How to show HBS you're a natural leader?

Use verbs and active language when crafting your story. 

The 3 key qualities that Harvard Business School looks for in their ideal MBA candidates are:

·      Engaged Community Citizenship

·      Analytical Aptitude and Appetite

·      Habit of Leadership

When you start the MBA consulting process with StoryCrafters, we use the Targeted Brainstormer do a full inventory of all your stories - personally, professionally and academically - that fall into the 3 buckets above: community, analytical strengths, and leadership. We design a “spread strategy” for you because you’ll need to strike a balance between these 3 qualities in everything you write, while also achieving good “spread” among your two recommenders.

But leadership outweighs everything else when it comes to HBS – so let’s focus on that first. Harvard prides itself on accepting applicants who display upper-level management potential. They won’t accept you if you come across as wishy-washy and seem to make the argument that HBS would be the ideal place to train you to become a leader. They’re looking to accept ready-made leaders. That’s where *habit* comes in. You must be able to demonstrate a consistent track record of leadership activities.  

HABIT OF LEADERSHIP.

What does this mean? And how do you show it? These are stories related to leadership and management of people or teams, whether at work, volunteer activities, school, extracurricular or otherwise. Again, there’s leeway here – if you’re only drawing from leadership stories at work, you’re limiting yourself and it will backfire because HBS doesn’t want to accept anyone with no life outside of work. If leadership truly is a habit in your life, then you should cast a wider net when identifying your leadership-qualities.

Even when it comes to work, you may be thinking that you’re not a de facto leader or manager in your current job. You may think you’re low on the totem pole. It doesn’t matter! That’s just a story you’re telling yourself and if you want to get accepted to HBS, you need to reframe your mindset starting right now. Start by writing down all the leadership-type qualities and values you’ve already displayed – academically, personally, professionally, communally – and see which stories best exemplify them.

It could be acting as a liaison between different groups, or inspiring, communicating, organizing, connecting people, motivating, or going beyond the call of duty. You get the idea.

In top-notch personal statements, essays, resumes, and recommendations, an HBS MBA applicant must be seen as effective. That means you’ve done stuff. Actively.

Far too often though, Harvard adcom readers are subjected to lofty and grandiose statements about applicants, in both recommendations and essays. Eric or Anika was the “best, brightest, most dedicated, and most efficient.” These words certainly describe the applicant, but they do so in a vague and general sort of way. And they’re all adjectives.

Adjectives don’t show us that you’re effective and that you’ve done stuff, and they definitely don’t show us that you’re a natural leader. They just describe you. The #1 rule for the best MBA admissions writing is “show, don’t tell.” Show us a particular truth about yourself through a story that presents us with evidence, don’t tell us a truth about yourself. Adjectives are a “tell.” You MUST avoid this style of writing. And you must encourage your recommenders not to fall into this trap either.

Verbs on the other hand are a “show” - they show us how effective you are. Eric or Anika “led Q, managed X, conducted Y, and organized Z.” The Head of Admissions of Harvard Business School has gone on record stating that active and specific verbs are far more effective in highlighting an applicant’s achievements, as opposed to adjectives that only describe the person.

The following two examples demonstrate the difference between using verbs to show how effective you are versus adjectives.

Example 1: With the clock ticking, I led my team in conducting due diligence on Alpha Industries, resulting in our firm successfully acquiring it as one of our portfolio companies.

Example 2: While working at my firm, I had numerous opportunities to become a very strong leader.

In Example 2, the writer tells us that he’s “a very strong leader,” yet he didn’t do anything in the sentence. If he had “numerous opportunities,” surely he could have found an active example to share with us. Why should we believe him otherwise?

The writer in Example 1 shows herself to be a far more effective leader in the scenario she cites. It’s not only because of the specificity of the example, but she also hits the message home by using active language and verbs that demonstrate what a great leader she is. She not only leads a team, but their work ultimately yields impactful results.  

When it comes to crafting the ideal HBS application, you not only need to strike ideal language but also tone, whether it comes to what you’re writing, or the notes you provide to your recommenders to achieve an ideal spread strategy (between leadership, community, and analytical aptitude).

We lead our StoryCrafters MBA clients through every step of this process. After conducting an extensive analysis, we even compiled a document of leadership language that has been used in numerous successful HBS applications that we will share with you. We guide you on incorporating this specific language in your own stories and applications.