How To Show Leadership In Your MBA Essay

UPDATE: This article was originally posted on July 20, 2022. It has been updated with new information and tips below. 

Elite business schools like Harvard Business School, Kellogg School of Management, or IESE are looking for professionals who share values like community, a global mindset, and impact. And, of course, there is one trait they are watching out for that all candidates must include in their MBA admissions essays – leadership!

That is because most schools believe that the best way to know if you will be a leader in the future is to understand if you have been a leader in the past. Leadership is also often directly tied to other values that you share with the school and can thus be a great way to kill two birds with one stone.

Your essay may be a masterful piece of writing, but only with the element of leadership is it likely to be successful and land you a spot in your top MBA program. 

To make sure you can effectively demonstrate leadership, we have compiled our top tips for handling the topic below!

 

Tip #1: Remember, leadership comes in many forms!

There is no one definition of leadership for b-schools. In fact, leadership can be tied to many different values, which means there are many different ways to demonstrate it effectively in your MBA admissions essay. 

Of course, the most obvious example is telling a story about when you officially led a team, such as a project at work or a sports team in your free time. However, there are lots of other ways to show leadership, even if you have never formally led a team!

For example, showcasing leadership can be done by highlighting your ability and drive to innovate. This might include developing a new product at your company, creating a fresh idea for a business, or identifying a market opportunity for an existing company that others may have overlooked. By presenting an innovative concept, you demonstrate your initiative and contribution to a company’s success.

Leadership is also evident when you support others through tough times. Perhaps your family faced financial difficulties, and you stepped in to help. Or maybe a colleague struggled to meet deadlines, and you assisted them in organizing their tasks and improving professionally.

Being proactive is another way to showcase leadership. Identifying a problem—whether in your personal life or at work—and taking steps to address it demonstrates leadership. This is especially relevant if the issue went unnoticed or was ignored by others. Similarly, revealing your habit of being a team member who is not afraid to speak up, proactively solve problems, include others, or put new ideas on the table is also a way to discuss your leadership abilities!

 

Tip #2: Make leadership your theme

A theme is a great way to connect your message to your reader. A theme is a central topic that is reinforced throughout your essay via one or more stories. If you are curious about how to effectively apply a theme in your MBA essay, check out this article.

Many candidates decide to use leadership as their central theme in one or more of their essays. This is a great strategy and is definitely a winning possibility. However, you can also choose a theme with a bit more subtlety and still create an effective argument for leadership. 

To demonstrate, let’s take a look at Kellogg’s essay B. Their question specifically asks candidates to talk about a (single!) past leadership experience.

For this essay, our client Joanna began her essay with: 

“While the choreographed movements of a ballet dancer are polished and graceful, the journey to reach this result is full of setbacks. Although I no longer practice ballet, I have benefited from the discipline and determination I developed as a ballet dancer, applying these strengths to my professional and personal life.”

Here, Joanna uses ballet to help the reader visualize discipline and determination. She goes on to explain that she later used these traits to successfully demonstrate her leadership capabilities to overcome hurdles while implementing a membership program at her company. 

 

Tip #3: Use STAR

Often, candidates fail to show how leadership was necessary – in other words, what the problem was that required them to take on a leadership position in the first place.

That is where storytelling – and specifically the STAR method – comes in. The STAR method will help you highlight not just the problem that you faced but also your specific role in solving it that led to success. 

STAR stands for Situation, Task, Action, and Results. If you want to make your story about leadership convincing, you must include all of these elements. This translates to:

Situation – clearly presenting the context for your story.

Task – demonstrating that there was a problem to be solved or a challenge to be faced.

Action – showing exactly how you used your leadership skills to solve that problem or overcome that challenge.

Results – the outcome of your actions. This can range from personal lessons about leadership to producing company-wide results. 

In this example, our client Marie effectively used the STAR method in her Kellogg essay to show leadership initiative at her mother’s store:

“I learned the value of hard work early, as a child helping in my mother’s gift shop, serving customers and wrapping gifts. (Situation) Once the boom of social media started, I saw the opportunity to leverage this technology to improve our business – this could attract more customers, increase revenues, and keep our financials organized. Simultaneously, I realized I wouldn’t be able to help in the store once I left for university (Task), so I taught my mom to use the computer to manage our Facebook page and financials (Action). The fulfillment of providing my mother with the tools and skills necessary to run and improve her business – increasing sales by 10% – is indescribable (Results).”

