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August 8, 2022

Writing a Powerful Leadership/Achievement Essay [Sample Essay]

Essays that ask you to write about significant achievements fall under the category of

what are known as behavioral or experiential questions . The basic assumption behind these questions is that past behavior is a great predictor of future behavior . They are all varieties on the theme of “Tell us about a time when you…” These questions are meant to take the measure of your managerial potential.

Let’s look at how one candidate effectively addressed this essay question from  Stanford GSB  (*this question is not from the current application):

Tell us about a time when you made a lasting impact on your organization.

This writer avoids writing about leadership in any generic way and zeroes in on the specific aspects of his contributions and their impact:

Leadership essay example: The Change Agent

When I was invited to become the Vice President and General Manager at Third Way Associates (TWA)* two years ago, the company was in financial and administrative disorder. Employee retention was poor, and TWA took too long to pay vendors because of poor communication and accounting processes. Cash flow was managed based on immediate needs rather than by the logic of budgets planned by project and city. Sloppy expense reports that were turned in with no receipts were reimbursed to employees.

TWA founders Scott W ____ and Glenn L ____ had good intentions, but spent most of their time selling sponsorships and getting new clients rather than directing and managing the company. As we begin 20XX, TWA is much healthier in every way. Under my direction, vendors are paid in an average of 20 days from date of invoice, instead of 60 days or more. Our cash flow is better administered since I introduced very specific detailed area budgets with over 125 budget lines per city. Because I can give the company founders much better stability and macromanagement vision, the three of us are able to look more to the future rather than simply put out fires.

Despite the difficult economy in 20XX, we not only retained our same clients but also signed several new client agreements for three years or more, including a two-year contract with Big Shoe Company worth $1.3 million. I’ve brought fresh accounts and industries into TWA, including ____ Airlines and Drink Y, among others. Combined, these accounts generated more than $500,000 in 20XX, and we estimate close to $1 million dollars in the following year.

Since my arrival, we have a much wider and broader sales menu which has been crucial to generate more revenue. I’ve expanded our most popular sports events to 25 cities, giving our clients new investment opportunities. These events range from recreational soccer clinic tours to professional soccer games broadcast on TV.

I also expanded our field staff, and at present we have 25 strong and reliable managers who report directly to me from each city. Despite the economy, 20XX was not a bad year for TWA, and this year promises to be even better if we continue our current strategy and continue to work as a team.

Leadership essay analysis

In every paragraph, this writer mentions concrete measures he took to introduce order to a chaotic company that was trying to grow. From instituting budgets with line items, an improved accounts payable system, and recruiting additional big-name accounts, the writer proves how his efforts strengthened the organization.

How can you maximize on your thought leadership experiences?

As you choose among your own experiences as essay material, think about these questions to help you frame answers of substance:

• What was the obstacle, challenge, or problem that you solved in this accomplishment? A tight client deadline? A complex merger transaction? A new product launch amidst fierce competition?
• What did you do to rise to the challenge you are writing about? Motivate your team to work overtime? Sell senior management on the deal’s long-term upside? Identify a marketing profile for your product that no competitor can match?
• What facts demonstrate that your intervention created a happy ending? Did your team submit the project deliverables three days early despite being 20% understaffed? Your client approved the $500 million merger, the largest ever in its industry? Your new product has 20% market share after only one year? What was the impact of your leadership?

Don’t forget about your people leadership skills

What we’ve spoken about until this point revolves mostly on skilled problem-solving, or “thought leadership.” But respected businesspeople need to be equally or even more talented at something we didn’t have a formal name for: people leadership. By effectively leading the thinking of client firms’ problems as well as motivating them to work long hours to develop solutions to these problems and collaborate with clients on implementing them, these businesspeople prove to have what it takes to be exemplary leaders.

So don’t forget to include strong elements of people leadership in your essays. Here are several to keep in mind:

• Rallying others around a vision. Did you convince your team or group to follow a specific path/solution? How did you do it? Successful clients have talked about handling dissenting opinions diplomatically or presenting their teams’ detailed quantitative evidence for a recommendation. The more you can show that you understood your audience and tailored the content and form of your message to them, the better.
• Harnessing others’ strengths – and expanding them. Did you provide team members tasks they could handle comfortably based on their capabilities, as well as opportunities to broaden their skills? For example, you may have handed your quant jock teammate the most complicated operations analysis as well as responsibility for leading a key client meeting. In this way, you leverage teammates’ strengths while helping them develop new ones.
• Getting through tough times. Did you model for your team enviable cool in pressure-cooker situations, maybe helping them keep the big-picture goal in mind or lightening the mood with humor? Did you reward teammates with praise, pizza, or both for working long into the night? Did you pitch in on others’ responsibilities as deadlines loomed? Helping your team handle stress while managing your own is a cornerstone of strong leadership.

Use your words

Another tip: Look for opportunities to incorporate strong verbs that illustrate your strengths in these areas. Good examples of leadership might incorporate several of the following:

• Establishing a goal or vision
• Obtaining buy-in
• Taking responsibility

The old adage, “Show, don’t tell,” remains a classic bit of wisdom in the writing process. Make that a guiding principle not only in your leadership/achievement essays, but throughout your application.

For personalized advice tailored just for you, check out our MBA Admissions Consulting & Editing services and work one-on-one with a pro who will help you discover your competitive advantage and use it to get accepted.

Related Resources:

• School-Specific MBA Application Essay Tips • Tone Up Your Writing: Confidence vs Arrogance • “I’m Smart, Really I Am!” Proving Character Traits in Your Essays

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Leadership Essay

27 August, 2020

12 minutes read

Author:  Richard Pircher

As a college student, you must write essays on a regular basis since the latter is one of the most common types of home assignments. All this means is that in order to get good grades and be successful with writing the papers, you need to have a sound understanding of the structure. Additionally, what you should never neglect is the variety of essay types. Indeed, your essay will significantly differ from one type to another: description essay will most likely have a structure that is slightly different from an argumentative one.

What you may have already encountered in your academic life is the work on a leadership essay. Although it sounds pretty complicated and vague, it is mostly possible to master an essay on leadership. Below is a guide for you to get an insight into this particular essay type.

What is a good leadership essay?

A good leadership essay is the one in which the essay writer has fully covered the topic of leadership and understood its core ideas. More specifically, to end up with a flawless leadership essay, you will need to indicate what makes a person a good leader. For achieving the latter, you will most likely need to conduct research and trace how a particular person reaches his or her goals. In other words, the task is to discover which actions the person undertakes, what their followers say about him or her, and how the person organizes the work. So, a leadership essay implies providing real-life success examples and further revealing them.

Above all, a good leadership essay is the one that follows a precise, clear, comprehensive structure. Structuring your essay about leadership in the most coherent way leads to a win-win situation: you have fewer troubles and barriers to writing a brilliant essay, and your teacher is able to comprehend the essay easily. This guide is what you will need to refer to to get an insight into how the flawless structure for a leadership essay looks like and how it will let you take a benefit.

How to write a Leadership essay?

To write a leadership essay that stands out, you first need to brainstorm all the ideas that you have and come up with a topic for your essay. If you are struggling with this step, you may think of some of the most influential people, read about them, and find out what makes them unique. Or, you can pick any topic which is mentioned at the end of this article. After you have chosen an issue, it is time to structure your essay appropriately.

As you already know, an essay constitutes three essential sections: introduction, main body, and conclusion. Below is the more detailed description of each of the parts.

Introduction

Of course, your leadership essay introduction will always vary depending on the topic of the essay. However, you can always begin by stating your vision of leadership regardless of the topic. Additionally, to motivate the reader and instantly catch his or her attention, you may use a quote of a famous leader, or simply a quote which you find relevant to the topic. Be aware that you should avoid outlining the essence and the role of the leadership in your introduction; leave it for the body paragraphs.

What you may also do in your leadership essay is ask a question, which will most likely intrigue the leader. Or it will at least give your reader an overview of what you will dwell on  in your essay.

Body Paragraphs

You will need to divide the main body into 3-5 paragraphs to make the structure more comprehensive. What you have to do at this point  is  give your reader a sound understanding of your ideas. Therefore, try to fit each idea in a single body paragraph so that you do not confuse your reader. Do not hesitate to indicate your examples to strengthen your arguments. For instance, you may explain a fact that makes a particular person you are writing about a real leader.

Also, always stick to your thesis statement and don’t forget that the body paragraphs should reveal the parts of your thesis statement.

As you may already know, you need to restate your opinion and briefly summarize all the points from the main body in conclusion. For instance, if you wrote your essay on qualities of an effective leader, state the most fundamental qualities and indicate why they matter the most. Besides, try not to copy what you have already written in the body – it is better to restate your opinion using different words. And, of course, beware adding any new and extra information; indicate only those points that you have already outlined in the text. Finally, keep in mind that it is always favorable to keep your concluding remarks short.

Leadership Essay Examples

Writing a leadership essay requires some research and time. In case you feel the necessity to go through an essay example, below is a leadership essay sample you can refer to.

Is leadership an inborn or an acquired feature?

Is everyone capable of becoming a leader, or is this ability innate? A lot of researchers have been struggling to answer this question. One assumption about leadership implies that the leader is the person who possesses particular characteristics. Another assumption claims that leaders are capable of acquiring specific features over their life span. As the evidence shows, leaders own many features that distinguish them among others and make more and more people become their followers. These might be cognitive abilities, psychological traits, professional qualities, and a lot more, and all of them will be either acquired or innate. Based on the importance of leadership qualities, such as commitment, stress resistance, and the ability to make quality decisions, it is reasonable to claim that leaders are made, not born. 

One can deem commitment as one of the top fundamental qualities of the leader. In essence, such a feature indicates that a person is passionate about the common goal, strives to be a team player, and makes every effort to reach a shared goal. As the history shows, none of the successful companies was uncoordinated by an influential, committed leader: Apple, Amazon, Microsoft – all of these companies are examples of dominant teams led by a dedicated leader. A committed leader also inspires his or her team to achieve common goals and put more effort into the shared activity. Besides, commitment is unlikely to be an innate feature; it instead comes with experience. This is so, since commitment implies dedicating oneself to the shared task, and one can reach it only via learning and continuous self-improvement.

Stress resistance is another incredibly important feature that every good leader should possess. This is because only a stress-resistant leader has sufficient capabilities to overcome any complexity and not let the anxiety and stress prevent him or her from making proper decisions. Besides, such a leader will most likely have a positive influence on the team, as long as leading by example will motivate the team members to attain the same emotional stability. What is so far familiar about stress resistance as an effective leader’s feature is that it can be either innate or attained. However, although some researchers admit that emotional stability is something one is born with, it is not entirely true; many people still put a great effort into self-improvement, changing the attitude to unfortunate situations, and so on. Therefore, being resistant to stress can be mostly attributed to a personality.

An ability to make high-quality decisions most likely determines the chances for an enterprise’s success. In particular, such quality is incredibly fundamental for a company of any size and professional orientation. Additionally, it is one of the top tasks of a good leader to make final decisions. What he or she should do implies brainstorming, discussing various opinions in the group, making forecasts, analyzing all the pros and cons. However, the leader is the one to make a final decision. Thereby, he is in charge of researching the market, discovering all the hidden truths, and analyzing the organization’s potential and capabilities to result in the most effective decision. As it flows logically from the latter, an ability to make sound quality decisions is purely a professional quality. This leads to the conclusion that one has to work hard to become a genuine leader and master the skill of making effective decisions. 

Overall, the leader may possess a multitude of different skills and master them perfectly. However, what has so far become transparent is that any leader, regardless of which team he leads, must possess three essential qualities. These qualities are commitment to the common goal, ability to handle and resist stress, and, finally, an ability to make effective decisions. All of the three qualities are most likely to be acquired over a lifetime. The statement below leads to the conclusion that even though some qualities can be innate, most are not the ones that leaders are born with. Hence, this answers an essential question: leadership feature is acquired, and not necessarily inborn.  

20 leadership essay topics

When coming up with your next leadership essay topic, it is imperative to brainstorm ideas and think of what leadership might be related to. If you are struggling with a topic of the importance of leadership essay or any relevant type of essay, you may quickly take a look at some of the possible topics we prepared for you:

• What are the main qualities of the leader?
• Successful Time Management as a feature of an effective leader
• The role that rhetoric plays in leadership
• The most exceptional leader in the history of the 20-th century
• The role of female leadership
• What are the challenges of the leader of the 21-st century?
• How college helps students develop leadership skills?
• Qualities of the leader that motivate people to follow them 
• Top things to avoid doing to become a team leader
• Examples of effective and ineffective leadership in the history
• Top techniques for developing leadership skills
• The interconnection of creativity and leadership 
• Is a university’s role fundamental in developing leadership skills?
• Dictatorship as an anti-example of leadership
• Liberal vs Authoritative leadership: which one works better?
• The influence of the leader’s role model on the followers’ mindset
• Main difficulties that the new leader may face in a new team
• Leadership of today vs leadership of the past: what has changed?
• Reasons why I want to become a member if the leadership program
• The role of cognitive abilities for the leader 

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Essays About Effective Leadership: Top 6 Examples and Prompts

Effective leadership is an essential trait that all people should strive to develop; here are 6 examples and topic ideas essays about effective leadership .

Many qualities make an inspiring and effective leader, such as vision, focus, and motivation. Like other skills, effective leadership can be innate or learned and practiced. When writing about leadership, include the strengths of an effective leader and how these qualities positively impact their team. You can also discuss weaknesses that can make a poor leader and how to combat these issues.

Here are 6 examples and 10 essay prompts to get you started on your next essay.

