ANALYSIS OF IIMA PGPX QUESTIONS:Essay 1: Describe the most challenging situation you encountered in your career and how you managed it? What were your learnings? (500 words)
First of all, they have asked for a situation from work so be careful to select the right example.
A common mistake
MBA Decoder sees every year is that applicants pick a very technical example to show the most challenging situation. However, as we said before,
this is a leadership situation. The biggest challenges come not from machines, but because of people. A situation is most challenging when there is resistance from other people and they are not ready to work for a common cause.
Therefore we recommend you talk about a situation where it was challenging for you to deal with people (in addition to technical issues). That could be because of several reasons, some of which are:
• They were not aligned with the intended objectives
• There was conflict between the team
• There was no one to provide leadership until you stepped in
• There were multiple stakeholders who could not reach a common point and you had to mediate a middle ground.
Once you have explained what the situation was and what the challenges were, you should talk about the actions that you took to mitigate these challenges. Eventually, what was the final result you achieved?
What were your learnings from the situation? What did you learn about how people behave and how you can circumvent the problem at hand to achieve impactful results?
The learnings are a good way to show what insights you gain out of a challenge and how maturely do you think about situations. So spend some time penning down this section.
Essay 2: Describe a situation where you demonstrated your leadership abilities. (500 words)Unlike the earlier essay question the Adcom has not asked for a professional situation so if you have a personal story which is very strong and aptly answers the question then you may use it.
Before we begin to analyse the essay, let’s recap what leadership is. Leadership is the thought of motivating a group of people to act towards achieving a common goal.
With that in mind, when was a time when you influenced other people to follow you to achieve a goal?
As in the earlier question, describe the situation, the challenges you faced, the actions you took and the results you achieved. Although they have not asked for what you learned from this situation, it would be nice to include that before you pack up the essay.
Two Bonus tips: Being a leader requires not just thinking about the immediate solution, but a more sustainable, longer term solution. Also, leaders think selflessly – they care not only about how they will benefit (promotions after a good project) but also the impact they have created on the other stakeholders. Build these aspects of leadership into your storytelling, and you will have a killer of an essay.
And if the essays look like duds even with your best effort, then reach out to us for help ([email protected]). We are specialists in turning around essays in a short span of time, because well, we care for your success.