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.
In 2016, I was appointed as a member of procurement selection team of XXX Airport. The team contains 6 officers from different departments including finance, law, and engineering, and lead by an officer from the procurement department. Being in this team means carry loads of additional works and a huge responsibility. We were responsible for around a hundred procurement selection process annually and since we are a governmental institution, making accidental mistakes through the process may bring us to criminal law. Given the consequences, not many people are willing to do it, but I realized experiencing such challenges will allow me to sharpen certain skills and exposed me to the information I would not have known otherwise.
Little did I know it will then put me in the toughest situation I have ever been in. We were handling the biggest project ever which worth more than £5 million yet the team leader position was vacant due to some management problem. Being most familiar with the subject of the project, I took the charge in managing the team. I analyze the problems that occurred in the process and the void in which the law might get in. I gathered the team into several meetings to make sure everyone was on the same page and involved thoroughly in the decision making. With different backgrounds and broad range differences, I realize it would be best if everyone contributes their thoughts so I encouraged them to do so. It was not common for the team to discuss such technical detail, but I believed it was necessary given the risks I had calculated.
When we reached to an agreement and I report it to the Head of Procurement Department, he rejected the result altogether and accused me of being careless with the selection result, even after I have explained him the logical consequences of his proposed result. With obscure political reason behind it, he gave me hard pressure to alter the result. I try to understand his position and convinced him that I will bring the team to evaluate it one more time. I gathered everyone to inform the circumstances and persuade them that instead of blindly accepting his dictation about the result, we should still stand by the law and regulation but make more detail analysis and risk calculation to support the result so that he can no longer deny it. Everyone was worried of the consequences it might bring, but I assured them that being true to the cause is far more important than following a false order.
It was difficult for him to admit that we have made the right decision, but I reassure him that this time we also have given his option into consideration and found it inadmissible. In my opinion, leadership is not about who has the higher authority, it is about having humility to hear other's opinion and trust them to contribute in the process, willingness to receive the responsibility of having people's back, having a strong principle and the integrity to stand by it, and inspiring others to reach for something that is bigger than themselves.
meeting the leadership qualification
In 2016, I was appointed as a member of procurement selection team of XXX Airport. The team contains 6 officers from different departments including finance, law, and engineering, and lead by an officer from the procurement department. Being in this team means carry loads of additional works and a huge responsibility. We were responsible for around a hundred procurement selection process annually and since we are a governmental institution, making accidental mistakes through the process may bring us to criminal law. Given the consequences, not many people are willing to do it, but I realized experiencing such challenges will allow me to sharpen certain skills and exposed me to the information I would not have known otherwise.
Little did I know it will then put me in the toughest situation I have ever been in. We were handling the biggest project ever which worth more than £5 million yet the team leader position was vacant due to some management problem. Being most familiar with the subject of the project, I took the charge in managing the team. I analyze the problems that occurred in the process and the void in which the law might get in. I gathered the team into several meetings to make sure everyone was on the same page and involved thoroughly in the decision making. With different backgrounds and broad range differences, I realize it would be best if everyone contributes their thoughts so I encouraged them to do so. It was not common for the team to discuss such technical detail, but I believed it was necessary given the risks I had calculated.
When we reached to an agreement and I report it to the Head of Procurement Department, he rejected the result altogether and accused me of being careless with the selection result, even after I have explained him the logical consequences of his proposed result. With obscure political reason behind it, he gave me hard pressure to alter the result. I try to understand his position and convinced him that I will bring the team to evaluate it one more time. I gathered everyone to inform the circumstances and persuade them that instead of blindly accepting his dictation about the result, we should still stand by the law and regulation but make more detail analysis and risk calculation to support the result so that he can no longer deny it. Everyone was worried of the consequences it might bring, but I assured them that being true to the cause is far more important than following a false order.
It was difficult for him to admit that we have made the right decision, but I reassure him that this time we also have given his option into consideration and found it inadmissible. In my opinion, leadership is not about who has the higher authority, it is about having humility to hear other's opinion and trust them to contribute in the process, willingness to receive the responsibility of having people's back, having a strong principle and the integrity to stand by it, and inspiring others to reach for something that is bigger than themselves.
