Showcase Leadership in Your Admissions Essays: Strategies for MBA and Graduate School
Jordan noticed that a colleague was struggling to contribute during team strategy sessions. Throughout the quarter, he offered support, provided regular feedback, and encouraged her to lead part of the final project presentation — which she delivered with confidence.
Nina worked throughout college to support her family but still made time to volunteer as a peer counselor, all while maintaining excellent academic standing.
As a logistics officer in the military, Marcus coordinated efforts between his unit and local organizations to build trust and ensure community support during complex operations.
Sofia, a healthcare administrator, realized that the patient intake process at her clinic was outdated. She developed a new system to improve efficiency, pitched it to leadership, and helped implement it to reduce wait times and improve service.
What do these individuals have in common? Jordan, Nina, Marcus, and Sofia all demonstrated key traits of impactful leaders:
- Strong, empathetic communication
- The ability to inspire and support others
- Initiative and follow-through
- Strategic thinking and practical problem-solving
- Credibility earned through honesty and collaboration
Whether they were leading projects, teams, or change initiatives, they each showed that leadership isn’t about status, it’s about substance.
Whether you are applying to business school, law school, medical school, or another type of graduate program, admissions committees are looking for candidates who inspire trust – people who can lead.
Leadership takes many forms, and you probably already have meaningful leadership experiences that you could write about in your application essays. But how do you go about conveying these experiences effectively?
Focus on Specific Leadership Elements
It can be challenging to show leadership in a highly specific and meaningful way. Too often, applicants write about their leadership generically; this makes them sound similar to other candidates rather than setting them apart. Generic writing is uninteresting, and dull writing can hurt your admissions chances. Furthermore, admissions committees are all about diversity, which by definition is what makes you unique. Writing about specific experiences and qualities that are the components of outstanding leadership will ensure that your essays won’t sound like those of anyone else; they will sound like you.
Keep the following leadership elements in mind to help you pinpoint your strongest, most distinct leadership qualities and experiences:
| Key Leadership Elements | |
| A drive to simplify or improve a system | Ability to motivate others |
| Ability to motivate others | Confidence |
| Decisiveness | Determination |
| Empathy | Generosity – a willingness to share strategy with your followers |
| Humility – the value of seeking help | Innovativeness |
| Inspiration – the ability to “select a destination” or encourage a shared goal | Integrity |
| Knowing how to balance long-term and short-term interests | Learning from mistakes |
| Nurturing talent | Optimism |
| Organizational ability | Persuasiveness |
| Responsibility | Transparency |
| Vision | |
When you present evidence in your essay of attributes such as these, you will distinguish yourself from your fellow applicants. Adcoms will see you as an individual with distinct experiences and skills – someone they just might want as a member of their class.
Broaden Your Definition of Leadership
Many applicants worry that they lack leadership experience. If you work in a flat organization, your title might not reflect the extent of your actual influence. If you are on the bottom rung of a hierarchical organization or team, it might be more difficult to find opportunities for leadership, but here’s the good news: you can still be a leader, even if nobody reports to you. And there are many ways you can frame your leadership accomplishments in your essays, resume, and recommendations.
You lead when you inspire members of a team, club, or committee to take a course of action you have suggested. You lead when you propose a new policy to higher-ups, gather support for the policy, and convince your supervisors to accept your proposal. And yes, leadership often involves leading others, but this is not necessary for you to be able to show leadership.
Don’t think of leadership in narrow terms, such as having a title or overseeing other employees. Admissions committee members recognize the many flavors and nuances of leadership. In fact, they know that titles can be flawed or inadvertently misleading indicators of leadership, responsibility, and character. Whether you have a title or not, your goal in your application is to demonstrate that your leadership flows from caliber, not status. Caliber is based on trustworthiness, integrity, and a focus on group goals; it reflects the change and impact you’ve had.
Present Yourself as a Leader
You have the ideal opportunity now to begin presenting yourself in your applications as someone who has accomplished – and will accomplish – much as a leader. Within your sphere of influence, you have demonstrated vision, boldness, commitment to a cause, excellent communication, empathy, and other elements of leadership.
Sift through your inventory of significant achievements to select the strongest examples you can write about. As you do, ask yourself the following types of questions, which can help you frame answers of substance:
- What was an obstacle, challenge, or problem you solved or overcame? A tight client deadline? A complex merger transaction? A new product launch amid fierce competition?
- What did you do to rise to the challenge you are writing about? Motivate your team to work overtime? Sell senior management on a deal’s long-term upside? Identify a marketing profile for your product or service that no competitor could match?
- What facts demonstrate that your intervention created a positive outcome? Did your team submit the project deliverables three days early, despite being understaffed? Did your client approve the multimillion-dollar merger, the largest ever in its industry? Did your new product reach a record level of market share after only one year?
When you discuss your leadership, look for opportunities to incorporate strong verbs that illustrate your strengths, such as the following:
| Strong Leadership Verbs | |
| Listening | Initiating |
| Mentoring | Teaching |
| Persuading | Organizing |
| Establishing a goal or vision | Motivating |
| Managing | Obtaining buy-in |
| Taking responsibility | |
Writing about your leadership skills and experiences takes time and thoughtfulness. It requires introspection about the qualities you possess, the challenges you have faced, and the people you have inspired and motivated. If you need help preparing and writing about leadership for your application essays, schedule a free consultation with an Accepted admissions expert.
Kara Keenan Sweeney has more than 15 years of experience in MBA admissions, having worked for some of the world’s top business school programs, including Columbia Business School, INSEAD, and The Lauder Institute’s joint degree MA/MBA program with The Wharton School and the MA/JD program with Penn Law at the University of Pennsylvania. Kara has guided, coached, and counseled thousands of MBA and EMBA applicants, reviewed innumerable applications, sat on admissions committees, and interviewed countless applicants, including while running Wharton’s Team Based Discussions both virtually and in person. Want Kara to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch!
Related Resources:
