Hello,
I am applying for a Chevening Scholarship and I wonder if you could give some help pointing out some grammar or other mistakes I might have been made. I would also appreciate if comments about the essay itself were made. Thank you in advance.
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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.
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The word leadership is repeatedly a subject of misconception as people tend to misunderstand its actual meaning. Its concept has nothing to do with age, titles, responsibilities or hierarchical position. Neither it is connected with being dominant and authoritarian (that will only mitigate creativity) or, on the other hand, being charismatic or popular. These personal attributes do not make someone a good or bad leader. Instead, leadership is much more associated with the way someone harmoniously conduct others to the best path, taking into consideration the opinions of all members. Good leaders create an environment that allows people to reach their maximum potential in order to obtain the best results in any project conducted. It is much more related with motivation and being a reference to the group than to simply give orders.
During my first professional experience, I worked as an intern at Metrology Department at the same company I am employed nowadays, and even at that time my attitudes showed that I could do much more than I was assigned for. At the beginning my main objective was to understand how a metrology department should work and how it actually performed at our company. Not only I noticed that some operational procedures could be improved with very little efforts but I also executed them in a new and successful way, which made workers adapt these new practices at their routine. The measurements were a bottleneck at the company but I managed to balance the activities and finish them in time despite the shorter work week. Even without giving a speech or having a hierarchical position to coordinate others, my results were an example to the workers follow.
After the intern contract period I was promoted to Quality Analyst. At the same time, the department coordinator decided to quit his job and, as time went by and I was earning the managers confidence, this started to be my primary activity. With the knowledge acquired as an intern either by training or by own development and with my natural aptitude to replicate knowledge, I became a reference that could solve technical issues and teach anyone how to do it. At this position, I felt confident in leading people not only to develop ideas to improve our department layout, for instance, but also to work harder than they were used to. The general idea I established was to enhance the efficiency of our daily procedures, or short-term and long-term projects. It was certainly that attitude, the acquired knowledge and the ability to influence people I work with, that made the Quality Manager and the Plant Director promote me to Metrology Supervisor after only seven months of being an actual employee of the company. At this new role, I surely obtained more responsibilities and expanded the group of people I am involved with, but the leading characteristic of being a reference and influencing others will remain the same, as I established it way before the promotion.
Hi Leonardo.
Here are some corrections that I suggest:
-I worked as an intern at Metrology Department at the same company I work at now
-my results were an example workers would follow
-After the internship ended
-and as I was earning the managers' confidencetrust , this started to be my primary activitymain responsibility .
-At this new role, I surely obtained more responsibilities and expanded the group of people I am involved with, but the leading characteristic of being a reference and influencing others will remain the same, as I established it way before the promotion.
I suggest that in the last sentence, instead of saying that your leadership skills remain the same, you could say that with the new position entrusted to you, your leadership develops even more with more responsibilities that the job entails. Good Luck!
