Hi all, this is a draft I have prepared for Chevening leadership essay. Wish I could receive some feedbacks on this. Thank you :)
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)
IT STARTS WITH A SELF-AWARENESS
I believe the greatest act of leadership is often manifested through self-awareness in understanding our potential and utilize it to solve problems in our surroundings. In late 2020, I was hired by Indonesian capsule hotel startup XXX as corporate affairs associate. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the overall hotel occupancy rate in Indonesia was less than 40% with no signs of recovery. Meanwhile, as a tech-startup, XXX was in the mode of seeking new investments and therefore needed to have a solid corporate positioning in the industry.
During my first weeks onboard, being the only staff in the department, I used the alignment meetings with my supervisor and the CEO as an opportunity to raise my concerns. I argued that despite its already strong product branding and marketing, XXX did not have a distinctive voice to tell its story as a company. XXX's CEO agreed that he was still lacking in his personal branding and that the company had been heavily relying on paid media to implement its corporate communications strategy. They believed my experience as a journalist could be helpful to help increase the company's exposure in the media and reformulate its narratives. The objective was to build XXX's thought leadership in the industry which could eventually lead to supports from the policymakers and attract new investors.
XXX had been enjoying good engagement from its product branding through its Instagram account, but not from others like LinkedIn. I discussed with the Marketing division to dedicate XXX's LinkedIn account mainly for corporate communications and convinced my supervisor to change the copywriting style to be more informative, macro-oriented, and research-based to differentiate the corporate message from the product message. The strategy aimed to target a more educated and professional audience and gain more amplification from the contents. Furthermore, to increase the CEO's branding, I suggested him to implement storytelling approach every time he posts anything about corporate activities on his personal social media handles, benchmarking to what other startup founders had been doing.
As a result, from Q4 of 2020 to Q2 of 2021, XXX's LinkedIn account managed to increase its engagement from 6.2% to 13% and added more than 1,000 new organic followers since these new strategies were implemented. In addition, it also helped position the corporate affairs department as a trusted advisor for corporate communications among the internal stakeholders.
My journey with XXX helped me realize that I have the potential and capability to lead and influence with expertise, particularly in communications. In my current employment as a diplomat in my home country, I also utilize my skills in communications to give additional perspectives into the tasks I am being assigned to. Therefore, I wish to deepen my knowledge in the field to add values to my professional journey of advancing Indonesia's diplomacy. I would like to also use my skills and capacity to engage and contribute to the Chevening community.