Everyone can be a leader -- on stage, in the middle or at the back

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.

attitude and character

I believe that leadership is not about position but more about attitude and character. Everyone can own the character of a leader, because it is not limited to position and power. Far beyond that, it grows deep through the harshness of someone's personal life journey. Quoting Ki Hajar Dewantara, an activist of Indonesian independence movement, leadership is "when you are on the stage you become a role model, when you are in the middle you give initiatives, and when you are behind the desk you give encouragement". Therefore, anyone can have a leadership character.

My own experience started when I became President of Student Executive Board at University. I acted as a leader who led the coordination of all student organizations at University. At that time we carried out Student Summit program, an orientation program for 5,000 new students. I formed a large committee team which combines people from various faculties. The committee had difficulty in inviting national figure as the keynote speaker, thus I led a small team to go around several regions to directly visit these figures. Most of the national figures were unable to attend our program, but I convinced my team that the efforts given will be directly proportional to the results. At the end of our diplomatic efforts with several figures, we succeeded in securing the Governor of XXX as the keynote speaker, succeeded in answering the anxiety of the committee, succeeded gaining full support from Rector of the University, and succeeded in getting the excitement of 5,000 new students for quality programs.

After I got my bachelor degree, I felt that my leadership spirits is still calling for me. During my job in the House of Representatives of the XXX, I am responsible for assisting meeting materials to the Member and connecting Member of Parliament to ministries as working partners. This is where my diplomatic and negotiating abilities are challenged. Not only do I have to identify people's aspirations regarding issue in the field, I also have to communicate with related Ministry about program's allocation to the society. I proposed to my superiors to form a structured team in field and carry out proportional division of tasks at the Regency, subdistrict, and Village levels. We coordinate them to jointly absorb people aspirations, then we negotiate with related Ministry to answer those aspirations. Thanks to my suggestion, we took to the field with the ministry to distribute aid to the people.

Based on problems in field, I provide input to the Member of Parliament to draft the concept of social assistance to the poor as outlined in the form of the Social Worker Bill which is currently being discussed. For me, existing regulations must answer the problems in the field, and I stand to give my input and ideas to the Member of Parliament as a form of affirmation that good leadership can means that you stand at the front, in the middle, or at the back.

Humaira, the bottom line is this, you wrote a draft version of a networking essay. The content is more networking focused instead of leadership and influencing relevant. Therefore, you need to set this essay aside for further development as a networking essay. Go back to the drawing board and develop an essay that focuses on the development of your leadership skills based on team management and objectives completion. You are lucky though, you can restart your essay by properly developing a professional experience from this current essay. Use paragraph 3 to revise your content.

Write a totally new opening paragraph that does not define leadership nor quotes someone else in relation to the definition. You don't need to define because you are being asked to present several examples of leadership and influencing instead. So take paragraph 3 and develop your new presentation around that. Don't use paragraph 4 because that is still a work in progress. What you need are completed and successful references to leadership and influencing in your professional field.