1. What Makes an Effective Leader? by Tony Gill

2. a guide to becoming an effective leader by yashi srivastava , 3. leadership: 5 practices of effective leaders by yvette gyles, 4. 6 characteristics of an effective leader by lauren landry, 5. six leadership lessons by order of the peaky blinders by andrew denton mbe, 6. leadership and the quest for certainty by keith grint,  1. what is effective leadership, 2. what does effective leadership look like in the corporate industry, 3. what to avoid to become an effective leader, 4. habits of an effective leader, 5. studying the mindsets of effective leaders, 6. effective leadership and its benefits to an organization, 7. indicators of strong and effective leadership, 8. poor leadership vs. effective leadership, 9. real-life examples of effective leadership, 10. how perception creates effective leadership.

“Work at using leadership styles that do not come naturally, styles that you find difficult. By becoming a well-rounded leader, it is easier to adapt your leadership technique for different situations.”

Gill uses a research-based approach to answer the central question of his essay. He looks at various sources that tackle the topic of effective leadership and stitch them together to make a comprehensive guide to effective leadership.

“Leadership is not a mystical quality, and anyone can become a more effective leader by developing some important skills.”

The author, Yashi Srivastava, defines what differentiates leaders from managers first. Then, she provides some dos and don’ts of an effective leader and how people could apply them in different situations. 

“Whereas as leaders, we need to be concerned about creativity and innovation, making positive changes, and seeking to challenge and push boundaries.”

Gyles specializes in leadership training for companies, so her approach to the essay is geared more toward company leaders. Nevertheless, it’s highly educational for all those interested in learning effective leadership meant for dealing with various people and guiding people to a direction or goal.

“Effective leaders don’t avoid the hard truths. Instead, they take responsibility for their decisions, maintain optimism, and focus on charting a new course of action.”

Landry’s essay focuses on her six top characteristics of an effective leader. Some of these characteristics are what you’d expect to see in an essay like this. Entries like transparency are less common but equally important in practicing effective leadership.

“Rolling your sleeves up with everyone else not only sets an example, it makes people want to follow you.”

Fiction mirrors life, and it’s one of the best sources to learn lessons that are otherwise too complex or vague to see in real life. Despite his penchant for crime and violence, Thomas Shelby is undeniably one of the most influential leaders on TV. This essay details the leadership skills used by a 1920s gangster character and how you can use them in modern life to become an effective and inspiring leader.

“Leadership is often associated with certainty; indeed, it is sometimes reduced to the decision-making process such that anything which smacks of uncertainty is categorized as weakness or a failure of leadership.”  

Grint’s essay on leadership explores the factors around leaders’ certainty or confidence. Of course, not all leaders have a clear answer to a problem, which is fine. The important thing is that they have a mindset to look for solutions and a modicum of honesty about their lack of uncertainty.

10 Essay Prompts on Effective Leadership

It’s your turn to express and explore your view of effective leadership. Use these prompts to work out your approach or steps to effective leadership. Here are ten prompts about effective leadership to help you get started on your essay.

Defining effective leadership is one way to explore your understanding of the idea. Remember that your definition of effective leadership could vastly differ from the other essays you’ve read. It’s also a great starting point for new people who want to warm up to the habit of writing essays about leadership.

Essay writing tip: If you’re new to writing essays, consider simplifying your essay. Try shortening it down to a five-paragraph essay .

You can find many leaders in the corporate industry, but some are more effective than others. Use this prompt to work out how you envision effective leadership in the corporate world. You can also apply the same idea to other fields, like at school, among friends or peer groups, or in the family. Consider carefully the field or organization you’d like to use for the essay.

You may have personal experience with a person who could have been an effective leader if not for their bad habits. You might have been that person and realized how your bad habits had held you back from practicing effective leadership. This is your chance to write about your experience, whether via observing someone else or through personal growth.

Practicing effective leadership goes beyond having direction and a vision for the organization. Becoming an effective leader also takes time and patience. Use this prompt to discuss the habits of great leaders and how these habits make them effective in their leadership.

Get into the mind of a leader and explore how such a person might become more effective in their leadership. This topic may involve discussing various people, whether real-life persons or fictional characters. Research how they think, handle their role and manage the people they lead.

Understanding the benefits of effective leadership is one of the best ways to drive someone to practice and adopt it. Use this prompt to detail how an effective leader boosts morale, productivity, motivation, communication quality, and confidence in the people they lead. It applies to all organizations, like businesses, teams, and networks.

How do you know whether a person’s leadership style and approach are effective or not? Use this essay topic to discover the different methods of measuring effective leadership. Read about the different measurements and indicators of leadership used in corporations and organizations.

Leaders can be good, mediocre, or bad in their leadership approaches and styles. This essay prompt will push you to compare bad leadership and effective leadership. You can also add methods of improving one’s leadership style to become more effective.

You can find a lot of excellent leaders throughout history. This idea focuses on discussing different leaders, their leadership styles, and levels of effectiveness.

Interpersonal skills are vital to great leadership. Perception of others’ feelings and thoughts can help you become an even better and more effective leader. Discuss how intuitiveness positively affects one’s leadership style. 

Check out our list of great essay writing topics for students for more topics to improve your writing.

Maria Caballero is a freelance writer who has been writing since high school. She believes that to be a writer doesn't only refer to excellent syntax and semantics but also knowing how to weave words together to communicate to any reader effectively.

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Anyone Can Learn to Be a Better Leader

• Monique Valcour

You just have to put in the work.

Occupying a leadership position is not the same thing as leading. To lead, you must be able to connect, motivate, and inspire a sense of ownership of shared objectives. Heightening your capacity to lead others requires being able to see how you think and act, and how your behavior affects others. Leading well requires a continuous journey of personal development. Yet people in leadership roles often eschew the long and challenging work of deepening self-insight in favor of chasing after management “tools”— preferably the “quick ’n’ easy” kind, such as personality type assessments that reduce employees to a few simplistic behavioral tendencies. Tools can be handy aids to good leadership. But none of them can take the place of fearless introspection, feedback seeking, and committed efforts to behavioral change for greater effectiveness and increased positive impact on others.

When you’re an individual contributor, your ability to use your technical expertise to deliver results is paramount. Once you’ve advanced into a leadership role, however, the toolkit that you relied on to deliver individual results rarely equips you to succeed through others. Beware of falling into the logical trap of “if I can do this work well, I should be able to lead a team of people who do this work.” This would be true if leading others were akin to operating a more powerful version of the same machinery you operated previously. But it’s not; machinery doesn’t perform better or worse based on what it thinks about you and how you make it feel, while humans do .

• MV Monique Valcour is an executive coach, keynote speaker, and management professor. She helps clients create and sustain fulfilling and high-performance jobs, careers, workplaces, and lives. moniquevalcour

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• How to Structure a Leadership Essay (Samples to Consider)

Leadership is a complex concept, but it’s essential for boosting your career. That’s why a leadership essay focuses on applying the theoretical models and concepts of successful management to real-life situations. 

If you don’t know where to start writing such a paper, please read on for professional tips!

What Is Leadership Essay?

A leadership essay is a paper that analyzes leadership concepts and their application to real-life situations that may involve everyday business management, crisis situations, and other scenarios. 

Every essay on leadership is about defining a concept. Then, it’s either comparing it to similar management tools or proving that it’s useful (or not).

While some students enjoy writing such papers, other learners hate them. The below samples will come in handy, no matter which group is yours.

What Does Leadership Mean to You? (Essay Sample)

It is one of the most popular topics for a leadership essay. If you need to write a paper like that, ask yourself:

• Who is a good leader?  
• What style do they use?  
• What are the situations when they might switch styles?

You may take a more personal approach to such an essay if your professor allows you to. In the example below, you will see the academic approach to this topic. It analyzes three leadership styles to discover which one corresponds to the meaning of leadership if one thinks of it as guidance and support.

Why I Want to Participate in a Leadership Program (Essay Sample)

It’s another example of a popular topic. Such papers often have a meaning beyond the classroom since they may decide whether you plan to participate in a specific program. It’s critical to make them as effective and compelling as possible.

A personalized approach is the best when it comes to essays like this. In the example below, you will see the paper that relies on individual beliefs and a personal life story to explain why it’s so important for the specific student to participate in the chosen program.

How to Write a Leadership Essay

Like every other essay, this paper has an introduction, several body paragraphs, and a conclusion summarizing your thoughts. (1) The most important part of the introduction is the final sentence,  aka  a thesis statement. That’s where you state your claim to prove or develop in your leadership essay.

Each body paragraph should correspond to the purpose of your essay. To ensure you don’t stray from the aim you’ve established in the thesis statement, write the topic sentences for all your paragraphs in the outline . In simple words, write the first sentence of every paragraph to define its development in advance and see if you cover everything you need.

And now, to the conclusion:

Its most essential element is thesis restatement or the first sentence of that paragraph. It’s not just paraphrasing your thesis; it’s also considering the new information you’ve discovered while writing the essay.

Structure :

• Introduction (End it with a thesis statement.)
• Body paragraphs (Each one starts with a topic sentence.)
• Conclusion (Start it with a thesis restatement.)

Understand the purpose of a leadership essay

When starting to write, think about why you’re creating this paper. Before you sit down and type the words, think about the ideas you want to convey and their meaning in your life:

Can this essay teach you to take responsibility? Or maybe will it help you understand how to be a leader in crisis situations? When you’ve answered the “why” question, begin outlining.

Build a strong thesis

Always start with your thesis statement. It will help incorporate your answer to that notorious “why” question into your essay. Once done, you can plan out the rest of the paper and start working on the body paragraphs as soon as you finish the introduction.

There’s another important tip —don’t rush into writing the conclusion before you finish everything else!

It might seem like a good idea to create a thesis statement and thesis restatement right off the bat. However, you’ll find yourself with more refreshing ideas after completing all the research and thinking necessary for the introduction and each body paragraph.

Decide on a structure; format accordingly

Even if your essay about leadership seems not so formal, and you can use personal pronouns, you still need a clear structure.

The best way to write any academic paper is to keep your introduction and conclusion as short as possible. (But no shorter than three sentences and four lines of text). 

Another important tip is to try making all your body paragraphs equal in length. That way, you’ll give the same attention to all the vital points of your essay.

Ready to Write Your Essay on Leadership Now?

Hopefully, this article has helped you understand the most critical elements of a leadership essay. 

Remember the structure, grammar, and appropriate academic style to create a top-level paper. Please don’t forget to answer the “why” question and remember  why  you’re writing. Then you’ll impress everyone with your results!

References:

• https://lsa.umich.edu/onsf/news-events/all-news/directors-blog/writing-leadership-essays.html
• Essay samples
• Essay writing
• Writing tips

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10 Personal Statement Essay Examples That Worked

What’s covered:, what is a personal statement.

• Essay 1: Summer Program
• Essay 2: Being Bangladeshi-American
• Essay 3: Why Medicine
• Essay 4: Love of Writing
• Essay 5: Starting a Fire
• Essay 6: Dedicating a Track
• Essay 7: Body Image and Eating Disorders
• Essay 8: Becoming a Coach
• Essay 9: Eritrea
• Essay 10: Journaling
• Is Your Personal Statement Strong Enough?

Your personal statement is any essay that you must write for your main application, such as the Common App Essay , University of California Essays , or Coalition Application Essay . This type of essay focuses on your unique experiences, ideas, or beliefs that may not be discussed throughout the rest of your application. This essay should be an opportunity for the admissions officers to get to know you better and give them a glimpse into who you really are.

In this post, we will share 10 different personal statements that were all written by real students. We will also provide commentary on what each essay did well and where there is room for improvement, so you can make your personal statement as strong as possible!

Please note: Looking at examples of real essays students have submitted to colleges can be very beneficial to get inspiration for your essays. You should never copy or plagiarize from these examples when writing your own essays. Colleges can tell when an essay isn’t genuine and will not view students favorably if they plagiarized. 

Personal Statement Examples

Essay example #1: exchange program.

The twisting roads, ornate mosaics, and fragrant scent of freshly ground spices had been so foreign at first. Now in my fifth week of the SNYI-L summer exchange program in Morocco, I felt more comfortable in the city. With a bag full of pastries from the market, I navigated to a bus stop, paid the fare, and began the trip back to my host family’s house. It was hard to believe that only a few years earlier my mom was worried about letting me travel around my home city on my own, let alone a place that I had only lived in for a few weeks. While I had been on a journey towards self-sufficiency and independence for a few years now, it was Morocco that pushed me to become the confident, self-reflective person that I am today.

As a child, my parents pressured me to achieve perfect grades, master my swim strokes, and discover interesting hobbies like playing the oboe and learning to pick locks. I felt compelled to live my life according to their wishes. Of course, this pressure was not a wholly negative factor in my life –– you might even call it support. However, the constant presence of my parents’ hopes for me overcame my own sense of desire and led me to become quite dependent on them. I pushed myself to get straight A’s, complied with years of oboe lessons, and dutifully attended hours of swim practice after school. Despite all these achievements, I felt like I had no sense of self beyond my drive for success. I had always been expected to succeed on the path they had defined. However, this path was interrupted seven years after my parents’ divorce when my dad moved across the country to Oregon.

I missed my dad’s close presence, but I loved my new sense of freedom. My parents’ separation allowed me the space to explore my own strengths and interests as each of them became individually busier. As early as middle school, I was riding the light rail train by myself, reading maps to get myself home, and applying to special academic programs without urging from my parents. Even as I took more initiatives on my own, my parents both continued to see me as somewhat immature. All of that changed three years ago, when I applied and was accepted to the SNYI-L summer exchange program in Morocco. I would be studying Arabic and learning my way around the city of Marrakesh. Although I think my parents were a little surprised when I told them my news, the addition of a fully-funded scholarship convinced them to let me go.

