The third element you’ll need to examine in assessing your qualifications (in addition to your quantitative scores and your work experience) is your personal traits, with leadership skills at the top of the list.
This part of your personal assessment is important when it comes to determining school fit. By evaluating your own strengths and weaknesses, you’ll get a better idea of which MBA programs are right or wrong for you.
Perhaps more than any other personal trait, the adcoms will be mining your application for leadership. If you want your leadership skills to stand out, you’ll need to show through clear examples and anecdotes that you’re a leader—not just claim that you are. If you can’t think of specific ways in which you’ve exhibited strong leadership skills, then now would be an excellent time to start putting yourself in situations where you can show them, either through increased professional responsibility, greater community service commitments, or by expanding your role in a hobby, sports teams, music or arts group, etc. (In general, now would be a good time to bulk up your community service profile and/or your job responsibilities if you feel like they are lacking.)
Remember, a leadership skill is worthless if you can’t show a quantifiable impact that’ stems from your role as leader.
Other important character traits you’ll want to highlight in your application (and therefore think about and develop now) include passion, communication/teamwork skills, and initiative. Again, the best way to prove that you possess these traits is to show them in your application through specific examples and anecdotes. If, in these early months, you encounter an example of a trait you’d like to highlight, jot it down—it may be of good use when it comes to sitting down and filling out your application.
Like the advice you see in this post? Download Accepted’s new special report, MBA Action Plan, for more practical tips on what you can do now to increase your chances of getting in to a top business school next year. (P.S. It’s free!)
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Read the full article: MBA Action Plan, Part 3: Examine Your Leadership Skills and Personal Traits
