LGO Cover Letter 2019
Prepare a cover letter seeking a place in the MIT Sloan MBA Program
[Name]
[Address Line 1]
[Address Line 2]
[Date]
Dr. XXX, Executive Director
MIT Leaders for Global Management
1 Amherst St., E40-315
Cambridge, MA 02142
Dear Dr. XXX,
At age eight, I tried building the fastest Pinewood Derby-Car by installing a model rocket engine on the car-body. After breaking our neighbor’s window during testing, I learned three lessons about problem solving and life—don’t think like others, it’s okay to fail and integrity matters (I owned up). In the two decades since, I’ve grown and leaned on these values to succeed in leadership roles across in the Army.
I recently applied this mentality leading an Army program innovating human performance training. With an ambiguous goal of improving performance under pressure, I focused my team of leaders on restructuring cognitive, physical and social development. First, I implemented new behavioral assessments to build leader self-awareness and a new goal setting model to focus soldiers. From there, I integrated a cognitive psychologist and bio-sensors into operations—physical training, weapons proficiency and maneuver under stress. Finally, I incorporated augmented reality and a sensor-enabled drone into operational planning. I initially struggled tracking and presenting data, but quickly adjusted to highlight the potential of bio-sensors and augmented-reality. After four months, our weapons sections—a critical Company asset—certified as #1 of 16 in combat certifications and the concept was selected by strategic leaders for assessment in the 2020 Army Warfare Experiment.
I’ve always been asked why I became an Infantry Officer after excelling in electrical engineering; the Cyber branch of the Army seems more natural. My desire to join the LGO community is rooted in this Infantry/EE dichotomy—I always appreciated both the people-centric challenge of leadership and the technical underpinnings that drive our digital world. At LGO, I will grow in both domains and focus on how bio-sensors and augmented reality shape the human-machine interaction. While I may never design another rocket car, I bring this curiosity to LGO and throughout life.
Sincerely,