To eradicate the wrong thinking that all Muslims are terrorists. LEADERSHIP & INFLUENCE essay

Sometimes, if you want to change a man's mind, you have to change the mind of the man next to him first. In order people follow someone or believe what he says, they want to first see the change or effect on him or on those whose lives he positively affected. People may doubt what you say, but they will always believe what you do and what you have become. My leadership and influencing roles that I will be covering are based on this core idea. I will commence with interesting roles I played during my undergraduate study by eradicating a stereotypical belief against international students, and leading a team in a final-year-project. I will also cover how I encouraged and supported my own two sisters in their education during difficult circumstances.

I remarkably achieved a goal for removing a stereotypical belief against international students in a university. This was during my undergraduate study in a university in XXX which comprised of international students from various countries in Africa and Asia. Many lecturers and local students believed that the foreign students in the university were dull and lazy, and cannot be as smart as the locals. They might have had this belief based on past performances by other students, but to me it was similar to the stereotypical belief some people have that black men are robbers and thieves, or similar to the generalized opinion that some people possess that all Muslims are terrorists. I realized that the only way to eradicate this wrong thinking is by performing better, so I worked hard in my studies until I stood the top student in class during the first two semesters. This achievement motivated other international students in the department. I also engaged in tutoring some of the international students and encourage them to perform better as well. Soon, lecturers started acknowledging and praising international students for outstanding performances and the image of International students in the department was not the same again. This in turn influenced other faculties in the university.

During my final year education in the same university, I was team leader for a final year project. The team comprised of four students from different countries which makes communication challenging. However, I effectively communicated with the project team and properly delegated tasks. I managed in the successful completion of the project.

In addition to the above, I also encouraged, motivated and supported my two younger sisters to strive hard in their education even though my elder conservative brother and people in our uneducated society tried to make them discontinue their education and get married. Currently, my sisters are attending university education in the field of Midwifery and Health Officer.

To summarize, I have presented how I influenced in ending a stereotypical opinion against international students in a university, which shows how hard worker and persistent I am for bringing a change which benefits all. I also showed how supportive I was towards female education in less educated conservative societies.

Faisel, please don't be offended but you should not allow a false impression of Muslims to take over the way you write this paper. It does not offer the information that is normally found in such an essay because it delves on topics of racial discrimination, a sense of self-importance, and a general discussion of what you perceive to be the leadership roles you have had over a course of time. If you want to really present your leadership and influencing skills to the reviewer, then present a solid event that you participated in that will do exactly that. What you need is factual evidence of your leadership and influencing skills. The information you have provided cannot be fact checked by the reviewer because it doesn't mention anything specific about your leadership role.

I believe that you can do this more effectively by discussing the leadership role that you had during your final year project. Start by explaining what the project was about and how you found yourself becoming the leader of the group. Tell the reviewer about the difficulties you faced, in an expanded form. At the end, display specific moments during the project development that highlights you leadership and influencing skills. Right now, the only part of the essay that best responds to the prompt sits in this version as a mere overview when it has the potential to exponentially help your essay.

Remember, generalized discussions work for summary essays. It does not do much for you when you have a very fact based essay to write about. Pick one topic and develop it along the vein of the prompt expectations instead.

Hi!
Let me give you some suggestions!
... you have to change the mind of the man (it ) next to him first
... change or effect on him or on those (people ) whose lives he positively affected.
... that I will be covering are based on this core idea. I will commence with interesting roles I played ...
I worked hard [font#FF0000]in my studies until I stood the top student in class during the first two semesters
... people in our uneducated society tried tomake FF] which made them discontinue their ...

Thank you dear for the suggestion, i will try to improve it.

By the way, do you suggest I should not include the hard work i made to improve the level of intentional students in the university or my supportive role in my sisters' education ? ....I was thinking this would be considered as 'Influential role'

Faisel, when you are writing an essay about influencing and leadership, you always have to take into consideration that you are an active participant in convincing the reviewer of your skills. Therefore, you cannot just rely on mere narration of an event to prove your point. In the case of your sisters story, you merely told the reviewer that you influenced and led your brother to allow your sisters to study. There was a failure on your part to better illustrate how you did that. In order to make that part of the essay more effective, you need to relate the process of convincing and influencing your brother towards the decision that you feel is right. Yes, that would indeed make a good example of leadership and influencing skills on a personal level. You could include it in the paper if you wish to. Just make sure that you build up that paragraph to include the problem, possible solutions to the problem, implementation of your perceived solution, and the final outcome.

