Hi everyone! Need your thoughts on my Chevening leadership essay. Thanks in advance!
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.
My leadership journey started in 2022, marked by an experience that began with the simple phrase: "This is not your responsibility." It was a moment that ultimately changed my perception of leadership.
I was working as an entry-level copywriter for [name], an influencer marketing agency. One of my tasks was to write campaign announcement emails for the company's influencer community, which helps low-tier influencers connect with businesses looking to launch digital campaigns. I couldn't help but notice that the email open rate was only 10 percent - this means 90 percent of the emails went straight to Trash or marked as spam, and the community missed many opportunities to make money by participating in campaigns.
When I raised this issue with my manager, he told me it wasn't my responsibility. It was the Partnership team's responsibility. My job was to write the emails, nothing more. However, believing I could help improve the situation, I pointed out that this could affect the company's partnerships in the long run. My manager relented and gave me a month to work on the issue on the side.
I began by identifying possible causes to the problem. I discovered that most influencers in the community were more active on social media, which was why most of the emails went unopened. I also analyzed previous campaign emails, finding them to be unstructured and poorly written, which may cause the emails to be mistaken as spam.
Based on these findings, I suggested a few solutions: I advised the Partnership team to utilize Instagram's Story feature as a secondary communication channel, as a way to raise the community's awareness of campaign emails. Next, I restructured the email and implemented copywriting techniques to improve its quality, which included displaying the campaign name in the subject line. This made it easier for influencers to distinguish them from spam emails. I also recommended adding a call-to-action button linked to a detailed sign-up sheet in the emails to simplify the campaign registration process for influencers, and eliminate the need for manually contacting the Partnership team.
Initially, these suggestions were met with reluctance from Partnership, as they felt the changes were too complicated. I responded to this by comparing the data from the automation tool used to send the emails. After implementing the changes I proposed, the data showed that the email open rate rose to 17 percent. The Partnership team was also able to sign up to 70 influencers for a single campaign, nearly double their previous total of 36. They were very pleased with the results and decided to fully adopt the new system.
This experience has taught me that the core of leadership lies in the courage to challenge the status quo and take initiative toward positive change. In the future, I hope to take the lessons I have learned from the experience to the next level, leveraging it to drive and create impactful changes, particularly in my home country.
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.
My leadership journey started in 2022, marked by an experience that began with the simple phrase: "This is not your responsibility." It was a moment that ultimately changed my perception of leadership.
I was working as an entry-level copywriter for [name], an influencer marketing agency. One of my tasks was to write campaign announcement emails for the company's influencer community, which helps low-tier influencers connect with businesses looking to launch digital campaigns. I couldn't help but notice that the email open rate was only 10 percent - this means 90 percent of the emails went straight to Trash or marked as spam, and the community missed many opportunities to make money by participating in campaigns.
When I raised this issue with my manager, he told me it wasn't my responsibility. It was the Partnership team's responsibility. My job was to write the emails, nothing more. However, believing I could help improve the situation, I pointed out that this could affect the company's partnerships in the long run. My manager relented and gave me a month to work on the issue on the side.
I began by identifying possible causes to the problem. I discovered that most influencers in the community were more active on social media, which was why most of the emails went unopened. I also analyzed previous campaign emails, finding them to be unstructured and poorly written, which may cause the emails to be mistaken as spam.
Based on these findings, I suggested a few solutions: I advised the Partnership team to utilize Instagram's Story feature as a secondary communication channel, as a way to raise the community's awareness of campaign emails. Next, I restructured the email and implemented copywriting techniques to improve its quality, which included displaying the campaign name in the subject line. This made it easier for influencers to distinguish them from spam emails. I also recommended adding a call-to-action button linked to a detailed sign-up sheet in the emails to simplify the campaign registration process for influencers, and eliminate the need for manually contacting the Partnership team.
Initially, these suggestions were met with reluctance from Partnership, as they felt the changes were too complicated. I responded to this by comparing the data from the automation tool used to send the emails. After implementing the changes I proposed, the data showed that the email open rate rose to 17 percent. The Partnership team was also able to sign up to 70 influencers for a single campaign, nearly double their previous total of 36. They were very pleased with the results and decided to fully adopt the new system.
This experience has taught me that the core of leadership lies in the courage to challenge the status quo and take initiative toward positive change. In the future, I hope to take the lessons I have learned from the experience to the next level, leveraging it to drive and create impactful changes, particularly in my home country.
