I have been exposed to both office and field challenges - skills proving for Chevening

chevening leadership and influencer skills

Chevening is looking for individuals that will be future leaders or influences in their home countries, explain how you meet this requirement using clear example of your own leadership and influencing skills

Over the years in practise as a professional in my field of work and as an Architect, I have been exposed to both office and field challenges. The design and construction of a restaurant on a lake side was one of the biggest challenges i have faced in my career. The major demand from the clients was to make the restaurant a recreational and tourist center for both visitors and indigenes. Being among the team of eight Architects, we came up with different individual designs. After several research and inspection, i came up with a design consideration cost effective, aesthetics, circulation, ventilation, security, human proportional relationship, furniture arrangement etc, and also i introduced the idea of fish concept to emphasis the major culture and occupation of the community, which is fishing. I brought the design into three zones: The semi outer zone from where guests can have an overview of the lake and also involve in some indoor games like table tennis. This zone also contains the VIP spot Which is situated at the basement of the restaurant and directly adjacent to the outside swimming pool. Base on the calculations i invented a transparent glass wall of six inch's thickness which is capable of withstanding the capacity and pressure of the water and from which the guests can have overview of swimmers. The hundred capacity eatery space inner zone of the restaurant which i specified among the service department was to maintain good circulation.

The outer zone of the restaurant were i implemented the idea of using estimated 75% of soft landscaping and 25% of hard landscaping was to achieve a habitable environment.

After individual presentation to the clients, with the above concept my design was approved and I was recommended to lead other professionals in the constructions aspect of the building during which i was faced with bigger challenge of capillary rise of the water beneath the foundation. On further construction, the foundation wall was formed initially with sandcrete blocks and this makes it weaker and had collapsed on several occasions, at this stage constructions was impossible.

After several consultation and research, i came up with the idea of using water pumping machine to pump water out from the foundation trench while trenchers and excavators was used to remove earth to a certain depth. I came up with the idea of constructing and casting the foundation wall with concretes and reinforcements before further construction.

The implementation of this design and construction concept had made a great impact in my company and the entire community. Ever then, i have lead the my team on several consultation on different construction site to solve similar problem experienced by other professionals.

@David1992
It is a great essay. Personalized and to the point. My suggestion to show the presentation effect on your audience and the valuable interaction happened.

All the best

Njoku, are you writing a project proposal or a summary of your previous design work? You are not trying to win over a client in this instance. You are trying to win a scholarship. Summarize your presentation of the project because it is too lengthy and does not really show any leadership potential on your part. It only shows that you have excellent imagination skills. Someone in your position should be able to justify a leadership skill simply by presenting your ability to delegate and oversee the project as the problems in construction arise. The problems are not limited to the physical project but also includes your people management skills. Show more evidence of your people management skills so that you will have a chance to present your ability to influence people in the same instance. The influencing side is severely lacking in your essay. Shorten the project description to one paragraph if you feel the necessity to include it. With only 500 words though, you should be careful of the information you present. In this instance, you used too much of the word count on a non-essential discussion and lost the allowance for the influencing discussion.

@Holt thank you so much
I have now revised the first three paragraph to with this other experience I thought will be helpful. Please look into it.

Early 2015, our company was award to design and construct a restaurant on a lake side with major aim of making the restaurant a recreational center. We all worked on individual design and later arrived at a standard design acceptable to the client. To begin the construction aspect with other team members and the CEO,we all went for site investigation. For the first time we experienced heavy rainfall and there was overflow of the lake and the whole area was flooded. We were stocked in the temporal building for materials were even most material was damaged by flood and also together with our two company vans. It was a very bad experience for the company. We were all called the next morning for meeting by the CEO, due to such experience she stated reasons why we should forfeit the contract. At that point i knew that losing such contract will destroy the image of the company so i stood up before all and narrated why we should move on, that winning this challenge as well is a big opportunity to stand out globally. We all worked together and brought out the idea to using retaining walls to act as a defence against the flooding. On construction the retaining wall failed on another overflow of the lake. During this time all hope is lost and i took up the challenge and constructed channels and two underground reservoir enough to retain excess water from the lake and further construction proceeded. In the constructions aspect of the building during which i was faced with bigger challenge of capillary rise of the water beneath the foundation.