AGENT OF CHANGE IN THE FUTURE - Leadership and Influence Question for Chevening

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)

water sector agent

Being a leader has become part of my life since I was in university, and it is still being an ambition in the future. For me, a leader has to be able to bring good impact within the community. It was started when I was promoted as a head of Topics and Methods Division in Environmental Engineering community. I had to plan what environmental issues that should be shown up and how to deliver the issues to get government and public attention. I began with initiating brainstorms with division members to find subtopics of water pollution and pack them up into photography competition, water seminar, and reusable bag campaigns. When the day came, we succeeded executing national photography competition with terrible water condition and water seminar which was spoken by national decision maker. Moreover, we also made impressive influence of eco-lifestyle by persuading public to stop using plastic bags and use reusable bag that we gave for free through switching non environment friendly goods. After the events, most of them participated in reducing plastic waste yet looked more stylish using reusable bag in daily life.

From my working experience as coordinator of foreign cooperation program in water supply development sector, I learned that being a leader on national program needed strong coordination between stakeholders involved. At the beginning, I gathered all donors to get same perception and avoid over lapping authority. This program offered either technical or training assistance for free to increase water supply services through local water company (PDAM). Due to high demand of PDAMs which will be aided and time limitation, I decided to visit some PDAMs which have had good performance as an example to gain deeper understanding about water supply challenge in region level together with the donors. I also guided discussion between PDAM, local government, and donors as well as explained the benefits and opportunities of the assistance that could be obtained especially to PDAM and local government representatives. In the process of final decision, we kept following each other up and came to different short listed PDAMs that would be aided. To overcome it, I had to discuss the list with my boss in order to fit national development planning. I explained the differences and gave them suggestion to reanalyze based on PDAMs performances, services, water resources availability, local government support, and human resources. I highly appreciated the donors' works and sticking to our agreement. As the result, we made 80 short listed PDAMs that would get different assistance in 2016 and 2017. At the end of the program, PDAM representatives thanked to the program that was really helpful and led to performance improvement.

Those great experiences have developed my management, communication, and planning skills that will be valuable provision for my future career. I believe Chevening would move me forward. Sharing experiences and insights with future leaders and influencers candidate all over the world will develop my knowledge and vision to be one of agents of change in water sector for Indonesia.

Hi there! Nice to meet you @niputusri

it's a nice essay you got here. Well, I have some ideas that you might want to consider using on your essay.

..., and it is still being an ambition" this sentence here could be simplified because you have same subject ( Being a leader and it) so you can change it to be " Being a leader has become part of my life and is still an ambition"

"plastic bags and use reusable bag bags that we gave given for free through by means of switching non-environmentally friendly goods"

some minor errors in preposition and subject verb agreement exist, such as Succeeded in executing
an impressive influence as you may be aware that singular/plural nouns are followed by an article (a, an, and the)

hope this would help you.
thanks
-W-

Ni, the essay is too focused on leadership and not enough on influencing. There needs to be an equal balance presented regarding the two traits. These must work hand in hand or simultaneously within the performance of your duties as a leader. A leader who does not know how to influence others in order to gain improvement in a particular objective is not an effective leader. A mere mention of discussing with your boss regarding some plans does not constitute an effective influencing pattern. As a leader, you are expected to be handling a team of people, dealing with seemingly insurmountable problems regarding projects or office necessary actions, and, you must prove that you know how to handle problems as they emerge by influencing others to help you. I do not get a clear picture of how these skills developed for you over time in the essay. Sure you have some notable leadership traits. However, the rest of essay speaks more of your networking, rather than influencing skills. So there is a prompt disconnect in the middle of your essay. You need to refocus the networking on influencing instead.

Thank you @Rinnegan45 for your grammar correction.. I will pay attention with grammar in my essays..

@Holt Thank you very much for your feedback, I felt unsatisfied when I worked on this essay though.. Btw, how to show influence skills through the essay?