I lived with a host family in Marrakesh and learned that they, too, had high expectations for me. I didn’t know a word of Arabic, and although my host parents and one brother spoke good English, they knew I was there to learn. If I messed up, they patiently corrected me but refused to let me fall into the easy pattern of speaking English just as I did at home. Just as I had when I was younger, I felt pressured and stressed about meeting their expectations. However, one day, as I strolled through the bustling market square after successfully bargaining with one of the street vendors, I realized my mistake. My host family wasn’t being unfair by making me fumble through Arabic. I had applied for this trip, and I had committed to the intensive language study. My host family’s rules about speaking Arabic at home had not been to fulfill their expectations for me, but to help me fulfill my expectations for myself. Similarly, the pressure my parents had put on me as a child had come out of love and their hopes for me, not out of a desire to crush my individuality.

As my bus drove through the still-bustling market square and past the medieval Ben-Youssef madrasa, I realized that becoming independent was a process, not an event. I thought that my parents’ separation when I was ten had been the one experience that would transform me into a self-motivated and autonomous person. It did, but that didn’t mean that I didn’t still have room to grow. Now, although I am even more self-sufficient than I was three years ago, I try to approach every experience with the expectation that it will change me. It’s still difficult, but I understand that just because growth can be uncomfortable doesn’t mean it’s not important.

What the Essay Did Well

This is a nice essay because it delves into particular character trait of the student and how it has been shaped and matured over time. Although it doesn’t focus the essay around a specific anecdote, the essay is still successful because it is centered around this student’s independence. This is a nice approach for a personal statement: highlight a particular trait of yours and explore how it has grown with you.

The ideas in this essay are universal to growing up—living up to parents’ expectations, yearning for freedom, and coming to terms with reality—but it feels unique to the student because of the inclusion of details specific to them. Including their oboe lessons, the experience of riding the light rail by themselves, and the negotiations with a street vendor helps show the reader what these common tropes of growing up looked like for them personally. 

Another strength of the essay is the level of self-reflection included throughout the piece. Since there is no central anecdote tying everything together, an essay about a character trait is only successful when you deeply reflect on how you felt, where you made mistakes, and how that trait impacts your life. The author includes reflection in sentences like “ I felt like I had no sense of self beyond my drive for success, ” and “ I understand that just because growth can be uncomfortable doesn’t mean it’s not important. ” These sentences help us see how the student was impacted and what their point of view is.

What Could Be Improved

The largest change this essay would benefit from is to show not tell. The platitude you have heard a million times no doubt, but for good reason. This essay heavily relies on telling the reader what occurred, making us less engaged as the entire reading experience feels more passive. If the student had shown us what happens though, it keeps the reader tied to the action and makes them feel like they are there with the student, making it much more enjoyable to read. 

For example, they tell us about the pressure to succeed their parents placed on them: “ I pushed myself to get straight A’s, complied with years of oboe lessons, and dutifully attended hours of swim practice after school.”  They could have shown us what that pressure looked like with a sentence like this: “ My stomach turned somersaults as my rattling knee thumped against the desk before every test, scared to get anything less than a 95. For five years the painful squawk of the oboe only reminded me of my parents’ claps and whistles at my concerts. I mastered the butterfly, backstroke, and freestyle, fighting against the anchor of their expectations threatening to pull me down.”

If the student had gone through their essay and applied this exercise of bringing more detail and colorful language to sentences that tell the reader what happened, the essay would be really great. 

Table of Contents

Essay Example #2: Being Bangladeshi-American

Life before was good: verdant forests, sumptuous curries, and a devoted family.

Then, my family abandoned our comfortable life in Bangladesh for a chance at the American dream in Los Angeles. Within our first year, my father was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. He lost his battle three weeks before my sixth birthday. Facing a new country without the steady presence of my father, we were vulnerable — prisoners of hardship in the land of the free. We resettled in the Bronx, in my uncle’s renovated basement. It was meant to be our refuge, but I felt more displaced than ever. Gone were the high-rise condos of West L.A.; instead, government projects towered over the neighborhood. Pedestrians no longer smiled and greeted me; the atmosphere was hostile, even toxic. Schoolkids were quick to pick on those they saw as weak or foreign, hurling harsh words I’d never heard before.

Meanwhile, my family began integrating into the local Bangladeshi community. I struggled to understand those who shared my heritage. Bangladeshi mothers stayed home while fathers drove cabs and sold fruit by the roadside — painful societal positions. Riding on crosstown buses or walking home from school, I began to internalize these disparities. During my fleeting encounters with affluent Upper East Siders, I saw kids my age with nannies, parents who wore suits to work, and luxurious apartments with spectacular views. Most took cabs to their destinations: cabs that Bangladeshis drove. I watched the mundane moments of their lives with longing, aching to plant myself in their shoes. Shame prickled down my spine. I distanced myself from my heritage, rejecting the traditional panjabis worn on Eid and refusing the torkari we ate for dinner every day. 

As I grappled with my relationship with the Bangladeshi community, I turned my attention to helping my Bronx community by pursuing an internship with Assemblyman Luis Sepulveda. I handled desk work and took calls, spending the bulk of my time actively listening to the hardships constituents faced — everything from a veteran stripped of his benefits to a grandmother unable to support her bedridden grandchild.

I’d never exposed myself to stories like these, and now I was the first to hear them. As an intern, I could only assist in what felt like the small ways — pointing out local job offerings, printing information on free ESL classes, reaching out to non-profits. But to a community facing an onslaught of intense struggles, I realized that something as small as these actions could have vast impacts. Seeing the immediate consequences of my actions inspired me. Throughout that summer, I internalized my community’s daily challenges in a new light. I began to stop seeing the prevalent underemployment and cramped living quarters less as sources of shame. Instead, I saw them as realities that had to be acknowledged, but could ultimately be remedied. I also realized the benefits of the Bangladeshi culture I had been so ashamed of. My Bangla language skills were an asset to the office, and my understanding of Bangladeshi etiquette allowed for smooth communication between office staff and its constituents. As I helped my neighbors navigate city services, I saw my heritage with pride — a perspective I never expected to have.

I can now appreciate the value of my unique culture and background, and of living with less. This perspective offers room for progress, community integration, and a future worth fighting for. My time with Assemblyman Sepulveda’s office taught me that I can be a change agent in enabling this progression. Far from being ashamed of my community, I want to someday return to local politics in the Bronx to continue helping others access the American Dream. I hope to help my community appreciate the opportunity to make progress together. By embracing reality, I learned to live it. Along the way, I discovered one thing: life is good, but we can make it better.

This student’s passion for social justice and civic duty shines through in this essay because of how honest it is. Sharing their personal experience with immigrating, moving around, being an outsider, and finding a community allows us to see the hardships this student has faced and builds empathy towards their situation. However, what really makes it strong is that they go beyond describing the difficulties they faced and explain the mental impact it had on them as a child: Shame prickled down my spine. I distanced myself from my heritage, rejecting the traditional panjabis worn on Eid and refusing the torkari we ate for dinner every day. 

The rejection of their culture presented at the beginning of the essay creates a nice juxtaposition with the student’s view in the latter half of the essay and helps demonstrate how they have matured. They use their experience interning as a way to delve into a change in their thought process about their culture and show how their passion for social justice began. Using this experience as a mechanism to explore their thoughts and feelings is an excellent example of how items that are included elsewhere on your application should be incorporated into your essay.

This essay prioritizes emotions and personal views over specific anecdotes. Although there are details and certain moments incorporated throughout to emphasize the author’s points, the main focus remains on the student and how they grapple with their culture and identity.  

One area for improvement is the conclusion. Although the forward-looking approach is a nice way to end an essay focused on social justice, it would be nice to include more details and imagery in the conclusion. How does the student want to help their community? What government position do they see themselves holding one day? 

A more impactful ending might look like the student walking into their office at the New York City Housing Authority in 15 years and looking at the plans to build a new development in the Bronx just blocks away from where the grew up that would provide quality housing to people in their Bangladeshi community. They would smile while thinking about how far they have come from that young kid who used to be ashamed of their culture. 

Essay Example #3: Why Medicine

I took my first trip to China to visit my cousin Anna in July of 2014. Distance had kept us apart, but when we were together, we fell into all of our old inside jokes and caught up on each other’s lives. Her sparkling personality and optimistic attitude always brought a smile to my face. This time, however, my heart broke when I saw the effects of her brain cancer; she had suffered from a stroke that paralyzed her left side. She was still herself in many ways, but I could see that the damage to her brain made things difficult for her. I stayed by her every day, providing the support she needed, whether assisting her with eating and drinking, reading to her, or just watching “Friends.” During my flight back home, sorrow and helplessness overwhelmed me. Would I ever see Anna again? Could I have done more to make Anna comfortable? I wished I could stay in China longer to care for her. As I deplaned, I wondered if I could transform my grief to help other children and teenagers in the US who suffered as Anna did.

The day after I got home, as jet lag dragged me awake a few minutes after midnight, I remembered hearing about the Family Reach Foundation (FRF) and its work with children going through treatments at the local hospital and their families. I began volunteering in the FRF’s Children’s Activity Room, where I play with children battling cancer. Volunteering has both made me appreciate my own health and also cherish the new relationships I build with the children and families. We play sports, make figures out of playdoh, and dress up. When they take on the roles of firefighters or fairies, we all get caught up in the game; for that time, they forget the sanitized, stark, impersonal walls of the pediatric oncology ward. Building close relationships with them and seeing them giggle and laugh is so rewarding — I love watching them grow and get better throughout their course of treatment.

Hearing from the parents about their children’s condition and seeing the children recover inspired me to consider medical research. To get started, I enrolled in a summer collegelevel course in Abnormal Psychology. There I worked with Catelyn, a rising college senior, on a data analysis project regarding Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID). Together, we examined the neurological etiology of DID by studying four fMRI and PET cases. I fell in love with gathering data and analyzing the results and was amazed by our final product: several stunning brain images showcasing the areas of hyper and hypoactivity in brains affected by DID. Desire quickly followed my amazement — I want to continue this project and study more brains. Their complexity, delicacy, and importance to every aspect of life fascinate me. Successfully completing this research project gave me a sense of hope; I know I am capable of participating in a large scale research project and potentially making a difference in someone else’s life through my research.

Anna’s diagnosis inspired me to begin volunteering at FRF; from there, I discovered my desire to help people further by contributing to medical research. As my research interest blossomed, I realized that it’s no coincidence that I want to study brains—after all, Anna suffered from brain cancer. Reflecting on these experiences this past year and a half, I see that everything I’ve done is connected. Sadly, a few months after I returned from China, Anna passed away. I am still sad, but as I run a toy truck across the floor and watch one of the little patients’ eyes light up, I imagine that she would be proud of my commitment to pursue medicine and study the brain.

This essay has a very strong emotional core that tugs at the heart strings and makes the reader feel invested. Writing about sickness can be difficult and doesn’t always belong in a personal statement, but in this case it works well because the focus is on how this student cared for her cousin and dealt with the grief and emotions surrounding her condition. Writing about the compassion she showed and the doubts and concerns that filled her mind keeps the focus on the author and her personality. 

This continues when she again discusses the activities she did with the kids at FRF and the personal reflection this experience allowed her to have. For example, she writes: Volunteering has both made me appreciate my own health and also cherish the new relationships I build with the children and families. We play sports, make figures out of playdoh, and dress up.

Concluding the essay with the sad story of her cousin’s passing brings the essay full circle and returns to the emotional heart of the piece to once again build a connection with the reader. However, it finishes on a hopeful note and demonstrates how this student has been able to turn a tragic experience into a source of lifelong inspiration. 

One thing this essay should be cognizant of is that personal statements should not read as summaries of your extracurricular resume. Although this essay doesn’t fully fall into that trap, it does describe two key extracurriculars the student participated in. However, the inclusion of such a strong emotional core running throughout the essay helps keep the focus on the student and her thoughts and feelings during these activities.

To avoid making this mistake, make sure you have a common thread running through your essay and the extracurriculars provide support to the story you are trying to tell, rather than crafting a story around your activities. And, as this essay does, make sure there is lots of personal reflection and feelings weaved throughout to focus attention to you rather than your extracurriculars. 

Essay Example #4: Love of Writing

“I want to be a writer.” This had been my answer to every youthful discussion with the adults in my life about what I would do when I grew up. As early as elementary school, I remember reading my writing pieces aloud to an audience at “Author of the Month” ceremonies. Bearing this goal in mind, and hoping to gain some valuable experience, I signed up for a journalism class during my freshman year. Despite my love for writing, I initially found myself uninterested in the subject and I struggled to enjoy the class. When I thought of writing, I imagined lyrical prose, profound poetry, and thrilling plot lines. Journalism required a laconic style and orderly structure, and I found my teacher’s assignments formulaic and dull. That class shook my confidence as a writer. I was uncertain if I should continue in it for the rest of my high school career.

Despite my misgivings, I decided that I couldn’t make a final decision on whether to quit journalism until I had some experience working for a paper outside of the classroom. The following year, I applied to be a staff reporter on our school newspaper. I hoped this would help me become more self-driven and creative, rather than merely writing articles that my teacher assigned. To my surprise, my time on staff was worlds away from what I experienced in the journalism class. Although I was unaccustomed to working in a fast-paced environment and initially found it burdensome to research and complete high-quality stories in a relatively short amount of time, I also found it exciting. I enjoyed learning more about topics and events on campus that I did not know much about; some of my stories that I covered in my first semester concerned a chess tournament, a food drive, and a Spanish immersion party. I relished in the freedom I had to explore and learn, and to write more independently than I could in a classroom.

Although I enjoyed many aspects of working for the paper immediately, reporting also pushed me outside of my comfort zone. I am a shy person, and speaking with people I did not know intimidated me. During my first interview, I met with the basketball coach to prepare for a story about the team’s winning streak. As I approached his office, I felt everything from my toes to my tongue freeze into a solid block, and I could hardly get out my opening questions. Fortunately, the coach was very kind and helped me through the conversation. Encouraged, I prepared for my next interview with more confidence. After a few weeks of practice, I even started to look forward to interviewing people on campus. That first journalism class may have bored me, but even if journalism in practice was challenging, it was anything but tedious.

