Chevening Networking Essay
Good afternoon Mary Rose @holt, if you dont mind please check my essay, any comments & corrections are deeply appreciated. thank you
I strongly believe the golden rule to build and maintain relationships in professional capacity is to respect others and manage personal emotions. Regardless of their age and position, I always uphold the rule of treating others as I want to be treated. This means being courteous, using non-offensive language, and respecting people's time.
Working in construction company from 2015 - 2017 gave me the opportunities to involve in different team for various type of project and worked with professional from other fields, such as architectural and mechanical sector. I worked as a junior engineer in my first year and designated to 4 different projects, ranging from residential to commercial projects.
In my second year in the company, I was promoted be a Project Leader for a Spain Cultural Center Project. The team consisted of ten persons, two which I have used to work with in the past and had a personal conflict with. Positioned as the project leader, I had to be able to maintain the relationships, work cooperatively with all members. I found that it was nearly impossible to work efficiently when personal feelings clouded our judgement. Therefore, I tried to make every decision objectively with all notable inputs I could take from all my team members, including the two.
It was difficult to me to maintain the relationship when I decided to take the blame for the mistakes my team member did when we were in the important meeting. I have to admit it was not easy to be blamed for my team carelessness. Although the action was resulted in a personal distrust (to me) given by a client, I gained this one team member's trust despite our past conflicts. It took courage for me to do it for the first time.
However, should I face the same situation in the future, I will most certainly made the same decision. This was what I did to gain one's trust while maintaining professionalism on work. Bad relationships might intertwine with work, but I find that it is always possible to overcome the project and personal relationships at work.
I had a great opportunity to expand my networking skills when I got to represent Spain in Holcim International Awards. My proposal for the development of slump area in Spain was selected as 3rd winner held by Lafarge Holcim International Awards. Awarded and participated in the workshop at New York on 2016, I got a chance to learn and interact with other professionals from all over the world and make a lot of new acquaintances in the Holcim Sustainable Community.
One of the Holcim Workshop participants was now a member of The British Alumni (Singapore) Association. Having maintained the relationship since, we were planning to do a project collaboration for the upcoming Holcim Sustainable Awards. Here I plan to develop my skills in more specific area of renewable material for sustainable construction, in relation to my future plans as an Engineer.
