Hi! I am currently working on my chevening scholarship application and will like some feedback on my essay responses.
Question:
Leadership and Influencing skills
Leadership to me is the action of taking a series of calculated steps to guide a person or a group of people on a particular path to achieve a common goal. Leadership requires self-discipline, a strong will and commitment to achieving goals set out for oneself therefore, leadership must begin with me before leading others. A good leader must have a clear picture of the direction headed, be open-minded to changes, individual character traits and views and be committed with integrity.
I got my first leadership role outside the school environment during my National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) when I was employed as a site engineer at SABC Ltd. I was working with a team that comprised of masons, iron fitters, plumbers and electricians. I was in charge of supervising the construction of a 4 bedroom duplex. It was a completely different experience for me. Nothing compared to what I had experienced as a group leader on school projects during my undergraduate studies because, this time I was dealing with people from different backgrounds with different personalities and being inexperienced myself made it a rather difficult task but a task I set out to conquer nonetheless.
In order to achieve the goal, I set out to do things differently. I made sure I came to work as early as the workers, earlier when I could, got directly involved when trying to solve whatever problems they encountered rather than handing out orders, ensured they took breaks to prevent exhaustion, whenever they had quarrels with one another which occurred quite frequently, I sat the concerned parties down and tried to solve the problem through communication and lastly, I made sure I took the blame for any issues raised by the client.
At the end of my service year the project was finished, even though it was not delivered at the expected time the client was satisfied with the product.
My role as a site engineer provided me with a much needed confidence boost moving into my current job at Julius Berger Nigeria Plc where my leadership skills are constantly being tested as I am in charge of the internship program. I mentor 4 interns and In order to give them the best experience, I developed an assessment system whereby each intern is given a task to design a building and prepare a bill of quantities for submission and assessment at the end of their term. I put them through design lessons and weekly site visits to give them a clear idea of design and on field operations and so far one of my interns has passed through the program with impressive results.
I am confident that I possess leadership qualities and I have demonstrated it by my commitment to achieving goals. I consider my experiences a learning process and I believe being a leader is a never ending journey of learning and self-development therefore, if given the opportunity I will grow to become a more competent leader than I am today. (Word count: 499/500)Holt Educational Consultant - / 14,801 
4780 Abubakar, please remove the opening paragraph that relates to your definition of leadership. That is irrelevant to the essay requirements. You should also omit the mention of your NYSC participation as that was too long ago and was a failed project since you did not deliver the project on time, regardless of the satisfaction of the client. The best leadership and influencing role that you can best present as it falls directly under the specification of "future leader and influencer" is the part about your mentoring job at Julius Berger Nigeria.
In this role, you are both a leader and an influencer in the professional life of the future professionals under your mentoring care. You are just a bit weak on the leadership aspect because you are talking more of your evaluation technique rather than your leadership role in the group. As the leader / mentor, how do you influence them into performing tasks that they do not feel they can accomplish? What happens at the site visits? How do you lead and influence them while at a worksite? What issues do they face that require your leadership guidance and influencing skills? How did it turn out for those concerned? Focus on developing your leadership role in this area because this is the perfect indicator of your ability to become a future leader and influencer in your country.