Over the course of that year, I grew to love writing for our school newspaper. Reporting made me aware of my surroundings, and made me want to know more about current events on campus and in the town where I grew up. By interacting with people all over campus, I came to understand the breadth of individuals and communities that make up my high school. I felt far more connected to diverse parts of my school through my work as a journalist, and I realized that journalism gave me a window into seeing beyond my own experiences. The style of news writing may be different from what I used to think “writing” meant, but I learned that I can still derive exciting plots from events that may have gone unnoticed if not for my stories. I no longer struggle to approach others, and truly enjoy getting to know people and recognizing their accomplishments through my writing. Becoming a writer may be a difficult path, but it is as rewarding as I hoped when I was young.

This essay is clearly structured in a manner that makes it flow very nicely and contributes to its success. It starts with a quote to draw in the reader and show this student’s life-long passion for writing. Then it addresses the challenges of facing new, unfamiliar territory and how this student overcame it. Finally, it concludes by reflecting on this eye-opening experience and a nod to their younger self from the introduction. Having a well-thought out and sequential structure with clear transitions makes it extremely easy for the reader to follow along and take away the main idea.

Another positive aspect of the essay is the use of strong and expressive language. Sentences like “ When I thought of writing, I imagined lyrical prose, profound poetry, and thrilling plot lines ” stand out because of the intentional use of words like “lyrical”, “profound”, and “thrilling” to convey the student’s love of writing. The author also uses an active voice to capture the readers’ attention and keep us engaged. They rely on their language and diction to reveal details to the reader, for instance saying “ I felt everything from my toes to my tongue freeze into a solid block ” to describe feeling nervous.

This essay is already very strong, so there isn’t much that needs to be changed. One thing that could take the essay from great to outstanding would be to throw in more quotes, internal dialogue, and sensory descriptors.

It would be nice to see the nerves they felt interviewing the coach by including dialogue like “ Um…I want to interview you about…uh…”.  They could have shown their original distaste for journalism by narrating the thoughts running through their head. The fast-paced environment of their newspaper could have come to life with descriptions about the clacking of keyboards and the whirl of people running around laying out articles.

Essay Example #5: Starting a Fire

Was I no longer the beloved daughter of nature, whisperer of trees? Knee-high rubber boots, camouflage, bug spray—I wore the garb and perfume of a proud wild woman, yet there I was, hunched over the pathetic pile of stubborn sticks, utterly stumped, on the verge of tears. As a child, I had considered myself a kind of rustic princess, a cradler of spiders and centipedes, who was serenaded by mourning doves and chickadees, who could glide through tick-infested meadows and emerge Lyme-free. I knew the cracks of the earth like the scars on my own rough palms. Yet here I was, ten years later, incapable of performing the most fundamental outdoor task: I could not, for the life of me, start a fire. 

Furiously I rubbed the twigs together—rubbed and rubbed until shreds of skin flaked from my fingers. No smoke. The twigs were too young, too sticky-green; I tossed them away with a shower of curses, and began tearing through the underbrush in search of a more flammable collection. My efforts were fruitless. Livid, I bit a rejected twig, determined to prove that the forest had spurned me, offering only young, wet bones that would never burn. But the wood cracked like carrots between my teeth—old, brittle, and bitter. Roaring and nursing my aching palms, I retreated to the tent, where I sulked and awaited the jeers of my family. 

Rattling their empty worm cans and reeking of fat fish, my brother and cousins swaggered into the campsite. Immediately, they noticed the minor stick massacre by the fire pit and called to me, their deep voices already sharp with contempt. 

“Where’s the fire, Princess Clara?” they taunted. “Having some trouble?” They prodded me with the ends of the chewed branches and, with a few effortless scrapes of wood on rock, sparked a red and roaring flame. My face burned long after I left the fire pit. The camp stank of salmon and shame. 

In the tent, I pondered my failure. Was I so dainty? Was I that incapable? I thought of my hands, how calloused and capable they had been, how tender and smooth they had become. It had been years since I’d kneaded mud between my fingers; instead of scaling a white pine, I’d practiced scales on my piano, my hands softening into those of a musician—fleshy and sensitive. And I’d gotten glasses, having grown horrifically nearsighted; long nights of dim lighting and thick books had done this. I couldn’t remember the last time I had lain down on a hill, barefaced, and seen the stars without having to squint. Crawling along the edge of the tent, a spider confirmed my transformation—he disgusted me, and I felt an overwhelming urge to squash him. 

Yet, I realized I hadn’t really changed—I had only shifted perspective. I still eagerly explored new worlds, but through poems and prose rather than pastures and puddles. I’d grown to prefer the boom of a bass over that of a bullfrog, learned to coax a different kind of fire from wood, having developed a burn for writing rhymes and scrawling hypotheses. 

That night, I stayed up late with my journal and wrote about the spider I had decided not to kill. I had tolerated him just barely, only shrieking when he jumped—it helped to watch him decorate the corners of the tent with his delicate webs, knowing that he couldn’t start fires, either. When the night grew cold and the embers died, my words still smoked—my hands burned from all that scrawling—and even when I fell asleep, the ideas kept sparking—I was on fire, always on fire.

This student is an excellent writer, which allows a simple story to be outstandingly compelling. The author articulates her points beautifully and creatively through her immense use of details and figurative language. Lines like “a rustic princess, a cradler of spiders and centipedes, who was serenaded by mourning doves and chickadees,” and “rubbed and rubbed until shreds of skin flaked from my fingers,” create vivid images that draw the reader in. 

The flowery and descriptive prose also contributes to the nice juxtaposition between the old Clara and the new Clara. The latter half of the essay contrasts elements of nature with music and writing to demonstrate how natural these interests are for her now. This sentence perfectly encapsulates the contrast she is trying to build: “It had been years since I’d kneaded mud between my fingers; instead of scaling a white pine, I’d practiced scales on my piano, my hands softening into those of a musician—fleshy and sensitive.”

In addition to being well-written, this essay is thematically cohesive. It begins with the simple introduction “Fire!” and ends with the following image: “When the night grew cold and the embers died, my words still smoked—my hands burned from all that scrawling—and even when I fell asleep, the ideas kept sparking—I was on fire, always on fire.” This full-circle approach leaves readers satisfied and impressed.

There is very little this essay should change, however one thing to be cautious about is having an essay that is overly-descriptive. We know from the essay that this student likes to read and write, and depending on other elements of her application, it might make total sense to have such a flowery and ornate writing style. However, your personal statement needs to reflect your voice as well as your personality. If you would never use language like this in conversation or your writing, don’t put it in your personal statement. Make sure there is a balance between eloquence and your personal voice.

Essay Example #6: Dedicating a Track

“Getting beat is one thing – it’s part of competing – but I want no part in losing.” Coach Rob Stark’s motto never fails to remind me of his encouragement on early-morning bus rides to track meets around the state. I’ve always appreciated the phrase, but an experience last June helped me understand its more profound, universal meaning.

Stark, as we affectionately call him, has coached track at my high school for 25 years. His care, dedication, and emphasis on developing good character has left an enduring impact on me and hundreds of other students. Not only did he help me discover my talent and love for running, but he also taught me the importance of commitment and discipline and to approach every endeavor with the passion and intensity that I bring to running. When I learned a neighboring high school had dedicated their track to a longtime coach, I felt that Stark deserved similar honors.

Our school district’s board of education indicated they would only dedicate our track to Stark if I could demonstrate that he was extraordinary. I took charge and mobilized my teammates to distribute petitions, reach out to alumni, and compile statistics on the many team and individual champions Stark had coached over the years. We received astounding support, collecting almost 3,000 signatures and pages of endorsements from across the community. With help from my teammates, I presented this evidence to the board.

They didn’t bite. 

Most members argued that dedicating the track was a low priority. Knowing that we had to act quickly to convince them of its importance, I called a team meeting where we drafted a rebuttal for the next board meeting. To my surprise, they chose me to deliver it. I was far from the best public speaker in the group, and I felt nervous about going before the unsympathetic board again. However, at that second meeting, I discovered that I enjoy articulating and arguing for something that I’m passionate about.

Public speaking resembles a cross country race. Walking to the starting line, you have to trust your training and quell your last minute doubts. When the gun fires, you can’t think too hard about anything; your performance has to be instinctual, natural, even relaxed. At the next board meeting, the podium was my starting line. As I walked up to it, familiar butterflies fluttered in my stomach. Instead of the track stretching out in front of me, I faced the vast audience of teachers, board members, and my teammates. I felt my adrenaline build, and reassured myself: I’ve put in the work, my argument is powerful and sound. As the board president told me to introduce myself, I heard, “runners set” in the back of my mind. She finished speaking, and Bang! The brief silence was the gunshot for me to begin. 

The next few minutes blurred together, but when the dust settled, I knew from the board members’ expressions and the audience’s thunderous approval that I had run quite a race. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough; the board voted down our proposal. I was disappointed, but proud of myself, my team, and our collaboration off the track. We stood up for a cause we believed in, and I overcame my worries about being a leader. Although I discovered that changing the status quo through an elected body can be a painstakingly difficult process and requires perseverance, I learned that I enjoy the challenges this effort offers. Last month, one of the school board members joked that I had become a “regular” – I now often show up to meetings to advocate for a variety of causes, including better environmental practices in cafeterias and safer equipment for athletes.

Just as Stark taught me, I worked passionately to achieve my goal. I may have been beaten when I appealed to the board, but I certainly didn’t lose, and that would have made Stark proud.

This essay effectively conveys this student’s compassion for others, initiative, and determination—all great qualities to exemplify in a personal statement!

Although they rely on telling us a lot of what happened up until the board meeting, the use of running a race (their passion) as a metaphor for public speaking provides a lot of insight into the fear that this student overcame to work towards something bigger than themself. Comparing a podium to the starting line, the audience to the track, and silence to the gunshot is a nice way of demonstrating this student’s passion for cross country running without making that the focus of the story.

The essay does a nice job of coming full circle at the end by explaining what the quote from the beginning meant to them after this experience. Without explicitly saying “ I now know that what Stark actually meant is…” they rely on the strength of their argument above to make it obvious to the reader what it means to get beat but not lose. 

One of the biggest areas of improvement in the intro, however, is how the essay tells us Stark’s impact rather than showing us: His care, dedication, and emphasis on developing good character has left an enduring impact on me and hundreds of other students. Not only did he help me discover my talent and love for running, but he also taught me the importance of commitment and discipline and to approach every endeavor with the passion and intensity that I bring to running.

The writer could’ve helped us feel a stronger emotional connection to Stark if they had included examples of Stark’s qualities, rather than explicitly stating them. For example, they could’ve written something like: Stark was the kind of person who would give you gas money if you told him your parents couldn’t afford to pick you up from practice. And he actually did that—several times. At track meets, alumni regularly would come talk to him and tell him how he’d changed their lives. Before Stark, I was ambivalent about running and was on the JV team, but his encouragement motivated me to run longer and harder and eventually make varsity. Because of him, I approach every endeavor with the passion and intensity that I bring to running.

Essay Example #7: Body Image and Eating Disorders

I press the “discover” button on my Instagram app, hoping to find enticing pictures to satisfy my boredom. Scrolling through, I see funny videos and mouth-watering pictures of food. However, one image stops me immediately. A fit teenage girl with a “perfect body” relaxes in a bikini on a beach. Beneath it, I see a slew of flattering comments. I shake with disapproval over the image’s unrealistic quality. However, part of me still wants to have a body like hers so that others will make similar comments to me.

I would like to resolve a silent issue that harms many teenagers and adults: negative self image and low self-esteem in a world where social media shapes how people view each other. When people see the façades others wear to create an “ideal” image, they can develop poor thought patterns rooted in negative self-talk. The constant comparisons to “perfect” others make people feel small. In this new digital age, it is hard to distinguish authentic from artificial representations.

When I was 11, I developed anorexia nervosa. Though I was already thin, I wanted to be skinny like the models that I saw on the magazine covers on the grocery store stands. Little did I know that those models probably also suffered from disorders, and that photoshop erased their flaws. I preferred being underweight to being healthy. No matter how little I ate or how thin I was, I always thought that I was too fat. I became obsessed with the number on the scale and would try to eat the least that I could without my parents urging me to take more. Fortunately, I stopped engaging in anorexic behaviors before middle school. However, my underlying mental habits did not change. The images that had provoked my disorder in the first place were still a constant presence in my life.

By age 15, I was in recovery from anorexia, but suffered from depression. While I used to only compare myself to models, the growth of social media meant I also compared myself to my friends and acquaintances. I felt left out when I saw my friends’ excitement about lake trips they had taken without me. As I scrolled past endless photos of my flawless, thin classmates with hundreds of likes and affirming comments, I felt my jealousy spiral. I wanted to be admired and loved by other people too. However, I felt that I could never be enough. I began to hate the way that I looked, and felt nothing in my life was good enough. I wanted to be called “perfect” and “body goals,” so I tried to only post at certain times of day to maximize my “likes.” When that didn’t work, I started to feel too anxious to post anything at all.  

Body image insecurities and social media comparisons affect thousands of people – men, women, children, and adults – every day. I am lucky – after a few months of my destructive social media habits, I came across a video that pointed out the illusory nature of social media; many Instagram posts only show off good things while people hide their flaws. I began going to therapy, and recovered from my depression. To address the problem of self-image and social media, we can all focus on what matters on the inside and not what is on the surface. As an effort to become healthy internally, I started a club at my school to promote clean eating and radiating beauty from within. It has helped me grow in my confidence, and today I’m not afraid to show others my struggles by sharing my experience with eating disorders. Someday, I hope to make this club a national organization to help teenagers and adults across the country. I support the idea of body positivity and embracing difference, not “perfection.” After all, how can we be ourselves if we all look the same?

This essay covers the difficult topics of eating disorders and mental health. If you’re thinking about covering similar topics in your essay, we recommend reading our post Should You Talk About Mental Health in College Essays?

