Self-esteem; an important trait of a leader. Chevening essay on leadership and influence.

Hello fellows, here is my first draft on the Leadership and influence question. Chevening essay. Please help proof read and give necessary correction. Thanks in advance!

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)

A FUTURE LEADER AND INFLUENCER

The qualities of a leadership position are not far from sincerity, communication, patience, self-esteem and great charisma. These have been my watchwords since building my leadership prowess from my Senior Secondary School days. I was appointed into the prestigious position of the Sanitary Prefect in the final year of my Senior Secondary education. First I created the awareness and sensitised the students through videos, audios and pictorial displays from the World Health Organisation (WHO) on the need to have and keep a clean, healthy and disease free environment. This became a major influence in the lives of all the students and teachers alike health wise such that every student kept themselves, the School environment and their homes clean. The School was honoured with an award as the cleanest and most sanitised School in the Local Government Area after an inspection that was carried out by the Local Government Council on all Secondary Schools in the area.

I was an Intern at the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), Ughelli; an electrical power station engaged in energy transmission and distribution. During my attachment at the Company, I was appointed as the leader of a team of 8 Students undergoing same internship programme. This was another opportunity for me to develop and show my leadership and influencing skills. I coordinated my team members for every job done in the field by giving relevant insights to the nature of the job(s) to be undertaken and necessary safety measures thereby allowing a free flow, and reduced man hour of the work done while working with our Superiors in the field. My active participation in jobs undertaken in the field as a team leader influenced my colleagues to be more interested on the job and participate actively as well. I organised a couple of seminars and workshops wherein Senior managers, Principal Manager and Assistant General manager of the company educated every intern on the theories behind the jobs undertaken and other necessary knowledge about the power industry.

Currently, I am working as a Mathematics and Physics teacher. I hold a B. ENG degree in electrical engineering which makes my position as a teacher in these subjects lot interesting and easy. This role gives me the responsibility to be a good influencer of the students I teach. Being a teacher in the field of science, I engage the students in practical and experimental classes on regular basis to enable them appreciate the value of the theories behind the subject. This has greatly influenced the students' ideas about science positively as the interest and enthusiasm to continue and grow into great scientists, engineers etc are propelled. Outside academic work, I am punctual to school, and teaches virtues of patience and sincerity; a display that passes the message to the students swiftly as the saying goes 'action speaks louder than voice'. These few and all important demonstration I make has not influenced the students only but also my colleagues (other teachers) who have also developed these skills with time thereby making the school an envy of neighbouring schools.

I look forward to extend this leadership and influencing skills with other Chevening Scholars to build a wonderful relationship with the rest of the world. (535 words)

@Mudinero

Your essay while the topic with Self esteem; an important trait of a leader is it what you are writing on or this 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.

@Mudinero

what I think is they are basically interested to know how good you are a leader or an influencer . Why not start with your current profile . that is who you are today. Build it up to show how you have been influencing your students .you are punctual to school doesn't indicate anything . You can rather mention if you have been part of any project which the students have done and how they have done well with your leadership skills . What extent you went in to help them and guide them .One good example is enough . Just elaborate how you stand by as a leader . The starting paragraph looks like you are more interested to put forward your graduation time . rather build up with current profile and what you have done .

Mudinero experience they say is the best teacher, you have narrated well on your first and second paragraph on how previously you have been in leadership possitions which must have helped you gain experience, your third paragraph narrates more on how you ralates with your students. Relate your first and second paragraph to the third paragraph.as so one who have gained leaderShip skills on the past experiences how does thats affect your current position as a leader.

Mudiare, the first 2 paragraphs of your essay are not applicable to the requirements of the scholarship program. These are not applicable because both are academic and amateur in nature. The most applicable part that you can use is the interaction that you have with your students. As a teacher, you have a unique ability to lead and influence the future leaders of your country. This is exactly the type of professional exposure that Chevening is looking for. This is direct evidence that you are a capable leader and an influential person in your country. Build on that representation. Remove the first two and focus on presenting a more developed example of your leadership and influencing skill upon your students. You can use this current paragraph, with proper editing to open the revised essay with. By revising the content and focusing on what is truly usable in the essay, you will surely find yourself developing a version that is below the maximum or exactly at the maximum word count.

Thanks evaa and arcmichael for your invaluable contributions. I'll be rewriting it again. Please help proof read the revised write up

Hi Mudiare. I hope that you will remember to give some helpful advice to the other posters here when you have the time. I know that they are looking forward to what you have to say with regards to some improvements that they can make to their essays based upon your ideas and observations. Let's keep the community alive and kicking with constant participation with one another.

As I read the first leadership experience that you presented, I came across a word that has a negative connotation. You indicated that you were "saddled" with extra work after the success of the electrical project. The term "saddled" in this instance means "to burden (someone) with an onerous responsibility or task." That means, you did not want the leadership position and you did it without really being enthusiastic about it. That is not the image you want to portray in this essay. You could instead say that you were "given a test of your leadership skills based on a challenging workload." That sounds more positive and admirable in relation to what you were stating.

Remove the term "etc" in the paragraph about your being an influential teacher. That is a term that means "and so on and so forth", which is a lazy way of saying it. It wasn't really a required reference in the paragraph so its removal will not affect the message in the presentation. The saying that you present is not properly quoted. The saying indicates: "Action speaks louder than words", not voice By the way, proof read the essay for mistakes in punctuation. You missed a period here and there.

Thanks @Holt for your efforts in reading through my revised work and making corrections. I really appreciate it. I'll effect the corrections.

I will give my contributions to posts by others in this forum. Surely!