@Holt....After I received your suggestions, i wrote my essay all over again. Though not perfect, is it OK if i submit like this for the Chevening scholarship?? please give me feedback; anything i should improve? thanks.

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The Scottish-American businessman, Andrew Carnegie, said "No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself, or to get all the credit for doing it". Today, the world is changing faster than ever before; science and technology are advancing rapidly, people from different back-grounds, cultures and languages are working together in organizations, and businesses and projects are getting more complex and require specific soft and technical skills. In such dynamic environment, team-working, delegating tasks, effective communication and other interpersonal skills are vital for leadership. I used these skills in my leadership in a final-year-project during undergraduate education. Moreover, I worked in Oman for 2 years in construction projects and implemented the skills of planning, effective communication, motivation, multitasking, etc. for the successful completion of projects.

I successfully led a team for a final-year-project titled 'Study of Various Types of Foundations for Medium-Sized Buildings' during my undergrad education in civil engineering in a renowned technology university in Pakistan under a merit scholarship. As a team, we analyzed and designed spread, strip, raft and pile foundations for a 6-storey commercial building. The basis of selection of the team leader and also the project type was based on academic excellence. The allocated project completion period was 1 year. Excluding myself, the team comprised of three members; each from different countries, Syria, Somalia and Ethiopia. The very first step I took, as a leader, was to prepare activity-plan and project schedule; I divided the project scope into four sections and assigned each of the members, including me, with a section based on competency and skill. One of the challenges in the project was that certain scope of the project was beyond undergraduate level, for instance, the design of raft and pile foundations, which are covered at Masters-level. I took the initiative to study various technical books related to our project together with consulting our project supervisor, and later shared the knowledge to the team through discussions and meetings. Members of the project team were from different backgrounds, with different cultures, languages and behaviors, which normally make communication a bit challenging; however, this was not the case in my leadership, as I also communicated in Arabic, Somali, Amharic and Urdu. Combining my technical and soft skills, I ensured the timely completion of the project.

In addition, I worked in Oman for 2 years as a site engineer for a construction company in two highway projects for earthworks scope; we were a subcontractor for multinational Turkish and Indian companies, STFA and Simplex. With STFA we worked in 'Dualization of BidBid-Sur Project', whereas with Simplex 'Batinah Expressway Package-3'. The main difficulties in delivering both projects were the limited time, high-level safety requirements and involvement of numerous stakeholders. In order to complete the project in time while meeting various stakeholders' requirements, I prepared daily to-do task plans and delegated works to the project team, closely worked with site foremen and surveyors, recorded and reported progresses on daily basis, shared my computational knowledge to surveyors when they needed, etc. Moreover, my ability to speak Arabic and Urdu enabled me to effectively communicate with different stakeholders within our company, main-contractor, consultant and local authorities; and since many important stakeholders were Omanis, Pakistanis, Indians and Bangladeshis who did not know English, knowledge of Arabic and Urdu languages were crucial.

Faisel, Your work as a site engineer is the more compelling story to be told in this essay. This is where your professional experience with regards to leadership and influence, is most important. I am sad that you left it for the end of the essay and spent so much time writing an introduction that introduced the concept of leadership as you understood it rather than introducing you as a leader and influential person in the field. Truth be told, this essay would have been better off immediately starting with your self introduction as a site engineer and then immediately following through with a narration of your leadership abilities in relation to the work.

I am puzzled though, by your presentation of your duties and responsibilities at the work site. It sounded more to me like you were a a rank and file employee instead of a leader with duties and responsibilities that matched the work title. Even when I reference your college experience, there as not experience mentioned to warrant the title of leader. Neither was there any incident in both instances that would have required you to act in an influential position.

Do you not have the proper leadership experience to share with Chevening? The scenarios you have presented are quite weak and do not really improve your chances at gaining the scholarship. We need a narrative that shows off your definition of leadership and your leadership skills instead of having you explain the concept to the reader. It is necessary that you show the reviewer how you manage to influence people as well. That was not seen at all in either case either. You seemed to be working as a one person team in college and a mere follower as a professional. You need to strengthen the samples that you will be using in this essay. These just won't make your essay formidable in the eyes of the reviewer.