The short answer is that, yes, you can talk about mental health, but it can be risky. If you do go that route, it’s important to focus on what you learned from the experience.

The strength of this essay is the student’s vulnerability, in excerpts such as this: I wanted to be admired and loved by other people too. However, I felt that I could never be enough. I began to hate the way that I looked, and felt nothing in my life was good enough. I wanted to be called “perfect” and “body goals,” so I tried to only post at certain times of day to maximize my “likes.”

The student goes on to share how they recovered from their depression through an eye-opening video and therapy sessions, and they’re now helping others find their self-worth as well. It’s great that this essay looks towards the future and shares the writer’s goals of making their club a national organization; we can see their ambition and compassion.

The main weakness of this essay is that it doesn’t focus enough on their recovery process, which is arguably the most important part. They could’ve told us more about the video they watched or the process of starting their club and the interactions they’ve had with other members. Especially when sharing such a vulnerable topic, there should be vulnerability in the recovery process too. That way, the reader can fully appreciate all that this student has overcome.

Essay Example #8: Becoming a Coach

”Advanced females ages 13 to 14 please proceed to staging with your coaches at this time.” Skittering around the room, eyes wide and pleading, I frantically explained my situation to nearby coaches. The seconds ticked away in my head; every polite refusal increased my desperation.

Despair weighed me down. I sank to my knees as a stream of competitors, coaches, and officials flowed around me. My dojang had no coach, and the tournament rules prohibited me from competing without one.

Although I wanted to remain strong, doubts began to cloud my mind. I could not help wondering: what was the point of perfecting my skills if I would never even compete? The other members of my team, who had found coaches minutes earlier, attempted to comfort me, but I barely heard their words. They couldn’t understand my despair at being left on the outside, and I never wanted them to understand.

Since my first lesson 12 years ago, the members of my dojang have become family. I have watched them grow up, finding my own happiness in theirs. Together, we have honed our kicks, blocks, and strikes. We have pushed one another to aim higher and become better martial artists. Although my dojang had searched for a reliable coach for years, we had not found one. When we attended competitions in the past, my teammates and I had always gotten lucky and found a sympathetic coach. Now, I knew this practice was unsustainable. It would devastate me to see the other members of my dojang in my situation, unable to compete and losing hope as a result. My dojang needed a coach, and I decided it was up to me to find one.

I first approached the adults in the dojang – both instructors and members’ parents. However, these attempts only reacquainted me with polite refusals. Everyone I asked told me they couldn’t devote multiple weekends per year to competitions. I soon realized that I would have become the coach myself.

At first, the inner workings of tournaments were a mystery to me. To prepare myself for success as a coach, I spent the next year as an official and took coaching classes on the side. I learned everything from motivational strategies to technical, behind-the-scenes components of Taekwondo competitions. Though I emerged with new knowledge and confidence in my capabilities, others did not share this faith.

Parents threw me disbelieving looks when they learned that their children’s coach was only a child herself. My self-confidence was my armor, deflecting their surly glances. Every armor is penetrable, however, and as the relentless barrage of doubts pounded my resilience, it began to wear down. I grew unsure of my own abilities.

Despite the attack, I refused to give up. When I saw the shining eyes of the youngest students preparing for their first competition, I knew I couldn’t let them down. To quit would be to set them up to be barred from competing like I was. The knowledge that I could solve my dojang’s longtime problem motivated me to overcome my apprehension.

Now that my dojang flourishes at competitions, the attacks on me have weakened, but not ended. I may never win the approval of every parent; at times, I am still tormented by doubts, but I find solace in the fact that members of my dojang now only worry about competing to the best of their abilities.

Now, as I arrive at a tournament with my students, I close my eyes and remember the past. I visualize the frantic search for a coach and the chaos amongst my teammates as we competed with one another to find coaches before the staging calls for our respective divisions. I open my eyes to the exact opposite scene. Lacking a coach hurt my ability to compete, but I am proud to know that no member of my dojang will have to face that problem again.

This essay begins with an in-the-moment narrative that really illustrates the chaos of looking for a coach last-minute. We feel the writer’s emotions, particularly her dejectedness, at not being able to compete. Starting an essay in media res  is a great way to capture the attention of your readers and build anticipation for what comes next.

Through this essay, we can see how gutsy and determined the student is in deciding to become a coach themselves. She shows us these characteristics through their actions, rather than explicitly telling us: To prepare myself for success as a coach, I spent the next year as an official and took coaching classes on the side.  Also, by discussing the opposition she faced and how it affected her, the student is open and vulnerable about the reality of the situation.

The essay comes full circle as the author recalls the frantic situations in seeking out a coach, but this is no longer a concern for them and their team. Overall, this essay is extremely effective in painting this student as mature, bold, and compassionate.

The biggest thing this essay needs to work on is showing not telling. Throughout the essay, the student tells us that she “emerged with new knowledge and confidence,” she “grew unsure of her own abilities,” and she “refused to give up”. What we really want to know is what this looks like.

Instead of saying she “emerged with new knowledge and confidence” she should have shared how she taught a new move to a fellow team-member without hesitation. Rather than telling us she “grew unsure of her own abilities” she should have shown what that looked like by including her internal dialogue and rhetorical questions that ran through her mind. She could have demonstrated what “refusing to give up” looks like by explaining how she kept learning coaching techniques on her own, turned to a mentor for advice, or devised a plan to win over the trust of parents. 

Essay Example #9: Eritrea

No one knows where Eritrea is.

On the first day of school, for the past nine years, I would pensively stand in front of a class, a teacher, a stranger  waiting for the inevitable question: Where are you from?

I smile politely, my dimples accentuating my ambiguous features. “Eritrea,” I answer promptly and proudly. But I  am always prepared. Before their expression can deepen into confusion, ready to ask “where is that,” I elaborate,  perhaps with a fleeting hint of exasperation, “East Africa, near Ethiopia.”

Sometimes, I single out the key-shaped hermit nation on a map, stunning teachers who have “never had a student  from there!” Grinning, I resist the urge to remark, “You didn’t even know it existed until two minutes ago!”

Eritrea is to the East of Ethiopia, its arid coastline clutches the lucrative Red Sea. Battle scars litter the ancient  streets – the colonial Italian architecture lathered with bullet holes, the mosques mangled with mortar shells.  Originally part of the world’s first Christian kingdom, Eritrea passed through the hands of colonial Italy, Britain, and  Ethiopia for over a century, until a bloody thirty year war of Independence liberated us.

But these are facts that anyone can know with a quick Google search. These are facts that I have memorised and compounded, first from my Grandmother and now from pristine books  borrowed from the library.

No historical narrative, however, can adequately capture what Eritrea is.  No one knows the aroma of bushels of potatoes, tomatoes, and garlic – still covered in dirt – that leads you to the open-air market. No one knows the poignant scent of spices, arranged in orange piles reminiscent of compacted  dunes.  No one knows how to haggle stubborn herders for sheep and roosters for Christmas celebrations as deliberately as my mother. No one can replicate the perfect balance of spices in dorho and tsebhi as well as my grandmother,  her gnarly hands stirring the pot with ancient precision (chastising my clumsy knife work with the potatoes).  It’s impossible to learn when the injera is ready – the exact moment you have to lift the lid of the mogogo. Do it too  early (or too late) and the flatbread becomes mangled and gross. It is a sixth sense passed through matriarchal  lineages.

There are no sources that catalogue the scent of incense that wafts through the sunlit porch on St. Michael’s; no  films that can capture the luminescence of hundreds of flaming bonfires that fluoresce the sidewalks on Kudus  Yohannes, as excited children chant Ge’ez proverbs whose origin has been lost to time.  You cannot learn the familiarity of walking beneath the towering Gothic figure of the Enda Mariam Cathedral, the  crowds undulating to the ringing of the archaic bells.  I have memorized the sound of the rains hounding the metal roof during kiremti , the heat of the sun pounding  against the Toyota’s window as we sped down towards Ghinda , the opulent brilliance of the stars twinkling in a  sky untainted by light pollution, the scent of warm rolls of bani wafting through the streets at precisely 6 o’clock each day…

I fill my flimsy sketchbook with pictures from my memory. My hand remembers the shapes of the hibiscus drifting  in the wind, the outline of my grandmother (affectionately nicknamed a’abaye ) leaning over the garden, the bizarre architecture of the Fiat Tagliero .  I dice the vegetables with movements handed down from generations. My nose remembers the scent of frying garlic, the sourness of the warm tayta , the sharpness of the mit’mt’a …

This knowledge is intrinsic.  “I am Eritrean,” I repeat. “I am proud.”  Within me is an encyclopedia of history, culture, and idealism.

Eritrea is the coffee made from scratch, the spices drying in the sun, the priests and nuns. Eritrea is wise, filled with ambition, and unseen potential.  Eritrea isn’t a place, it’s an identity.

This is an exceptional essay that provides a window into this student’s culture that really makes their love for their country and heritage leap off the page. The sheer level of details and sensory descriptors this student is able to fit in this space makes the essay stand out. From the smells, to the traditions, sounds, and sights, the author encapsulates all the glory of Eritrea for the reader. 

The vivid images this student is able to create for the reader, whether it is having the tedious conversation with every teacher or cooking in their grandmother’s kitchen, transports us into the story and makes us feel like we are there in the moment with the student. This is a prime example of an essay that shows , not tells.

Besides the amazing imagery, the use of shorter paragraphs also contributes to how engaging this essay is. Employing this tactic helps break up the text to make it more readable and it isolates ideas so they stick out more than if they were enveloped in a large paragraph.

Overall, this is a really strong essay that brings to life this student’s heritage through its use of vivid imagery. This essay exemplifies what it means to show not tell in your writing, and it is a great example of how you can write an intimate personal statement without making yourself the primary focus of your essay. 

There is very little this essay should improve upon, but one thing the student might consider would be to inject more personal reflection into their response. Although we can clearly take away their deep love and passion for their homeland and culture, the essay would be a bit more personal if they included the emotions and feelings they associate with the various aspects of Eritrea. For example, the way their heart swells with pride when their grandmother praises their ability to cook a flatbread or the feeling of serenity when they hear the bells ring out from the cathedral. Including personal details as well as sensory ones would create a wonderful balance of imagery and reflection.

Essay Example #10: Journaling

Flipping past dozens of colorful entries in my journal, I arrive at the final blank sheet. I press my pen lightly to the page, barely scratching its surface to create a series of loops stringing together into sentences. Emotions spill out, and with their release, I feel lightness in my chest. The stream of thoughts slows as I reach the bottom of the page, and I gently close the cover of the worn book: another journal finished.

I add the journal to the stack of eleven books on my nightstand. Struck by the bittersweet sensation of closing a chapter of my life, I grab the notebook at the bottom of the pile to reminisce.

“I want to make a flying mushen to fly in space and your in it” – October 2008

Pulling back the cover of my first Tinkerbell-themed diary, the prompt “My Hopes and Dreams” captures my attention. Though “machine” is misspelled in my scribbled response, I see the beginnings of my past obsession with outer space. At the age of five, I tore through novels about the solar system, experimented with rockets built from plastic straws, and rented Space Shuttle films from Blockbuster to satisfy my curiosities. While I chased down answers to questions as limitless as the universe, I fell in love with learning. Eight journals later, the same relentless curiosity brought me to an airplane descending on San Francisco Bay.

“I wish I had infinite sunsets” – July 2019

I reach for the charcoal notepad near the top of the pile and open to the first page: my flight to the Stanford Pre-Collegiate Summer Institutes. While I was excited to explore bioengineering, anxiety twisted in my stomach as I imagined my destination, unsure of whether I could overcome my shyness and connect with others.

With each new conversation, the sweat on my palms became less noticeable, and I met students from 23 different countries. Many of the moments where I challenged myself socially revolved around the third story deck of the Jerry house. A strange medley of English, Arabic, and Mandarin filled the summer air as my friends and I gathered there every evening, and dialogues at sunset soon became moments of bliss. In our conversations about cultural differences, the possibility of an afterlife, and the plausibility of far-fetched conspiracy theories, I learned to voice my opinion. As I was introduced to different viewpoints, these moments challenged my understanding of the world around me. In my final entries from California, I find excitement to learn from others and increased confidence, a tool that would later allow me to impact my community.

“The beauty in a tower of cans” – June 2020

Returning my gaze to the stack of journals, I stretch to take the floral-patterned book sitting on top. I flip through, eventually finding the beginnings of the organization I created during the outbreak of COVID-19. Since then, Door-to-Door Deliveries has woven its way through my entries and into reality, allowing me to aid high-risk populations through free grocery delivery.

With the confidence I gained the summer before, I took action when seeing others in need rather than letting my shyness hold me back. I reached out to local churches and senior centers to spread word of our services and interacted with customers through our website and social media pages. To further expand our impact, we held two food drives, and I mustered the courage to ask for donations door-to-door. In a tower of canned donations, I saw the value of reaching out to help others and realized my own potential to impact the world around me.

I delicately close the journal in my hands, smiling softly as the memories reappear, one after another. Reaching under my bed, I pull out a fresh notebook and open to its first sheet. I lightly press my pen to the page, “And so begins the next chapter…”

The structuring of this essay makes it easy and enjoyable to read. The student effectively organizes their various life experiences around their tower of journals, which centers the reader and makes the different stories easy to follow. Additionally, the student engages quotes from their journals—and unique formatting of the quotes—to signal that they are moving in time and show us which memory we should follow them to.

Thematically, the student uses the idea of shyness to connect the different memories they draw out of their journals. As the student describes their experiences overcoming shyness at the Stanford Pre-Collegiate Summer Institutes and Door-to-Door Deliveries, this essay can be read as an Overcoming Obstacles essay.

