Leadership Essay: Essential Qualities in Tough Times
Writing Perfect Leadership Essays
A leadership essay is like a character test. It’s about distilling your experiences and those of others down to certain qualities that make leaders memorable.
One way to begin this essay is by defining leadership in the first line of your essay. You could use a definition given by someone else or define it in your own words. Alternatively, you may prefer to leave the definition of leadership open-ended at first, and then delineate it over the next few paragraphs.
As discussed in the last post on essay introductions, there are various ways to begin such an essay. For instance if you are using the narrative introduction then you could begin consider the following sample essay extract:
“Throughout his career, Kevin had been struck by the emphasis that leaders placed on working with the right people with the right attitude. As he looked out from his office’s glass partition to the sea of worker’s working under him, he realized that this was the time to see whether he could come good on it. First Capital had been in throes of an HR crisis ever since the new competitor Globe Finance had started capturing their market share and subsequently poaching their best employees. [This leadership essay’s next line then subtly mentions some important tasks for leaders.] He knew her had to keep the morale up and motivate his employees to get the company back on top.”
For the body of the essay, there are several options:
You can structure the essay like a classification essay, identifying the different types of leaders and the environments/industries to which each type is suited. To add to the quality of analysis, you could include elements of a comparative essay too, like comparing a soft-spoken leader like Gandhi with a flamboyant leader like Winston Churchill.
Another strategy is to highlight the qualities that make leaders great, such as team work, taking the blame for mistakes while sharing the credit for success, empathy, focusing on efforts as well as results and so on. You could give your essay a psychological perspective by bringing in certain personality types that make good leaders.
As the Gandhi-Churchill example above indicates, leaders come in many shapes and sizes, but the best ones have certain qualities in common such as the ability to inspire people to share their vision and a sense of fairness.
You must quote an example from your own experience in the leadership essay. Even if you have never held an official leadership position, there are many instances which could have taught you to handle similar responsibilities, such as taking care of a younger sibling or working with a volunteer organization. You may also have learn a lot by observing the good leaders that you know, such your teachers, parents and local representatives. Give your essay a personal touch, that’s what makes it unique.
Moreover, don’t be afraid to admit your mistakes. It’s an ability to learn from errors, accept constructive criticism and not take oneself too seriously that makes good leaders.
