1.

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)

For me, leadership is an action in leading myself and others towards common goals. Comment [SBS1]: Please explain a
Leadership must begin within me before I can lead the others. A good leader must have integrity to bit more about this in 2 more
sentences. Think about the reason
his commitment, be open-minded to changes, and know where to go. behind your statement, also how do
you think you can be a good leader?
During my undergraduate, I led an event division in the Christian Society in my faculty for six
months. I worked with four co-workers and we were responsible for organising weekly services. For
me, doing a voluntary work is the way I contribute to the community and hence, I dedicated extra 2-
3 hours per day to ensure that we did a great work. Although the division was small, at the
beginning there were a lot of internal problems where there was a disagreement between my co-
workers. Realising the potential damages it might cause, I tried to mediate them by personal
communication. It was challenging because this was my first time dealing with people with
egocentric personalities. Nonetheless I was sure that as a leader, I should be able to lead others to
reach for the good of our society. Eventually, by intensifying the communication I was able to
reconcile them.

My involvement in the Christian Society did not end there. After stepping down from the
event division, I was given a new challenge to organise an annual retreat event. The previous events
were less effective because there were too many activities. Learning from the past, I decided that
changes were necessary. Although I managed to convince the other committee members about the
changes, it was initially difficult to persuade the senior member of this society, who was resistant to
the changes. It was even more difficult considering that she was also a lecturer in my university
where seniority was an issue. However, the success of the event was more important to me and
hence I brought up my opinions in several discussions with her. At the beginning, my proposal was
rejected and modified many times, but I did not stop communicating with her because an
organisation should be able to open to new and fresh ideas and give opportunities to apply them.
Finally, after numerous efforts I managed to obtain her approval and executed the proposed
changes. As a result, the event was more successful than the previous ones and the changes were
kept implemented.

In conclusion, I am confident that I have leadership qualities. I demonstrated it by my

commitment in organisations, by mediating co-workers, and by communicating with people during
difficult situations for the sake of achieving a goal. I enjoy working in organisations but at the same
time conflicts of interests may be inevitable. When they happen, it is the occasion where my
leadership qualities are tested. However, a leader is a person who always learns and keeps
improving. I regard my experiences as a learning process and believe that in the future, I can be a
better leader than I am now.