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• Leadership-Focused Essay: What experiences have shaped who you are, how you invest in others, and what kind of leader you want to become? (up to 250 words)To answer the Harvard MBA Leadership-Focused Essay, I explore:• Experiences that Shaped who you are• Invest In Others• What leader do you want to becomeExperiences Shaped who you are1) Family I am certain the Harvard MBA admissions team don’t have the bandwidth to read between the lines, but as a consultant I notice the applicant’s adaptability to life stressors by evaluating the narratives and the relationship they describe with the authoritative figure in the family.No one has perfect dynamics with their parents. You don’t have to be self-conscious while writing about your upbringing, the stressors in early life, and their impact on how you see the world, but remember that most people fall between the two extremes:a) Sensitive Careb) Conditional Attachmenta) Sensitive Care: Eastern cultures make fun of American parents negotiating with children, but psychologically, it has been proven to develop adults who see the world with optimism and respect other’s autonomy.b)Conditional Attachment: takes two forms.The first - the ‘pull yourself up by your bootstraps’ mindset where the individual is detached from the ‘support’ of the society and is fighting against the world.The ‘individualized’ narrative is easy to spot. There won’t be any credit or acknowledgement of the support network in the essay. It is all about ‘me against the world’. Although these profiles are accomplished in Finance or Technology where often such individualized personalities are rewarded, when writing essays, such narratives come across as lacking emotional intelligence.The second are applicants, who need constant attention and acknowledgement from peers to compensate the lack of attention they received from the family’s authority figure. And interestingly, such attention seeking leads to initiatives and milestones that are important for Harvard MBA application.Life stressors and lack of sufficient attention from the authority figure can lead to individuals who are eager to do more for their communities and peers, in turn, making them a highly sought after group for Harvard and M7 MBA programs.I had received this question several times while guiding applicants to write better narratives, ‘I am accomplished, but I don’t have any setbacks to write for Harvard MBA essays.’I discourage applicants from creating inauthentic family narratives, but it doesn’t mean you have nothing to write.Family is just one dynamic in the essay. You should explore the social environment, education, and cultural background.2) Social Environment Perhaps a bigger influence on the causes you care, the goals that you set and the careers you entered are the social environment. A social environment includes the neighborhood, social groups you identify most with (arts, sports, majors, hobbies), and the organizations you volunteered. The advantage of making the ‘social’ environment the influence is that you don’t have to manufacture any trauma narrative. Neighborhood: A white male applicant related to the struggle of black children because he grew up in a black neighborhood. Such association works in MBA application if your contributions are meaningful and the narrative comes from your heart. Empathy: An underrepresented minority can relate to another underrepresented minority. I have read the narrative of an LGBTQ+ applicant from Asia volunteering for causes of women beneficiaries. Authoritative Figure: If an applicant had a healthy dynamics with their parents, the causes of the caregiver becomes dear to them as well. I have read how parent’s teaching career influenced applicant’s interest in Teach for America. A parent’s interest in conservationism, encouraged an applicant to document all varieties of butterfly into one of the most historically important websites on butterflies. There are multiple ways in which social environment can be included in the leadership story without any trauma narrative. 3) EducationEducation is another sub-set of experiences that shapes who you are. The positive affectation associated with top universities is from the assumed holistic education each school offers.If the brand of the school was the only criteria, Harvard Business School would be filled with candidates from top universities. Interestingly, the diversity in schools and universities is much higher at Harvard than any other category on which an applicant is evaluated.The pedigree of the university alone is not a satisfactory condition to improve admission chances at HBS.The extra-curricular engagement and volunteering become two critical evaluations of your evolution as a leader.When you cite experiences, understand under which identity you will be classified based on first impression, then work backward to supplement your ...
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