Chevening is looking for individuals that 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: 50 words, maximum word count: 500 words)
There are many great leader has inspired me. They have contributed to improve environment, economy, and social life. I am still working on to be on of them. I have applied and learned leadership skills in plenty of occasions.
Since I was a student, I joined to a number of organizations and basketball teams. I joined to student journalism organisation at the University. For several times, I led a team to collect information and data from society regarding to the current news that we wanted to publish in our newspaper. We always succeeded to provide sufficient data and deep analysis to support the current issues. In basketball team, I was appointed as captain for several times. I led my team to win several basketball championships. Sometimes, my team did not always win the game. We suffered lost for several times, and at the time, I was responsible to raise the spirit of my teammate. Nowadays, I join to non profit organization to help people to improve their English. At this organization, I lead a team to provide free class every Saturday. We are responsible to invite great speaker to discuss many topics. In many occasions, I also become the speaker at the class. Mostly, I discuss the traits of successful people.
In professional career, I had led marketing team despite I was the youngest employee based on the working experience. At first, I faced an obstacle in which senior employees did not want to follow my instruction. I kept maintaining good relationship and communication with them and showed them that I had capability to lead the team. They eventually built good team work under my supervision, and my team succeeded to achieve plenty of goals. In 2013, my team had booked the highest loan expansion and profit in a year. In 2014, my team was able to keep zero non performing loans. Due to my achievement in leading a team, in 2015, I was one of the 15 people who selected to join the most prestigious training program, i.e. Global Banking Officer training program at my company. The aim of this training program is to enhance the capability of future leader in order to be able to manage all business of banks which consist of loan, international trade finance and treasury. The alumni of this training program are capable to compete with other international bankers. To join to this training program, I had to pass a few selection tests and got rid more than 500 young talented bankers at my company. My achievement in leading a team and joining to the most prestigious training program had inspired my colleagues.
In leading a team, I only have a simple key success, i.e. efficient and effective. I always improve the system and workflow in my team to make it more efficient and effective. Therefore we can achieve plenty of goals because we have done our works in the most efficient and effective ways.
Rangga, when you apply for a Chevening scholarship, you need to make sure that you portray yourself as a professional leader. Therefore, being the team captain of your local basketball team isn't really a form of leadership that will impress the reviewer. Focus your essay on the leadership abilities and skills that you have been displaying in your professional career instead. As a masters degree applicant, you will be up against other applicants who have stellar leadership skills, abilities, and experiences.You need to make sure that your scholarship essay will be able to compete with them. I would like to offer you some advice regarding how to better improve your chances by pointing out the strong areas of your essay that need to be further developed.
I would rather that you discuss your professional career immediately in your essay because your opening statement is very weak at the moment. You need to provide an opening sentence that will tell the reviewer to keep reading your essay because you have more to say about your leadership skills. Start with:
In professional career, I had led marketing team despite I was the youngest employee based on the working experience.
Revise the paragraph to become your opening statement instead. Explain your achievements as the youngest leader in the company. Then make the following your second paragraph:
Due to my achievement in leading a team, in 2015, I was one of the 15 people who selected to join the most prestigious training program, i.e. Global Banking Officer training program at my company.
That is a definite highlight of your professional career that displays your ability to not only be an effective leader, but also serve as an example of leadership to others. Tell the reviewer where your career went after you completed this training program. Don't just say that you inspired your co-workers, that does nothing to enhance your leadership abilities in this essay.
Those two paragraphs, partnered with an effective closing statement representing your leadership abilities will be more than enough to provide the necessary information that the prompt requires. You will have provided a clear picture of your leadership skills and where your future career will take you in those terms.