At the end of this essay, readers are fully convinced that this student is dedicated (they have committed to journaling every day), thoughtful (journaling is a thoughtful process and, in the essay, the student reflects thoughtfully on the past), and motivated (they flew across the country for a summer program and started a business). These are definitely qualities admissions officers are looking for in applicants!

Although this essay is already exceptionally strong as it’s written, the first journal entry feels out of place compared to the other two entries that discuss the author’s shyness and determination. It works well for the essay to have an entry from when the student was younger to add some humor (with misspelled words) and nostalgia, but if the student had either connected the quote they chose to the idea of overcoming a fear present in the other two anecdotes or if they had picked a different quote all together related to their shyness, it would have made the entire essay feel more cohesive.

Where to Get Your Personal Statement Edited

Do you want feedback on your personal statement? After rereading your essays countless times, it can be difficult to evaluate your writing objectively. That’s why we created our free Peer Essay Review tool , where you can get a free review of your essay from another student. You can also improve your own writing skills by reviewing other students’ essays. 

If you want a college admissions expert to review your essay, advisors on CollegeVine have helped students refine their writing and submit successful applications to top schools. Find the right advisor for you to improve your chances of getting into your dream school!

Next Step: Supplemental Essays

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Personal Leadership Development Plan

Introduction, personal analysis, leadership qualities, leadership skills assessment.

Leadership is a unique field of knowledge providing people with a chance to attain complex goals, organize groups, and ensure people’s better performance. Today, the rise of business and the emergence of multiple companies stimulated the growth of rivalry, which also increased the relevance and significance of leadership. Under these conditions, it is vital to focus on cultivating specific skills in individuals to improve their ability to manage others and enhance performance. The pivotal aim of this personal development plan (PDP) is to outline leadership skills and competencies vital for a strong leader, analyze weaknesses and strengths, and offer ways for future leadership development helping to eliminate the existing drawbacks. The PDP includes an introduction, analysis, list of core leadership qualities, assessment, objectives, methods to achieve them, evaluation, and conclusion. The plan will lead to a better understanding of my current skills and consideration of things that should be done to become a better leader. Moreover, it can be used by future leaders to realize the core aspects and their significance.

Prior to speaking about leadership and how to improve it as the part of PDP, it is vital to analyze my personal traits. I am working in a private sector company which I joined after graduation from the university. The top management encouraged me to become a member of specific leadership courses to become a strong and skilled leader who can promote positive change within a company. For this reason, the creation of the PDP is vital for me as it will help to outline the way for me and other specialists. I also view this suggestion as a perfect way to become better and create the basis for my future career. The trait theory of leadership views personal peculiarities as vital aspects, for this reason, their correct understanding by a person is fundamental for future success. Using SWOT analysis, it is possible to outline my characteristics:

• Strengths : Flexibility, responsibility, self-confidence, knowledge, creativity.
• Weaknesses : decision-making, communication, time management.
• Opportunities : further develop my skills and competencies; create the framework for other employees to evolve.
• Threats : subjectivity, inability to attain current objectives.

This analysis outlines the areas that should be improved and establishes the basis for the discussion and the PDP.

Most existing leadership theories state that specific values, skills, and competencies are directly correlated with an individual’s ability to manage people. For instance, Collyer (2016) is sure that leaders with better communication skills are more successful in organizing teams and boosting their performance. It becomes possible due to their ability to explain tasks and motivate specialists to attain them (Daft, 2015; Walker, 2018). Under these conditions, most researchers outline a set of core leadership qualities that should be present in any leader for him/her to succeed. These include creativity, communication, decision-making, knowledge, and readiness to learn (Dugan, 2017). It means that the cultivation of these elements can help a person to become a better manager and achieve the existing goals. These fundamental qualities should also be assessed and evaluated to understand their current state and what should be done to improve them. For this reason, it is vital to include the five discussed elements in PDP to ensure that other specialists and I can focus on them to attain success.

Communication has always been one of the most important elements of any leadership theory. According to Griffin et al. (2018), the ability to share knowledge with employees, explain tasks, and discuss problems can help to attain the desired outcome and lead to the improvement of the atmosphere within a collective and better goal achievement. For this reason, this aspect should be given the top priority and given much attention. I realize the fact that at the moment, my communication skills should be improved. I possess a basic understanding of how to speak with individuals and explain tasks; however, in complex contexts, I might feel extra pressure and become unable to express my vision correctly. Additionally, communication is a potent inclusion and diversity tool, meaning that leaders in global companies should be ready to collaborate with representatives of different cultures. For this reason, I am sure that my communication skills should be improved to work with people with different backgrounds, cultures, and religions. It will lead to the elimination of multiple barriers limiting chances for successful cooperation.

Creativity is also among the most frequently mentioned traits vital for a leader. Today, it is closely linked to innovativeness, which presupposes technologies and unusual solutions to resolve a complex task and acquire a competitive advantage. Modern leaders should be ready to look for unconventional approaches to excel rivals and attract new clients (Gochhayat et al., 2017). My creativity is high, and I always look for the recent alterations in technologies and how they can be used to attain better performance. I am sure that using unusual ways, it is possible to maximize output and minimize input, which is essential for modern enterprises. I correctly realize that the business world is fast-changing, meaning that firms always try to implement new growth and development strategies. For leaders, it is vital to support these incentives, which is possible only if creativity is one of the basic traits that is given top priority. Its cultivation is essential for leaders, especially in the modern digitalized environment.

A leader cannot manage people without an in-depth understanding of the relevant sphere, market, or field of science where an organization operates. For this reason, knowledge and the ability to use it in different situations is another critical quality mentioned by multiple investigators. According to Johnson (2018), extensive knowledge is necessary for any leader as it provides him/her with authority, respect from team members, and improved decision-making abilities. I always try to acquire new information related to the sphere where I work as I realize it is fundamental for future success. I think I possess up-to-date information and data; however, it is also vital to keep working on improving it. I also believe that any PDP should emphasize the critical importance of knowledge for any leader as the central factor influencing his/her ability to create the basis for future successes and transform the work of companies to attain better outcomes. For this reason, it becomes critical to work on this aspect and be open to new information.

The next quality is closely linked to the previous one as it presupposes the readiness to engage in a continuous improvement process and learning. Lussier and Achua (2015) are sure that even potent leaders who disregard the importance of studying will fail as they will be limited in their abilities to manage others and make correct decisions. As for me, I always try to acquire new data, including methods, strategies, and approaches to work with others, organize the functioning of collectives, and create the basis for their future evolution. I realize that good leaders should not stop their personal and professional growth, as it is a key to future successes. Under these conditions, no leader can say that he/she does not need learning as he/she possesses all information required for effective decision-making. At the same time, this fact serves as the stimulus for future development and the achievement of new goals. For this reason, readiness to learn and engage in the constant self-improvement process is vital for all workers of the company as it will help them to succeed and become new top managers or leaders.

Finally, improved decision-making is another core quality of strong and successful leaders. Harrison (2014) states that all top managers should be ready to make hard decisions and bear responsibility for them, otherwise, their reputation and effectiveness will fail. I think that my decision-making skills demand improvement as the part of overall leadership. The fact is that this quality is closely linked to two previously mentioned ones. It means that readiness to learn leads to better knowledge, which, in its turn, results in improved decision-making (Sugiyama et al., 2016). Leaders who have relevant and up-to-date information about the current state of the company, its needs, and plans can select the most applicable and effective strategies and guarantee their effectiveness. (Littlejohn et al., 2016). Under these conditions, I am sure that decision-making should be improved through constant learning and the acquisition of new experiences that can help in various situations as they will improve the speed of selecting available options and the effectiveness of their choice.

Regarding the information mentioned above, it is possible to conduct a leadership skills assessment vital for improving my personal competencies and the company’s work to achieve key business objectives. Interviews with other leaders and feedback show that decision-making, communication, and new strategies are the top skills that should be given priority and developed to boost the work of firms and organizations (Maxwell, 2019). Knowledge is also vital as it affects effectiveness and competencies; however, the cultivation of previous factors is impossible without the appropriate alterations in awareness. For this reason, for the company and me, the work on these aspects and attempts to improve them is vital as it ensures better cooperation, collaboration, planning, and goal-achievement (Mikkelson et al., 2019). I am sure that for me and other future leaders, it is fundamental to focus on these areas as the core issues affecting the performance of organizations, their results, and personal growth. That is why PDP should also focus on these qualities as an attempt to attain significant improvement.

The proposed personal development plan presupposes the following objectives:

• To continue the development of skills and qualities related to the leadership sphere
• To focus on communication as the primary leadership tool to align better cooperation within a collective
• To focus on decision-making strategies and methods to ensure better outcomes and choice of strategies

The following objectives are formulated regarding several factors. First, they consider my own weaknesses and areas that should be enhanced. As stated previously, communication and decision-making are problematic areas that should be improved. Second, assessment and examples of other leaders show the critical importance of these elements, which means they should be given top priority as central success factors. Finally, working on these elements, other future leaders of the company will acquire the chance to engage in personal and professional evolution and contribute to the development of the company. Under these conditions, it is vital to establish these objectives and outline methods to achieve them.

The further development of leadership skills and qualities presupposes several aspects. First, it is vital to continue working on competencies, expand knowledge, and acquire new information linked to the sphere. It will help to get better outcomes in real-life conditions and improve communication with colleagues or employees. Second, online courses can be selected as the appropriate method for attaining success and improving skills. Finally, working in the company, it is possible to cooperate with experienced leaders and follow their examples or ask for guidance to acquire additional knowledge and ensure better results (Ruben & Gigliotti, 2016). It will help to focus on the selected objective and guarantee that there is a basis for future improvement. I think this objective is essential for personal development as it means the continuity of learning and the ability to preserve relevant knowledge and skills, vital for effective delegating, communication, and sharing.

Choice of communication as a vital aspect of leaders’ development is explained by its critical role in the work of organizations. As stated previously, it plays a central role in the companies and human interaction. For this reason, several methods to improve communication skills can be selected. For me, specific courses and self-learning are two possible methods to attain the desired objective. The everyday interactions within a unit presuppose multiple interactions with people to promote desired results (Butchibabu et al., 2016). For this reason, by performing traditional functions and applying knowledge acquired during self-learning activities, I will have a chance to master my skills in this area, which is vital for a future leader and his/her ability to manage people and create the basis for the rise of organizations. Moreover, it will help to acquire new information vital for professional development as communication is a potent data collection tool, meaning that its cultivation can improve outcomes in other spheres, which is a desired result of the proposed PDP.

Finally, the last objective, which is decision-making strategies, also presupposes several aspects. McClellan (2021) is sure that this skill involves a wide range of other capabilities, such as planning, strategic thinking, data analysis, critical thinking, and extensive knowledge. For this reason, focusing on this competency, it is possible to attain improvement in other spheres vital for a powerful leader. For me, working on decision-making is essential as I find it my weakest point that should be enhanced. At the same time, for other would-be leaders, this ability is vital for their functioning and future successes as it ensures that they will be effective in managing teams and creating the basis for future evolution. However, this goal demands much resources and effort, meaning that it is also difficult to achieve. In such a way, all these objectives are critical for the PLDP, and there is a need for the appropriate methods of their cultivation and evaluation of outcomes. It will help to trace the progress and implement the required changes.

The outlined objectives demand specific methods and actions to be performed to attain the desired progress. Speaking about the sphere of leadership, several effective measures can help me or other individuals to acquire the desired information and work on skills and competencies. I believe that the most effective ones include coaching, self-learning, specific courses or programs for would-be leaders, self-learning, and analysis of knowledge and work of more experienced leaders through observation. These methods are available to every specialist, and their effectiveness cannot be doubted as they provide an outstanding opportunity to work on areas that demand improvement. Additionally, every objective outlined above can be achieved using one of the methods mentioned above, which means that I can select among various options. I believe that the existence of several measures leads to higher effectiveness of a PLDP and can help to achieve better outcomes as every approach meets the personal peculiarities of a person and his/her demands.

I am planning to achieve the first objective by completing the leadership development courses and using coaching. I believe these two measures are effective in attaining the outlined goal and cultivating my skills and qualities linked to the leadership sphere. First, specific courses will help to promote additional leadership knowledge, acquire new visions, and outline directions for the development of my company and would-be leaders belonging to the collective. Second, coaching is known as one of the effective strategies for personal and professional growth as it presupposes discussing critical issues and sharing data and experience with a skilled specialist (Owen, 2015). Under these conditions, I believe that these two measures are fundamental for achieving the first formulated objective. The company’s collective can also benefit from the same measures as they are practical and applicable enough to be used by various individuals and contribute to the improvement of outcomes or the organization’s work. That is why I view these two methods as relevant ones regarding the outlined goals.

The second objective, which is the development of communication as a primary leadership tool, also demands several actions. First, similar to the previous goal, training courses or special programs should be attended as it is a perfect chance to develop skills in this area and acquire an improved understanding of various techniques, strategies, and their applicability to different situations. However, I believe that working on communication also demands self-learning as one of the effective measures to achieve outlined goals. It provides individuals with a chance to master skills acquired during courses and everyday interactions by themselves and work on the most problematic areas in their communication (Floris et al., 2020). Furthermore, communication can be trained in the collective, and I plan to interact with the team of employees to share my vision of PLDP and engage them in conversation and information exchange. It will provide a chance to improve the functioning of the company as all specialists will have an opportunity to work on their communication and promote positive change.

Finally, the third objective, or working on decision-making, also demands several measures to achieve the desired goal. I think that the development of this skill requires assistance and supervision from a more experienced colleague or specialist. That is why online classes or virtual classrooms are one of the first methods to enhance this area. I want to enroll in this program and encourage other team members to follow this example as it is critically important for the functioning of the collective, its effectiveness, and its ability to solve complex programs (West & Turner, 2020). Today, there is a wide array of various online courses available for persons, which means that other would-be leaders and I can benefit from multiple options. Another measure to work on the objective is the observation of how more experienced leaders or top managers work to understand their decision-making patterns, analyze them, and make a conclusion about how my own skills can be improved (Volz-Peacock et al., 2016). This will help to become a more effective leader and also set the basis for new achievements.

