CHEVENING ESSAY - Quality Leaders

Hi guys, I am Ian from Indonesia. I plan to apply Chevening Scholarship this year, I would really appreciate if you can provide some suggestion and comment

Leadership and influence

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. Min word : 100 words, maximum word count : 500 count

There was a day which not as usual, when I going back home and scrolling over my phone to find interesting stuff on internet until finally I saw reposted post from Winston Churchill (British statesman) : "Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm". Though being pertinacious to my teammember, I was actually in midst of despair at that time because my funding proposal got rejected by all of possible donor and I urgently needed those to pay advance fee for lodging and accomodation regard to one of my research program, wildlife expedition in westernmost tip of java island, Indonesia.

After musing over the quotes, I realised that everything happens for a reason including me, chosen as head of research division in university student union as well as my firsthand experience, to lead in professional organization. Owing to limited time that we have, I held an meeting upon my teammembers and carefully scrutinized our initial proposal and urged every person to deliver feedback. Instead only submitting proposal, presenting our research directly was my next strategy to attract funder involved in our exceptional project, by helping preserve one of flagship species of indonesia in there, javan rhino, yet was deemed as world's most endangered rhino species which still remaining 60 individuals lived in the wild. Delegating task to each members , what I was doing next by splitting my team into writing and presentation team based on their own abilities. Beside fostering shared responsibilities, I hope it would bear sense of inclusiveness to each other member.

A week has passed since we delivered our presentation our research plan in five private company and three of them granted our funding proposal. Aside only sponsored our research, they agreed to give endowment to hold our research publication, packed in national seminar event which successfully attended by many scholars and young students from various region in Indonesia to spread awareness about the plight of javan rhino and other wildlife in Indonesia also presented inspirational talk by inviting renowned wildlife expert, sharing how we can contribute to pull them from the brink of extinction.

To the conclusion, leaders create chances for better future quality of life and society. I believe Chevening will enchance me to broaden my influence and make a change to society's mindset toward the importance of nature and preserve species due to very few of people who see these as vital issues in recent days and along Chevening scholarship, it will give me chance to move forward, acquire new insight and knowledge to provide better management between wildlife and human in my country.

Ahmad, this is not really a leadership essay in the sense that Chevening is looking for. This does not imply that you are a potential leader and influencer in your country on either a local or national scale. Knowing how to give orders to your team in order to get what you wanted (funding) is not the same as leading a team and influencing them. It is one thing to tell them what to do and another thing to lead and influence them towards success.

The focal point of your essay does not have anything to do with the improvement of your nation or its citizens. The story you tell is that of wildlife -- protection of animals which is an admirable effort but does not allow the reviewer to see how the public can look to you for leadership in terms of human needs or requirements. There is no true leadership in your essay aside from delegation. Explaining what the problem is and why you need to solve it does not qualify as influencing either. So In totality, this essay will not work. It is not going to get you past the first round of consideration.