my concept of leadership
Soon after finishing my undergraduate studies, I worked as a pharmacist for 4 years in a drugstore chain called Pharmacies Sant'ana. The first store where I worked was located in a suburb of Salvador. We did not receive many customers, so its turnover was around R$ 110 thousand, clearly not a sustainable way to keep this unit due to low profitability.
We had a great physical structure, but the staff was not motivated, they did not cooperate because we did not feel trustful in the Manager we had.
In order for a change to happen, you need to have a purpose and attract people to do with you, and I made them believe that we could have a major impact on our unity. Working in the morning shift, I had access to some drug advertisers, so I contacted a professional from a large Pharmaceutical Industry - Medley, asking for a partnership to take a promotional action to boost sales, make our store recognized in the Neighborhood and promote your products.
We acquire blood pressure gauges, blood glucose monitors, present to clients and we made folders with nutritional advice stating the importance of healthy eating and exercise to control hypertension.
We did it after 2 weeks of advertising and the result was incredible. . We gained a 70% increase in sales compared to normal days, customer flow increased and I was able to provide pharmaceutical care, analyzing the physical and biochemical parameters, and questioning the pharmacotherapy they used.
Our revenues grew 40% over the previous months, and as we received commission on sales, our pay increase increased at the end of each month. But the most important thing was to see the team motivated, embracing the cause, publicizing the event and asking for community participation, was gratifying.
The regional supervisor observed my performance and soon transferred and promoted me to the Responsible Technical Pharmacy to a store in the Center City. Our unit, in the times of crisis that the network faced, was the only one in the region that reached the goal stipulated for 4 consecutive months, since I continued to carry out the promotional actions in partnership with the laboratories. We were close to health centers, soon we realized visits publicizing the government's program of access to low-cost medicines, Popular Pharmacy Program, expand the flow of customers. I increased, along with my team with 47% profit from our store. I would not get this result if my team did not believe in my plans and actions.
This is my concept of leadership, directing a team to change reality through actions that lead to positive change. The Chevening Scholarship will help me improve this trait in order to promote more change, especially in my community.
People with information have power, this is what I want to bring to Salvador's needy population, information, guidance, an example of reality change, because as I came from there, we have few references to people who have achieved success through study and dedication and my intention is to be one of those references to all that I can reach.Holt Educational Consultant - / 14,835 
4783 Elaine, there is a problem with your presentation. What you depicted as your strengths in this essay are your leadership and NETWORKING abilities. What we need are your leadership and influencing abilities. That means, only part of the essay is usable. The part where you showed leadership in the face of a lack of it because of an ineffective branch manager plays well with the theme of the essay. The influencing part, should come only from how you inspired your co-workers to view you as a leader and how you influenced them to follow your ideas and trust in your orders even though you were not the manager of the branch. That is where the influence of your leadership and influencing abilities come into play.
You must omit all mentions of the networking that you did in order to gain supplies and other collaborations with partner companies. Save that for your networking essay. Use that narrative to further support your leadership skills in terms of networking abilities. That narrative works well as a supporting narrative, not as a leadership and influencing depiction.
Revise the essay to remove the networking elements and replace it with suitable influencing mentions. You may use your promotion to help better portray your leadership abilities. Just remember, omit all of the networking mentions and portray your influencing skills instead. Drop the definition / concept of leadership explanation. The reviewer doesn't need to read about that. He only needs to see your leadership and influencing skills in action.