The proposed personal development plan critically depends on multiple factors, and it is vital to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed methods by using several measures. First, I believe that an assessment survey is a potent tool helping to analyze the current strong and weak areas of an individual and outline directions for future development (Ausmus, 2021). However, it can be subjective, meaning that there is a need for additional control and check. For this reason, results can be shared with more experienced leaders or superiors to acquire their vision or progress and recommendations on what actions to perform. The survey can also be distributed among team members to get an improved understanding of the collective’s progress and its ability to meet current goals. Another evaluation tool presupposes self-control and ensuring that I visited all online classes and courses selected as the method for working on my leadership skills. I believe that these evaluation methods suffice the PLDP and can help to monitor success.

As stated previously, the survey is a potent measure of success that can be used to determine progress. First, it contributes to the critical evaluation of existing skills and competencies, which is vital for choosing a new direction for development. For this reason, I can assess my personal traits and qualities using this tool. Second, a survey among team members can also be conducted. It will show the level of progress and their understanding of what role leadership plays in the collective and how it can be cultivated by using the methods proposed above (Saunders et al., 2015). Results of the survey will show the current developmental stage and will help to trace any alterations and implement the desired corrections. I believe that this tool is vital for monitoring the achievement of goals and personal development regarding the desired outcomes. Furthermore, survey results can serve as the basis for new projects aimed at improving my and other employees’ leadership qualities.

Another evaluation tool is a discussion with supervisors and superiors to get their vision and recommendations regarding personal and professional development. As noted by Northouse (2020), individuals with more significant experience can assess other employees and review their knowledge and competencies to create the basis for further improvement and growth. I assume that face-to-face communication aimed at detecting problematic areas or analyzing the current progress is a potent success measure as it will help to avoid the subjectivity of personal judgments and outline real progress (Rickards, 2015). Moreover, the approach can be applied both at the individual and team levels. It means that superiors can also evaluate the state of the collective affected by my leadership qualities to conclude whether I succeed and what additional actions or steps might be needed to improve the situation and introduce the demanded change. In such a way, providing superiors with reports of your progress and acquisition of their recommendations is a potent tool that should be considered.

Altogether, the proposed PLDP focuses on specific goals and methods that can help to achieve them and improve leadership qualities. They can be presented in the following way:

The proposed action plan can guarantee the achievement of outlined goals and contribute to improving my and team leadership skills. The methods include specific courses, self-learning, practice, teamwork, and consultations with experienced specialists. The methods of control are surveys and discussions with superiors. I am planning to engage in continuous improvement of my skills and arrange constant meetings with other team members to ensure progress and boost the company’s performance. I think this plan is a good start for my future career.

Ausmus, B. (2021). The transformational leadership compass: A dynamic coaching system for creating big change . Lioncrest Publishing.

Butchibabu, A., Sparano-Huiban, C., Sonenberg, L., & Shah, J. (2016). Implicit coordination strategies for effective team communication . Human Factors, 58 (4), 595–610.

Collyer, S. (2016). Culture, communication, and leadership for projects in dynamic environments. Project Management Journal, 47 (6), 111–125.

Daft, R. (2015). Organization theory & design (13 th ed.). South-Western College Publishing.

Dugan, J. (2017). Leadership theory: Cultivating critical perspectives . Jossey-Bass.

Floris, M., Wiblen, S. L., & Anichenko, E. (2020). Senior project leadership skills and career stallers: Analysis of perception differences and implications for careers. Project Management Journal, 51 (2), 214–234.

Gochhayat, J., Giri, V. N., & Suar, D. (2017). Influence of organizational culture on organizational effectiveness: The mediating role of organizational communication . Global Business Review, 18 (3), 691–702.

Griffin, E., Ledbetter, A., & Sparks, G. (2018). A first look at communication theory (10 th ed.). McGraw-Hill Education.

Harrison, B. (2014). Leadership communications: How leaders communicate and how communicators lead in today’s global enterprise . Business Expert Press.

Johnson, C. (2018). Leadership: A communication perspective (7th ed.). Waveland Press.

Littlejohn, S., Foss, K., & Oetzel, J. (2016). Theories of human communication (11 th ed.). Waveland Press, Inc.

Lussier, R., & Achua, C. (2015) Leadership: Theory, application, & skill development . Cengage Learning.

Maxwell, J. (2019). Leadershift . HarperCollins Leadership.

McClellan, J. G. (2021). Organizational culture, discipline, and the politics of self: Transformation through responsive conversation . International Journal of Business Communication, 58 (2), 152–168.

Mikkelson, A. C., Sloan, D., & Hesse, C. (2019). Relational communication messages and leadership styles in supervisor/employee relationships . International Journal of Business Communication, 56 (4), 586–604.

Northouse, P. (2020). Introduction to leadership: Concepts and practice (5 th ed.). SAGE Publications.

Northouse, P. (2021). Leadership: Theory and practice (9 th ed.) SAGE Publications.

Owen, J. (2015) Innovative learning for leadership development: New directions for student leadership . John Wiley & Sons.

Rickards, T. (2015) Dilemmas of leadership. Routledge

Ruben, B. D., & Gigliotti, R. A. (2016). Leadership as social influence: An expanded view of leadership communication theory and practice . Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 23 (4), 467–479.

Saunders, M., Lewis, P. and Thornhill, A. (2015) Research methods for business students (7 th ed.). Prentice Hall.

Sugiyama, K., Cavanagh, K. V., van Esch, C., Bilimoria, D., & Brown, C. (2016). Inclusive leadership development: Drawing from pedagogies of women’s and general leadership development programs. Journal of Management Education, 40 (3), 253–292.

Volz-Peacock, M., Carson, B., & Marquardt, M. (2016). Action learning and leadership development . Advances in Developing Human Resources, 18 (3), 318–333.

Walker, J. L. (2018). Do methods matter in global leadership development? Testing the global leadership development ecosystem conceptual model . Journal of Management Education, 42 (2), 239–264.

West, R., & Turner, L. (2020). Introducing communication theory: Analysis and application . McGraw-Hill Education.

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Essay on Leadership: Samples in 100, 200, 300 Words

• Updated on  
• Oct 7, 2023

The concept of leadership has been known to us since ancient times, from Ashoka: The Great to modern-day democratic leaders. Whether it’s politics or business, sports or entertainment, leadership is an essential part of human society, Leadership is the art of inspiring and guiding people towards a common goal. 

Critics might argue that being a leader is just about holding a prestigious position and living a fancy life. That might be 1 in 1000 cases, as leaders across the globe work for the welfare and development of their people and country. Below we have discussed some essays on leadership where the multifaceted roles of this position are highlighted. 

This Blog Includes:

Essay on leadership in 100 words, essay on leadership in 200 words, essay on leadership in 300 words.

Also Read – Essay on Summer Vacation

Leadership involves a set of qualities, values and actions, which are focused on the benefit of people and their country. A person holding the position of a leader plays a pivotal role in every facet of life, influencing the direction and success of organizations, communities, and nations. To become a leader, one must have a clear vision to understand a future state that is better than the present and communicate that vision to their team or followers.

A leader’s actions should be aligned with their words, and they must demonstrate their honesty, transparency and ethical behaviour. Trust is the foundation for any successful leadership, and it is built through consistent ethical conduct. 

Leadership is a complex and multifaceted concept and is an essential part of developing a society or organisation. Leadership can involve various positions and types, from democratic to autocratic, where the leaders inspire and empower their teams, fostering an environment where individuals can thrive and achieve their fullest potential.

Effective leadership involves skilled communicators to can convey ideas, expectations, and feedback clearly and persuasively. They also listen actively to their team’s input and concerns. A great leader empowers a team of professionals by entrusting them with responsibilities and decision-making authority. With the formation of delegates, the power of leadership is divided among different authorities who are responsible for fostering growth and development among team members, making the organization more robust.

Some of the fundamentals of leadership are authenticity, integrity, ethical behaviour, a clear vision and other vital traits. Trust is the bedrock of leadership, and it is built through honesty, transparency, and consistency in actions and decisions. A leader who understands and cares about the needs and concerns of their team fosters strong relationships, promoting collaboration and cohesion.

At last, leadership is more than a title; it’s the embodiment of vision, integrity, empathy, communication and resilience. Effective leaders work to bring positive changes, inspire people around them and create a sense of purpose and direction in their terms and organizations.

Also Read – Essay on Cricket

Leadership is a vital concept for the welfare of a society, community or country, depending on what the leadership is about. A leader transcends boundaries and is fundamental to human endeavours in various domains. Their job involves the ability to influence and guide a group of individuals toward achieving a common objective. Effective leadership is characterized by a combination of qualities, skills, and behaviours that inspire, motivate, and empower a team.

The first and most important aspect of a successful leader is having a clear vision. A clear vision works as a guiding light, outlining the desired future and providing a sense of purpose and direction for the team. Leaders with a compelling vision can inspire and rally their followers, creating a shared sense of purpose. 

The other cornerstone of leadership is integrity. Leaders must demonstrate honesty, transparency, and ethical behaviour. Trust, which is essential in any team or organization, is built on the foundation of integrity. When people believe that their leader acts with integrity, they are more likely to follow willingly and commit to the cause. 

Another trait that is essential for effective leadership is empathy. Leaders with empathy understand and connect with the emotions, needs, and perspectives of their team members. By showing compassion and actively listening, they create a supportive and inclusive environment that fosters trust and collaboration.

Apart from these traits, other important qualities for effective leadership include effective communication and interpersonal skills. A leader must be able to articulate their vision, goals, and expectations clearly and persuasively. 

In conclusion, leadership is a multifaceted concept that plays a pivotal role towards the positive growth and development of organizations, communities, and societies. Effective leaders inspire their teams, create a sense of purpose, and drive positive change. Leadership is not merely a position; it is a journey of personal growth and a commitment to serving the greater good.

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Some of the synonyms for a leader are: Coach, Captain, Principal, Chairman, Kingpin, Boss, CEO, etc.

What makes a good leader is their ability to persuade people using their effective communication skills, having a clear vision working towards the welfare of society, and taking responsibility for their actions.

Writing an essay on leadership in 200 words must include the fundamental aspects of leadership and the qualities they must possess. Effective leaders around the world create a supportive and inclusive environment where people can thrive and contribute their best efforts. They inspire a shared sense of purpose, foster collaboration, and guide their teams toward achieving collective goals.

For more information about such informative articles, visit our essay writing page and make sure to follow Leverage Edu .

Shiva Tyagi

With an experience of over a year, I've developed a passion for writing blogs on wide range of topics. I am mostly inspired from topics related to social and environmental fields, where you come up with a positive outcome.

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Personal Leadership, Essay Example

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One of my five signature themes is ‘belief’ which means I have certain sets of values which guide my life. These values are not written in stone but have evolved over time and may continue to do so as a result of different factors including my life experiences, interaction with people and cultures, and knowledge. I know many people whose value systems change very little over their lifetimes due to their loyalty to traditions and cultures but I have always enjoyed meeting people from different cultural, professional, and economic backgrounds. As a result, my thinking perspectives have expanded (Hyman & Jacobs, 2009) and I have also become better aware of my biases and stereotypes. Not surprisingly, my value system has changed significantly over the years.

In addition, I also enjoy reading on a wide range of subject matters and find inspiration from exemplary individuals including President Abraham Lincoln, Leonardo Da Vince, Bill Gates, and Steve Jobs. One of the things I have learnt from exposure to different ideas and individuals is that everyone wants to live a life of purpose and these purposes can be as varied as the individuals themselves. For example, for priests, rabbis, and imams the purpose is to prepare for the life hereafter, for a social worker the purpose is to help improve the life standards of the poor people, and for a technology visionary the purpose may be to show us a picture of the future.

I believe that organizations exist for making profit and they have a responsibility to earn high returns for their shareholders but I also believe that shareholders are not the only stakeholders. Organizations also have obligations towards other stakeholders including the communities they operate in and employees, thus, they should find a delicate balance among the interests of different stakeholders. Similarly, I also believe that everyone has great potential though their strengths may be different. In addition, taking care of people may impose costs in the short term but the benefits are always worth it in the long term. In other words, I subscribe to McGregor’s Theory Y (MindTools).

This theme will be quite beneficial to me in both career opportunities as well as leadership positions. First of all, my willingness to listen to different points of view and analyze them with an open mind means I will make decisions more objectively and display high emotional intelligence. In addition, I will also develop productive work relationships with my subordinates and will try to understand what motivates them. I will also make sure they have the room to realize their creative potential and everyone is assigned to work that suits his strengths.

Since I understand the importance of a purpose, I will work with my colleagues and later subordinates to identify common purpose so that everyone is inspired to go out of his way to achieve the purpose. If I am ever in a leadership position, I will make sure that the organizational mission achieves a balance between profits and being a positive force in the society so that employee feel good about being part of the organization and are motivated to work harder.

Having strong ‘beliefs’ or values will also help me hold on to higher ethical standards and build greater resolve again unethical practices that could produce temporary gains. As a result, I will have more credibility in my followers’ eyes and will be able to inspire them to behave in ethical way in the performing of their duties as well.

Hyman, J. S., & Jacobs, L. F. (2009, August 12). Why Does Diversity Matter at College Anyway? Retrieved March 23, 2013, from http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/professors-guide/2009/08/12/why-does-diversity-matter-at-college-anyway

MindTools. (n.d.). Theory X and Theory Y . Retrieved March 23, 2013, from http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_74.htm

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Home — Essay Samples — Psychology — Personal Development Planning — My Personal Leadership Development Plan

My Personal Leadership Development Plan

• Categories: Personal Development Planning

About this sample

Words: 834 |

Published: Feb 8, 2022

Words: 834 | Pages: 2 | 5 min read

Table of contents

My personal leadership development plan opportunities.

