consulting relevant stakeholders and neighbouring communities and getting their views on the proposed project. For the projects that I was assigned to lead I managed to successfully consult all the relevant stakeholders through written letters and doing house to house consultations by distributing questionnaires to the neighbouring residents and getting their views.

I am currently working on two Environmental Impact Assessment projects; "The Construction of a Filling Station, Supermarket and Multi-residential Units at Modipane by Endurance Investments (Pty) Ltd" and "The Construction of a Filling Station, Hotel, Truck Inn and Shopping Complex at Sese village".

I am also carrying out Environmental Compliance Monitoring as a lead consultant for the upgrading of the Gaborone-Boatle road to Dual Carriageway standard project by the Roads Department in the Ministry of Transport and Communications and submitting the monthly monitoring reports at Department of Environmental Affairs. Environmental compliance monitoring requires regular inspections and report formulation from the observations made on site. I was able to formulate an inspection form to use in my regular inspections. During these inspections I meet with the Safety, Health and Environment officer where we tour the site and I point out areas of concern if there are any then compile a monitoring report from the findings.

I believe the Chevening scholarship can help me sharpen my leadership skills which can help me establish a career in the field of Environmental Impact Assessment in Botswana. I will also be able to share the knowledge and skills acquired from the scholarship with other environmental consultants in my country to aid in natural resource management as one of the key issues in Botswana.