Using STAR is a great way to make your leadership role very clear throughout your essay and utilize storytelling strategies successfully. 

 

Tip #4: Highlight you.

Your MBA essay is the place to discuss your achievements. Telling a story about leadership that does not thoroughly explain your part will not be a good demonstration of leadership. 

This means that it is important to show the admissions committee what you specifically did in your story. Just saying that you were part of a team that produced fantastic results will not achieve this. Instead, you must show them how your work – what you did and how you did it – was essential for collective or individual success. 

Even if success was only possible due to the work of your entire team, it’s still important to show how your actions complemented those of your colleagues. Not only does this allow the readers to see your contributions, but also demonstrates your capacity for collaboration!

Not sure if your stories are clearly demonstrating leadership? Or how to show off your leadership skills within the often limited word count? 

If you are looking for help, don’t hesitate to check out our MBA Resource Center! There, you can find dozens of past successful essays and detailed brainstorming worksheets to help you plan out a winning essay. 

Our library also includes guides for all top global MBA programs, interview tips and mocks, CV templates, and recommendation letter guides. Click to join!

 

Tip #5: Use personal and professional leadership examples

We have already established that leadership can manifest itself in many different forms and that admissions committees see it that way, too. 

This means that the adcom is not only looking for your professional leadership experiences – or that they will condemn you for demonstrating leadership in your personal life. At Ellin Lolis Consulting, we highly recommend including both personal and professional leadership examples in your MBA admissions essays. In fact, a good mix helps the adcom understand that you have a well-rounded, flexible understanding of what leadership means. 

For example, you could decide to include a story about taking the initiative to teach a neighbor to read, leading a community food drive, or talking about your role in motivating your volleyball team.

 

Tip #6: Show that leadership is a habit

When writing your MBA essay, it is good to not just show a single instance of leadership but instead to demonstrate how your tendency for leadership is part of your brand using multiple stories (if the prompt allows, of course!)

For instance, you might describe how you led a school club as a teenager, initiated a project at an NGO during college, and spearheaded recruiting efforts at your current consulting firm. Providing a variety of examples allows the admissions committee to see a consistent pattern of leadership, reinforcing your ability to lead in the future.

If leadership is your chosen theme for an essay, ensure you include various instances of leadership throughout. This strategy will help convey your consistent leadership abilities and make a strong impression on the admissions committee.

 

Tip #7: Leverage conflict

In life, we work hard to avoid conflict as much as possible, yet when it comes to stories, conflict and tension are not only important but essential for captivating attention. 

Would Breaking Bad have been as interesting if Walter White was already an established drug lord when the show started? Probably not. Watching him take the news of his cancer diagnosis and find an unusual way to drum up the money for treatment is just what makes the show so addictive. 

Conflict and how our “hero” (in this case, you!) solves the challenge is at the core of any good story, so make sure you use the STAR method to clearly set up the conflict you needed to navigate and then show how you took steps to turn this roadblock into one of your standout moments. 

 

Submit Flawless Essays

As one of the top traits elite business schools are looking for in candidates, there is no way around discussing leadership in your MBA admissions essay. In fact, it deserves dedicated time and attention to craft a persuasive argument that will convince the admissions committee that you will continue to be a trailblazing leader in the future.

Of course, doing so effectively can be particularly tricky. That’s why Ellin Lolis Consulting is here to help! From helping you construct your personal brand to understanding the type of impact you intend to make, we have extensive experience helping candidates land an interview with their top MBA programs.

That’s why many candidates turn to us to help put our 98.9% acceptance rate and personalized approach to work for them. 

As our client (and Berkeley Haas grad) Kelsey said, “I was so impressed with Ellin’s eye for detail and her ability to help me refine my points without losing my voice in the essays. She understands the specific characteristics that each top MBA program is looking for.”

So click here and put our expertise to work for your application!