MBA essays are about spicy storytelling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The friends of spicy storytelling are drama, vulnerability, challenges, actions, eventual wins and takeaways.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Impactful story telling is never linear. Opportunities and challenges go hand in hand and every situation in life goes through its ups and downs. So it is with storytelling, because the MBA essay stories are a representation of what happens in real life. So, add the drama<\/strong> to your story telling, and read on to understand how. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Most MBA essay prompts require you to tell about your leadership and achievement<\/strong> experiences. Many applicants misinterpret what leadership is. They think that as leaders, they are expected to have all the answers and achieve results at the click of a finger. As our Senior consultant Niranjan Kanvinde calls it, this is the \u201c I came, I saw, I conquered\u201d approach. \u00a0The person associated with this quote, Julius Caesar died much before his time because of his hubris, and we don\u2019t want the same fate befalling your applications, so let\u2019s understand why this approach won\u2019t work for you. It leads to shallow and easy sounding stories that don\u2019t impress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As the saying goes, the devil is in the details, and we adhere by this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Spicy story telling is about incorporating the real-life drama that makes your story riveting. Talk about the challenges<\/strong> you faced. You are not expected to know all the answers to these challenges, but can think, analyse and problem solve as you go along. Briefly mentioning your thought process in handling a challenging situation can help you tell a fuller story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Next would be to tell the reader how you resolved these challenges. What actions <\/strong>did you take?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Did you have to challenge the status quo? That\u2019s never too easy, as you may ruffle a few feathers and then have to convince and win stakeholders\u2019 support in order to achieve your objective. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Did you have to resolve conflicts between stakeholders? This can be difficult if you have no authority over these stakeholders (as is normally the case). You may then have to bring them on the discussion table, resolve their differences, reach common ground and work together to achieve a common vision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Did you have to overcome a setback and motivate a spent workforce? What did you do to motivate them?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Explaining your actions to overcome challenges helps the reader appreciate your resolve, determination and result orientation<\/strong>. Oftentimes applicants spend all their essay-writing energy in telling the challenges, but brush past the actions and jump to the result achieved. Well, well! You need to take the story to its climax before you break the good news (a happy end). \u00a0Actions add depth to your story telling and expose your ability to deal with challenging issues.<\/strong> Through your actions you can also bring out the personality traits sought by b-schools \u2013 maturity, problem solving, resourcefulness, collaboration, negotiation, ability to inspire, set the vision and lead.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u00a0After you have taken the reader through the roller coaster ride of tackling a challenging situation, it\u2019s time to mention the achievement. Your success will taste sweeter after the reader can appreciate the efforts you made. Quantifying your wins helps to understand the scale of your achievement. Better still, you can make a comparison- <\/strong>what would the result have been had you not been on the scene of crime and\/or by what quantifiable value did you make the situation better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Every situation has a takeaway. When you are handling challenging situations, using new skills and doing things you have never done before, then there\u2019s tremendous scope to learn. So, a neat way to end your story is by telling what you learned or how you have come out of your experiences wiser and smarter. <\/strong>Its important to end the essay with a bang and this last bit will help you do just that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" MBA essays are about spicy storytelling. The friends of spicy storytelling are drama, vulnerability, challenges, actions, eventual wins and takeaways. Impactful story telling is never linear. Opportunities and challenges go hand in hand and every situation in life goes through its ups and downs. So it is with storytelling, because the MBA essay stories are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74654,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[211],"tags":[213,216,215],"class_list":["post-73119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-essay-advice","tag-essay-advice","tag-essay-strategy","tag-storytelling"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n