I believe I can affirm with complete honesty that initiative is a quality I possess in great measure, and one that goes very much to my succeeding in the MBA program. This quality is in fact several, in a sense; I am driven in multiple ways, even as the drive remains constant and committed in all. Leadership is one element of this, as I have consistently developed and applied the behaviors I feel are vital to the role. This could only occur through team processes, as it has occurred for me in what I believe to be an organic manner. In my HR work with SITEL, for example, I implemented new ideas and programs as my experience and confidence in the work grew, and as I came to more fully understand the needs of the organization, my peers in the department, and the workforce itself. This background enhanced my ability – and ambition – to effectively build teams at Lilumia, my current employer. Even as I realize that leadership is an inherently evolving role, and that there is no real point at which it is accomplished, I know I have learned and practiced the many skills and perceptions promoting group effort in this capacity. As the MBA program is geared to creating leaders in business, the trajectory of my experience is, I believe, ideal.

On a more pragmatic level, my past performance in my career affirms the qualities of resourcefulness and planning. A wide variety of challenges has marked my work history, as I have sought to engage in each in ways developing better strategies and creating new systems to enhance performance. In plain terms, I consistently find that business challenges excite me and bring out a reflex of enthusiasm; I apply expansive analysis, seek to understand the pertinent issues at their fundamental levels, and devise the best – and often novel – means of meeting and exceeding goals. The tactical changes I initiated and developed at Lilumia, for example, have resulted in significantly increased revenues and more efficient systems management. I have as well worked to look to potentials for the company, investigating and promoting alliances going to company growth. In a very real sense, I think “within and outside the box,” and I strongly feel this quality will serve me in my MBA efforts.

With regard to an experience that has positively influenced my potential to succeed in the MBA program and beyond, I must first emphasize that there is no real distinction between the personal and the professional here for me. As I am committed to excelling in business, so too is this commitment meaningful to me on a very personal level; achievement is, simply, more to me than any matter of pragmatic success. That said, I believe my experience in Conflict Management during my years with AT&T has been of inestimable value. This focus was not, I confess, easy. I found myself continually in a liaison position in which opposing sides were not inclined to compromise, as HR and employee interests often collided in seemingly irreconcilable ways.

My job was to find avenues by which all parties could be satisfied, and this was a learning experience unlike any other. On one level, it powerfully revealed to me the many dimensions of business itself, in that it relies on complex associations, efforts, and perceptions not always directly related to business itself. On another, and going to its importance in affirming my potentials, it taught me how expanding ideas of possibilities is essential for arriving at solutions when immense difficulties are in place. Put another way, I learned that exacting challenges demand efforts just as exacting, and that even the most intimidating issues between employees may be addressed well.

As with moving business beyond established parameters, I discovered that what is required is a willingness to see past ordinary solutions and trust to one’s ability to create the answers. They are there, and only the limitations we place upon ourselves prevent us from arriving at them. Linked to this are, not unexpectedly, skill and intelligence, but I believe I have developed these qualities as well. My time in Conflict Management was intense and, I confess, not without frustrations. Nonetheless, it gave to me a critical sense of actual potential, and revealed to me that, when I engage to the best of my ability, I will find the solutions sometimes believed to be not possible.