How to Answer Darden MBA Essay #3: "Darden strives to identify and cultivate leaders who follow their purpose. At this stage, how would you describe your evolving leadership style and please provide an example." (200 words)

Leadership styles are not stagnant. They evolve and change according to the responsibilities, deadlines, experience, and size of the team.

Sharing this awareness is important.

We have covered about three leadership styles in this essay guide – Autocratic, Democratic and Delegative. Each leadership has value, but autocratic leadership although highly effective (Apple under Steve Jobs, Oracle under Larry Ellison and Uber under Travis Kalanick) is not the right style to mention for MBA Application essays where ‘teamwork’ and ‘synergy’ are the buzzwords.

A better strategy would be to show how your leadership has evolved from undergraduate to initial work years to recent projects.

In this Sample Essay, the applicant starts with the three leadership experiences - ‘cultural affairs’ club in College, the operations of a start-up firm, and now – leading the operations of two factories of a mid-sized Business.

I have been fortunate to lead the ‘cultural affairs’ club in College, the operations of a start-up firm, and now manage two factories of a mid-sized Business.

My leadership style has evolved with experience.

In college, the focus was on timelines and fund utilization, whereas at the start-up, leading required creative thinking. Strategic partnerships with competitors in regions where we are not at odds, helped us grow at 2000%.