Leadership is a quality all MBA programs look for in a candidate, but some applicants worry their lack of career leadership experience will cause a barrier to admission. On the contrary, there are many activities outside your career that can demonstrate organization, communication and delegation skills to the AdCom.
Looking to your extra-curricular activities is a great place to start. For example, if you’ve had a long-term commitment to a sport, art form or club, your experiences are applicable, even if you weren’t team captain. Perhaps while you were a member of the volleyball team, you helped a struggling junior member by meeting them for extra training sessions. Or maybe you were put in charge of hosting an event, and your efforts doubled the membership of your college literature club
Other life experiences can be applied, too. Organizing a trip abroad with friends, navigating a new culture together and accomplishing a feat like climbing a mountain will show the AdCom that you’re adaptable and able to organize and motivate others.
Finally, you can demonstrate leadership skills through your academic group project and case study experiences. Whether you organized the schedule, delegated the work, shared unique information or united the team under a common goal, your behavior and contributions as a team member shows the AdCom how you’ll behave as a leader.