Leadership & Influence QuestionChevening is looking for individuals that will be future leaders or influencers in their home countries. Explain how you meet this requirement, using clear examples of your own leadership and influencing skills to suppor

I was born in Kolkata but raised in the northeast with people of a different culture, learn their ways and adapt with them. At a tender age, I was introduced to the elements of leadership. Being the class monitor during my school days, I had to manage student grievances by reporting the class teacher and fulfil class resources like chalk, duster and chart papers from school repositories. I see leadership as something that you earn when you prioritize others interest in place of yours. This belief led me to donate blood in voluntary blood donation camp organised by State Blood Transfusion Council, West Bengal.

My present job in Bank of Maharashtra from 2015 till date, has taught me a lot about working in a group and taking care of each other. Being a member of All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) I took an active part in fighting for the rights of security guards, who were governed by a third-party security agency and served our bank. To protest against their layoffs, we observed strikes. This led to deduction of our salaries for the respective strike days, but we held our ground.

During my enrolment in Arena Animation Shyambazar for learning 2D and 3D design in the year 2016 -17, I got an opportunity to represent my centre in Orbit Live 2017, which is an annual animation industry event held in Mumbai where delegates from several countries attended. I competed in the 3D Modeling category with two other students in my team from Mumbai. All the students were grouped in teams of three and the task required teamwork for completion. We had to divide the task in smaller sections and prioritize how much time we should spend to complete each section. The task needed dexterity with computer graphics software, co-operation amongst members, decision-making for task execution and self-evaluation. Co-operation amongst members phase had its hurdles, but I managed and learned to interact with people of a different ethnicity in the process, and together we achieved a common goal.

In my college days I presented several papers and had done projects as a part of the curriculum tasks. Often these activities were performed in groups of five or six members. In several such situations I established an understanding with my teammates and eventually led them towards task completion with good results. Following this interest, I authored several papers during 2015-19, which included a paper entitled ‘Gamification: a smart rejoinder to workforce happiness through discretionary effort’. The paper was co-authored by two more fellows, but I got the opportunity to present it amongst specialized audiences in the International HR Conference on HR Trends 2030 organised by Indian Institute of Social Welfare and Business Management. The conference was chaired by several dignitaries from the industry and the academic world. My paper was placed with four other papers under the theme HR Analytics, Artificial Intelligence & Advanced Modeling in HR. During my presentation I justified to my learned audience, the purpose of my paper and its outcome through the conclusion. The chairperson further validated my point and gave valuable feedback.

Becoming a chosen one among of over 44,000 outstanding world leaders - Chevening Alumni, is a big dream of many applicants of this prestigious program. Therefore, it’s not a secret that I would like to become a Chevening scholar and for that I have all necessary skills, professional experience and the leadership potential to lead and influence people in my country. Hence, upon returning home I will speak and write about my Chevening experience as widely as possible and I will support the Chevening Program in my country through other various activities.