Scholarship / I believe that leadership is losing its true meaning lately - LEADERSHIP & INFLUENCE ESSAY [4]

LEADERSHIP & INFLUENCE ESSAY - you kind suggestions and corrections will be of great help

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.

I believe that leadership is losing its true meaning lately and is becoming an insignia for people who want to be acclaimed or acknowledged somehow. The world has become a much colder and an extremely competitive place in which our society encourages you to outstand from the rest to become a leader sometimes based on what is mistakenly consider as the path of success.

i mention this because I have learned that to become a leader you have to serve others rather than yourself, moreover, you have to put your necessities aside and acknowledge the necessities of others so you can genuinely inspire and influence people around you; which is the only way to truly lead.

During my experience I had some opportunities to lead in groups or tasks. In school I participated in a group against bullying that held activities between different classes and supported new students; in collage I joint a nonprofit organization for community development for poverty called XXX in which I went to different providences as volunteer and later performed as team leader for a small group of new volunteers.

But one memorable occasion that changed my point of view was when I was working as a telecommunications consultant. My job was making site surveys and technical feasibility reports for the expansion of mobile networks in rural areas; during one journey I found a small community near the designated area, when I got in contact with the people I noticed they barely had basic amenities, so certainly they didn't have any idea about internet or mobile phones whatsoever.

I felt the need of going beyond, during my staying, I spent hours a side from my tasks organizing discussions with the community to explain some of the uses of TICs, despite they noticeable enthusiasm it was an enormous challenge to communicate and share information them due people in this areas have different cultures and ideas of progress than people from the urban area -in our country we have more than 35 different cultures and ethnicities- I had to be patient and flexible to understand their point of views and necessities in order to provide a suitable guidance while respecting their culture and customs. Additionally, i conducted meetings with the chief and representatives to start a campaign and formal requests to the City Council of the district to engage projects related to educations and access of TICs in that region.

This was a clear example of the huge Digital Divide in our country, only 9.6% have internet access at home and only 36% has other type of access or knowledge related to the use of TICs (INE: MECOVI, 2013). It was hard work but I felt great satisfaction helping and guiding this community and they were deeply grateful and eager to endure with these actions.

i have learned that communication is an essential pillar for leadership, sharing your knowledge and experience allows to create bonds and influence others.