Leadership is more than just giving orders - Chevening Leadership Essays

LEADERSHIP

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.

(minimum word count: 100 words, maximum word count: 500 words)

My ability to communicate, convince, and give opinions has made me a supportive leader. In 2017, I was selected as one of the members in the Structure and Materials Laboratory in my department. In this position, as a person who actively joins in the structural sector, I participated in several competitions of structural engineering because there were only a few students who were interested participate in a competition. I encouraged them to participate in competitions regardless of whether we will succeed or fail in a competition. Today, more undergraduates from my department are inspired to take part in competitions both locally and nationally.

My current position as a civil servant at the Ministry of Public Works and Housing has provided even more professional experiences. In 2018, I was assigned to the Toll Road Regulatory Authority, an agency formed to accomplish the vision and mission of National Road Connectivity through toll road construction. I was tasked with evaluating and monitoring Supervision Consultants. This job was quite time-consuming and challenging because there are plentiful toll roads in Indonesia. Some problems often arise, one of the problems was the lateness of Supervision Consultant reports. Therefore, I suggested and designed a Supervision Consultant Assessment thus each supervision consultant can have feedback on their monthly reports by the assessment brochures which would be published monthly. The assessment was made based on timeliness and substance and a written admonition would be delivered for late submission of monthly reports. This ultimately has positive effects on the Supervision Consultant reports, apart from being on time, the reports' quality has improved. Until now, this appraisal procedure is still used monthly and has succeeded in reducing the level of lateness.

Afterwards, from 2019 until today, I serve at the Directorate General of Highways, precisely in the South Sulawesi Road Planning Work Unit with the main task of being a road and bridge engineer. I plan the design and budget for roads and bridges in South Sulawesi. Through this position, I meet people who are more senior and experienced in the construction sector. Initially, it was a bit intimidating for me who still have little experience. However, as time went by, I am able to provide the latest ideas as a younger generation. One of them, I proposed an arrangement to improve the road and bridge planning database, which was disorganized, making it difficult to find construction history. I set the perplexing previous strip map data in a more communicative way so the users such as policymakers could understand the interpretation of the strip map. The result of this work has made an easier scheme for the planning unit to track road and bridge records, including the location, type, and year of maintenance of the South Sulawesi Road Project.

Leadership is more than just giving orders, but rather innovating, inspiring, and convincing others to achieve desired goals. I believe that the Chevening Scholarship can support me to expand the spirit of leadership by engaging with future leaders so that I can contribute to improving Indonesia Road Connectivity.

Your college leadership and influencing experience is too lightweight. It needs to be more specific. Why were you chosen to be the student leader? What difficulties did you face in relation to the competitions you participated in? How was this overcome? Did this result in successful competitions? Why do you think your legacy as a leader continues to inspire and influence the undergraduates?

Using the issue of late report submissions on a professional level does not really depict a leadership skill or influencing style. We need to have a presentation of actual team management and problem resolution. Simply saying that you made a suggestion for feedback and assessment brochures does not really work. It is too ineffective and not impressive as a leadership or influencing presentation on a professional level. You can safely remove that reference and not affect the overall presentation of the essay.

The road and bridge engineer position seems to be most useful for the leadership and influencing discussion. Expand on it. Explain the gravity of the disorganization and how it was holding back the project. Explain how you solved the situation and how the solutions you presented were accepted by the higher ups and why you felt the need to influence the rest of the team. Try to portray this problem as having a national impact so that you can try to reveal yourself as an up and coming national leader in the field of infrastructure in your country.

Try to revise the essay to come in within the 500 max word count. Currently, you are over by 6 words.