Describe a leader you admire

A leader I really admire is Ms Saltanat, who was the head of the small marketing agency where I did a summer internship two years ago. She had started the company herself about ten years earlier and had grown it from three people to nearly forty.

What she has achieved is quite impressive. Her agency now works with several well-known local brands, and it won an award last year for a campaign promoting reading among teenagers. She did all this without any family connections or big investments, just through hard work and good judgement.

There are a few reasons why I admire her. First of all, she leads by example. She was usually the first to arrive in the morning and the last to leave, but she never expected her staff to work late. If a deadline was tight, she would roll up her sleeves and help with the design or the writing herself.

Secondly, she listens. In team meetings, even interns like me were invited to share ideas. I once suggested a small change to a client's social media plan, and she took it seriously and tried it. It worked, and she told everyone whose idea it was.

Finally, she's honest. When a project failed, she took responsibility instead of blaming her team, and then helped us learn from it. I think that is the mark of a real leader. She made me realise that a good leader makes people want to do their best.