• Complete MSL course entitled ‘Leading Innovation and Change Through Cross-Sector Collaboration’.
• Solicit input from healthcare senior leaders regarding organization’s goals and tie-back to workforce strategy and initiatives.
• Conduct strategic planning meetings with both Innovation and Strategic Accelerations Teams to better understand their departmental goals and actionable items for the fiscal year.
• Obtain a peer mentor from the Performance Leadership Council and attend monthly Council meetings with the same. Move from behind the scenes into a more front-facing role with research ideas for this group of senior leaders.
• Complete readings associated with implementing innovation and building organizational creativity in the workplace. Consult with external coach for recommendations.
• Draft and deliver a plan for educating other HR staff on their role in collaborating to meet the healthcare organization’s fiscal year goals. As a corporate department, it is often too difficult for staff level employees to understand their impact in what appears on the surface to be ‘clinical’ goals.
• Lead upcoming performance management change initiative; scope is impact to all healthcare staff; utilizing characteristics of good change agents – courage, strategy, intent, creativity and completeness. This will include a post-evaluation and an outline of lessons learned.

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Personal Examples of Leadership Essay

Introduction.

Leaders are responsible for establishing the substantive and purposeful focus of the organization, that is, for establishing continuous creation of customer value as the strategic thrust. They are responsible for determining value elements, tracking discovered elements, and anticipating customer value changes. They must also provide the means of creating that value, that is, creating, providing, and continuously improving strategic organizational systems ( Armandi et al 2003). Leadership consists of managers leading purposeful, value contributing organizations and providing the means of achieving the purpose by improving strategic systems. The word “leadership” is appended to the word “management” to emphasize that leaders must lead the organization to the appropriate strategic focus of customer value. This organizational leadership differs from the classical interpersonal processes emphasized in traditional leadership models (Bolman and Deal 2003).

As an employee, I am looking for new challenges which can shape my professional and help me to become a good leader able to motive and inspire followers. In this assignment, I will analyze and evaluate three personalities of well-known leaders who possess unique leadership skills and values. For this assignment, I select three characteristics of leadership characteristic common for three leaders: Mr. Carlos Ghosn, Sir Alex Ferguson, and Sheikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum. I will use critical and theoretical literature In order to analyze their leadership skills and abilities, motivation techniques, and behavior patterns.

Three personalities selected for this study are:

• Sir Alex Ferguson, the coach of called Manchester united (see appendix “A”). I watched three interviews on channel SBS, and I also used the internet database, Youtube to collect more information about these leaders.
• Mr. Carlos Ghosn, the CEO of the Renault-Nissan Corporation (see appendix “B”). I read an interview with Carlos Ghosn in Business Week, and also watched an interview with Carlos Ghosn on YouTube.
• Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, the prime minister of Dubai (see appendix “C”). I watched his interview on the National Geographic channel and I watched several interviews on YouTube.

These three leaders have much in common which helps them to achieve global recognition and personal success. This assignment will help me to analyze and critically evaluate their skills and strategies used to lead their follower and motivate them. The assignment consists of three main parts describing and analyzing three common characteristics of these leaders: motivating and inspiring techniques, development of employees, and risk-taking. Each section is based on a theoretical literature review and analysis of each leader’s characteristics.

Discussion Section

Definition of leadership.

At the beginning of the 21 st century, leadership still remains a complex issue involving administration, management, directing, and control mechanisms. In the business sphere, leading is the most basic of activity because it determines objectives and purposes. “Leadership processes are directed at defining, establishing, identifying, or translating this direction for their followers and facilitating or enabling the organizational processes that should result in the achievement of this purpose” (Zaccaro and Klimoski, 2001: 6-7). Personal leadership style is a unique combination of different principles and strategies aimed to motivate and inspire employees, manage and control their works in order to achieve organizational or project objectives and goals. More specifically, the attitudes of public leaders are conceived to be organized within the framework of either continental or segmental orientations (Carlopio et al 2005).

Inspiring and Motivating as the Main Leadership Strategy

Inspiring can be explained as the ability to inspire energy, to enthuse others, that history records so clearly in the lives of great leaders. That self-perception has two main disadvantages (Charan et al 2001). First, a severe physical and mental toll has to be paid by the leader. Secondly, it breeds dependence. A better approach would be to see the power or energy as already there within the people (Zaccaro and Klimoski 2001).

An Example of Sir Alex Ferguson

Sir Alex Ferguson possesses a unique ability to inspire young players and motivate them. The interviews show that his personal example is one of the best methods which help Sir Alex Ferguson to inspire the young player. As a leader, he is concerned with emotion and motive. Where people are essentially self-motivating and fully committed, attempts to make them more so can actually be counterproductive (An Interview with Sir Alex Ferguson 2008).

An Example of Mr. Carlos Ghosn

A similar strategy is used by Mr. Carlos Ghosn. The collected materials show that his words and example are more like triggers than dynamos. Where there is low morale, people are ‘switched off in terms of the energy devoted towards the task that has to be done. Their attitude is one of indifference or defeatism. In such situations, the leader must impart a positive attitude, stir up the energies of the group and redirect them into a path that is likely to lead to results (Power of Collaborative Innovation 2008).

An example of Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al-Maktoum

The uniqueness of the leadership approach followed by Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al-Maktoum is that he, as a leader, usually communicates on several levels at the same time. While he is imparting information (or listening to it) he or she is also communicating ideas and values, feelings, and emotional energy. He is looking for a response on this level: a change in morale that will lead to the more energetic pursuit of attainable success. As a good leader, Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al-Maktoum is not an impersonal transmitter of information. He communicates his inner thoughts, emotions, and spirit. In particular, he imparts energy (An Interview … 2008).

The style and skills of the three leaders can be described as transformation leadership. Schermerhorn et al (2004) describe that transformational leadership as a leader who is truly inspirational and a leader who influence others to achieve extraordinary result from high potential performance, moreover, Schermerhorn, et. al., believe that motivational work has been done from a leader towards his employees whose performance accomplishments help the organization achieve their goals. The leaders selected for analysis, have the ability to inspire while they inform.

Employees’ Development Strategy

Training and development are essential parts of successful leadership. Training allows the leaders to prepare employees for complex tasks and help them to deal with problems. Following Cole (2005), leaders cannot separate the development of employees from personal development and self-improvements. A good leader learns from his employees:

Everyone needs training at times. People who are new to your department and the organization need both introduction and job training. Experienced workers often need the training to update or add to their skills and knowledge or to lift their current job performance. All employees need ongoing support and training to work effectively with changing methods and technology (Cole, 2005:756).

Personal development and growth strategies used by Sir Alex Ferguson include the improvement of rest and training facilities, the reinforcement of disciplinary standards. In sport, training and development are the main factors that help to achieve success. Sir Alex Ferguson combines training with behavioral models for behavioral change and subordinate satisfaction. Modeling interventions led to changes in behavior and subsequently to subordinate satisfaction. The uniqueness and value of his vision and approach to training and development are that Sir Alex Ferguson does not put all his attention on buying a player from overseas, but encourages other players to do their best and improve their personal skills and knowledge. he also gives a second chance to every player interested in the team and his position (Segriovanni and Glickman 2006).

Mr. Carlos Ghosn sees training and development as the main methods to improve organizational performance and increase productivity. A number of those whose fundamental interests are in leadership effectiveness and training felt that progress would be facilitated by greater attention to underlying specific behavioral processes Mr. Carlos Ghosn follows the so-called “skills approach.” He argues that modern organizations need to go beyond the traditional task and socio-emotional categories of behavior, this should be in the direction of identifying the basic building blocks of interactions (Power of Collaborative Innovation 2008).

An Example Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al-Maktoum

Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al-Maktoum underlines that the development of employees is the main task and duty of a government official. The value of individual training receives a more fundamental challenge from Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al-Maktoum. He states that managerial behavior is powerfully influenced by the culture within which it is located. Cultural factors are also seen to influence organizational outcomes. Thus he argues that organizational dysfunctions will probably require interventions at that level, rather than individual training and development (An Interview … 2008).

Risk-Taking

To some extent, all leaders are risk-takers relying on intuition and personal vision of events and life situations. Kouzes and Posner (1995) underline that “The search for opportunities beyond tradition is an exploration of the new. It requires individual creativity and organizational innovation” (Kouzes and Posner, 1995:62). Risk-taking is closely connected with intuition and the selection of the right direction. In order to guide a group, organization, or nation in the right direction a leader needs the ability to think and decide. It could be called the intellectual dimension of leadership. Practical reason, intuition, and imagination are all included under that heading. Kouzes and Posner (1995), argued that whenever leaders start to innovate they put themselves and others at risk of the unknown result of the innovation is it going to benefit the organization or not.

Sir Alex Ferguson

A personal example of Sir Alex Ferguson shows that risk-taking is the main ‘tool’ that helps him to succeed and become one of the best coaches in the world. Risk-taking is explained in his ability to guide a problem-solving or decision-making body, whose members may have different mental abilities as well as different personalities. Thinking, analysis, and attention to detail are the main skills used by Sir Alex Ferguson. The ability to make things happen is essential. It helps immeasurably if a leader creates a climate of energetic purpose, in which people do what has to be done in a calm and collected way (An Interview with Sir Alex Ferguson 2008).

Mr. Carlos Ghosn

Mr. Carlos Ghosn uses a unique approach that helps him to accept risk and compete on a global scale. In this context, imagination and intuition are closely related. The leader needs imagination in many situations: price setting and design, market entry strategies, and global position as a premium brand. Mr. Carlos Ghosn explains that he has to think things out for himself and then suspiciously try out possible ways of getting where he wants to be — and the solutions to these problems are not in books, nor can they be recalled from his memory bank. He has to originate or innovate, and he cannot innovate by following established precedents or by applying common recipes. The leader who knowingly ventures off or beyond the beaten track, the path of well-trodden expectations, is showing some degree of imagination. His or her ventures may turn out to be fruitless, random, or crazy. For leaders who dream dreams may be pathfinders, but they may also lead themselves and others into the bankruptcy courts. Of those who depart from well-established ways, only a few are explorers. ‘Imaginative,’ ‘inventive’ and ‘adventurous’ are terms of praise but, equally, ‘fanciful,’ ‘reckless’ and ‘crazy’ describe those who are failed imaginative thinkers (Hoyle and Wilmore 1995).

Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al-Maktoum

For the prime minister of Dubai, risk-taking plays a crucial role in his leadership position and social image. He cannot accept and follow the strategies used by two other leaders. From his interviews, it is evident that risk-taking is based on careful thinking and a choice between alternatives. Intuition is the main tool that helps him to find the right direction and the right strategy. Thus, Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al-Maktoum argues that intuition is based on deep knowledge of the problems and their consequences in a historical context. For him, risk-taking is about giving direction, but it has to be the right direction. That calls for a practical intellectual ability, both natural and educated, which issues clear thinking and correct decisions. When Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al-Maktoum started building the island on the sea he accepted a high risk of approving this project. Today, the country gains billions of dollars from tourism and recreation facilities. This case shows that thought precedes decision; decision leads to action. Depending on the circumstances, and especially upon the degree of crisis, as a leader, the prime minister needs to know when to cut off the debate and initiate the action phase. Intuition is sensing situations as they really are when the evidence is incomplete. It can be distorted by anxiety or fear, and it should always be tested by reason or experiment before being accepted. ‘In the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is king,’ but even a leader with partial vision may sometimes rely upon the blind man’s guide dog — intuition.

Personal examples and analysis of the leaders’ traits show that leaders can adopt very different styles, depending upon their personalities, their peoples, and their times thus they use similar techniques and skills which help them to achieve personal success and inspire their followers. The chief reason is a steady and deep shift in values, like a movement of the continental plates, a seismic change that underlies all our national cultures, shaking some more than others. The higher value placed upon the individual, fed from classical and Biblical sources, has led to much more emphasis on education. Men and women are assumed to be born, in all important aspects, free and equal. Leadership is probably more caught than taught. Three main characteristics show that the motivation and development of employees are at the heart of effective leadership. Risk-taking is inevitable for leaders because they have to accept responsibility for their decisions and find new methods and solutions for doing business or governing the organization.

Bibliography

Armandi, B., Oppedisano, J., Sherman, H. (2003). Leadership theory and practice: a “case in point. Management Decision . 41 (10): 1076 – 1088.

Bolman, L., Deal, T. (2003) Reframing Organizations- Artistry, Choice and Leadership , Jossey Bass: San Francisco.

Carlopio, J., Andrewartha, G., and Armstrong, H. (2005). Developing Management Skills , Pearson: Australia.

Charan, R., Drotter, S., Noel, J., (2001) The Leadership Pipeline How to Build The Leadership-Powered Company , Jossey Bass: San Francisco.

Cole, K., (2005). Management –Theory and Practice , Pearson: Australia.

Hoyle, J.R., Wilmore, E.L. (2002). Principal Leadership: Applying the New Educational Leadership Constituent Council (Elcc) Standards . Corwin Press.

An Interview with Sir Alex Ferguson.2008. Web.

Kouzes, J., Posner, B., (1995) T he Leadership Challenge , Jossey Bass: San Francisco.

Power of Collaborative Innovation. Davos Annual Meeting 2008. Web.

Segriovanni, Th., Glickman, K. (2006) Rethinking Leadership: A Collection of Articles. Corwin Press; 2nd edition.

Schermerhorn, J., Campling, J., Poole, D., and Wiesner, R. (2004). Management, an Asia-Pacific Perspective , John Wiley & Sons: Australia.

Sheikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum. An Interview. Web.

Topping, P., (2002) Managerial Leadership , McGraw-Hill: New York.

Zaccaro, S. J., Klimoski, R. J. (2001). The Nature of Organizational Leadership: Understanding the Performance Imperatives Confronting Today’s Leaders . Jossey-Bass.

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