Values (INSEAD - Strengths and Weakness Essay): In the first example, we look at a candidate whose father - a diplomat, imparted the value of discipline and time management into his life. The value morphed into a search for efficiency in projects. It meant removing roadblocks for the team members and focusing on improving the cost, timeline, and productivity. The narrative is balanced by the challenges he faced while frequently moving with his father to five countries. The 'pushing' outside the comfort zone also forced him to be outgoing and attract the right friends.
IMPATIENCE (Weakness): The candidate then reveals the pressures of filing his father's shoes and how it has led to impatience. The wisdom of recognizing the different internal clocks among team members put a stop to his tendency to push the team towards a high-intensity project schedule. Instead of acting like a 'manager,' he became a 'leader' and began to lead by example. The primary focus was on ‘controlling’ emotion. Instead of wearing emotions on the sleeves and misdirecting the team’s energy on multiple tasks, he began showing emotion when the path taken by the team was in an obviously wrong direction.
INTEGRITY (Strength): The narrative on the emotional maturity of the candidate is interrupted by an experience when the candidate and his team convinced the CEO of his advertising company to pull out of a lucrative deal with a retail client, who was late to rectify lead poisoning in their ready-to-eat snacks. The decision, instead of severing ties, forced the client to abandon the brand and acquire a competing brand with the checks and balances to prevent such catastrophe.
Connecting the impact of his integrity with the decision made by the client and the net positive it had on the marketplace is a narrative that balances the candidate’s strengths, weaknesses with the impact he had outside the purview of his functional responsibilities.
Sample Essay 1: Candid Description, Strengths & Weaknesses (Marketing Lead) (500 Words)
Give a candid description of yourself (who are you as a person), stressing the personal characteristics you feel to be your strengths and weaknesses and the main factors which have influenced your personal development, giving examples when necessary (approximately 500 words). *
My father had the good fortune to serve as a diplomat, traveling and working in 8 countries. During his tense negotiation in Kuwait in the early 90s during the Gulf war or his intervention during an ethnic dispute in Ghana, our family always traveled with him. That meant I had to change schools five times. Although the schools had a common curriculum, making friends was not easy for a young person. I had to be outgoing and confident to attract the right friends. My father always reiterated the need for efficiency. For him, time was a gift. Starting from Age 5, my sister and I were used to timetables. The habit percolated into my work life too. Whenever a project is assigned to me, my first thought is always on improving the efficiency – timeline, cost, and productivity. As a team lead, I was relentless and did whatever it took to remove roadblocks from my team’s schedule.
Since I am driven to live up to the leader’s shoes that my father has left, I can be a bit impatient with the team. Later, I understood that there is an internal clock for each person, and the self-realization that the project is important for the team, company, and themselves take time. The only part where I had control was my behavior. They closely watched how I behaved when the pressure was on, the timeline was challenging, and things go wrong. I had to be tough on myself and maintain calm to inspire the team.
Controlling my emotional impulses ....
