essays oprah winfrey leadership qualities

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Leadership Qualities – Styles, Traits and Skills of Oprah Winfrey

Amongst all the successful leaders, Oprah Winfrey is one of the superior leaders undoubtedly. She is such a leader who went through many tough times since her childhood and she came out positively without giving up. She has become an iconic American host in television talk shows and a mogul in the entertainment industry. The Oprah Winfrey show, hosted by Oprah Winfrey from 1986 to 2011, has been the highest-rated talk show in history. She is now the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Harpo Production as well as the Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and Chief Operating Officer of the Oprah Winfrey Network.

• Inspirational: Oprah Winfrey always improves herself both professionally and personally which inspires other people as well. She inspires others with her nature to take her advice. She always focused to be the best person and she is the embodiment leading by example. She is an individual who can change another person’s future by driving her inspirational quality.
• Emotional Intelligence: Emotional Intelligence is one of the key traits of a successful leader. Oprah has a tremendous quality to use her emotional intelligence when she interacts with people. This is her one of the major qualities in maintaining long term relationships with people. She boosts self-awareness & social awareness with the help of this quality.
• Being Resilient: Oprah Winfrey was born as the daughter of an unwed teen. She passed her childhood through difficulties, her school mates often teased her for her clothes since her family couldn’t afford ones for her. She also shared her experience of being abused by her relatives when she was a child. Oprah used her experiences as a catalyst for several projects designed to help the victims. With her resilience quality, she reminded us that we are in control of our own destiny.
• Focused: She is always focused to make changes by not talking about it rather working together to make it happen. This quality characterized her pioneering leadership and she is absolutely focused to go after whatever she wants and fulfill her vision at any cost.
• Being Confident: This leadership quality worked as a pre-requisite for Oprah Winfrey to succeed. Even after losing almost all hopes, she stood firm and confronted every challenge with confidence. She had overcome her past and tough circumstances and now became one of the greatest leaders we have ever seen.

Leadership Style of Oprah Winfrey

Oprah Winfrey’s leadership style approaches to transformational leadership . Her transformational leadership style changes and transforms people with high expectations. She has the capability to bring life in even monotonous shows. She built her business by recruiting top talents, smart mentors, and giving the highest value to her customers. She transforms and nourishes each relationship with care. She always motivates and encourages her employees to see what they are capable of. She is quite aware of the fact that being successful is impossible without getting support from the efficient people and this is why she always tries to transform her employees to be the best.

Leadership Traits of Oprah Winfrey

Oprah Winfrey’s leadership trait is the foundation behind her success. She knows when to seize opportunities and how to steer her traits towards success. Some of her leadership traits are being explained here briefly.

• Hard Working Leader: Since childhood, Oprah led a challenging life and she didn’t come from a wealthy family. She climbed the ladder of success through hard work and eventually hosting her own talk show. She put a lot of effort to be a talk show host, actress, producer, and philanthropist. Later she able to manage her own Oprah Winfrey Network & Oprah Radio and published the O magazine. She says there is no secret being a successful person and anyone who is willing to work hard can achieve their goal.
• Versatility: Oprah is one of the versatile personalities in the world. She is never afraid of challenges. She used this trait throughout her career which made her one of the most successful leaders of all time. She stated that “The greatest discovery of all time is that a person can change his future by merely changing his attitude.” She always challenged herself from her childhood to this present stage and changed herself for the betterment.
• Humanist: Oprah Winfrey is a caring and empathetic individual and she never takes humanitarian issues so lightly. Her dedication and compassion towards charitable works and foundations reflect her social conscience. Her leadership attribute bolsters her to gain and sustain loyalty & belief from the followers and different communities.

Besides these traits, few other traits of Oprah’s are pointed out below –

• Managing Complexity
• Promoting Teamwork
• Fostering Long Relationship etc.

Leadership Skills of Oprah Winfrey

Oprah Winfrey uses her leadership skills to organize and motivate her fellow employees to reach a shared goal as well as build strong teams to perform successfully. Here are a few brief explanations of her leadership skills that will help people applying in their careers.

• People Management Skill: Oprah knows well how to build & manage her team and bring people on board through the induction process. She acknowledges that she cannot succeed with a solo endeavor. She always hires and supports talented people who she believes in while forming a team. Dr. Oz, Suze Orman, and Liz Dolan are the likes of people who work around Oprah Winfrey and they boost her company and get wide exposure in return.
• Strategic Thinking Skill: Strategically Oprah Winfrey is a very strong leader. She developed her vision strategically where she wanted to be. She started as a brand on television at first, later she expanded into radio, magazines, movies and then created an entire network. She made all these happen with her strategic thinking skill.
• Communication Skills: She possesses the communication skill and injects others about her vision and ideas with the help of this skill. She not only dreams of her vision but also communicates with her staff clearly and inspires them to get aligned with her plans. She says that great communication begins with connection. She can motivate her teammates quite naturally and she can establish a good rapport with them with the help of her effective communication skill. This skill has considered one of the best leadership skills of hers.
• Persuasive & Influencing Skills: Oprah can easily influence and persuade others with her leadership skill. Through her talk shows, she has shown us her incredible influencing skill. She obtained today’s status through her influence and personality. She impresses the people through her personality and positive attitude. With the help of her excellent influencing & persuasive skill, she makes the people comfortable and she created the Oprah Winfrey Brand.

Oprah Winfrey is undoubtedly the role model for today’s leaders. Her whole life is inspirational and she proved to us that no barriers can obstruct the person who is determined to be successful. She has given us a lesson that regardless of your goals, destinations, or strategies, the most important thing is how you deal with your leadership qualities, skills & traits. She has been the mentor to all the women around the world.

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• http://www.centerforworklife.com/oprah-winfrey-leadership-qualities/
• https://debtrescue.co.za/blog/oprah-winfrey-3-personality-traits-that-can-help-you/
• https://www.josephchris.com/8-oprah-winfrey-leadership-style-secrets
• https://futureofworking.com/3-oprah-winfrey-leadership-style-secrets/
• https://leaderonomics.com/leadership/lessons-we-can-learn-from-oprah-winfrey
• https://sites.psu.edu/leadership/2014/04/01/oprah-winfrey-a-transformational-and-charismatic-leader-3/
• https://collectivehub.com/2017/03/oprahs-5-transferable-skills-that-make-her-our-pick-for-president/
• https://www.wowessays.com/free-samples/sample-essay-on-leadership-of-oprah-winfrey/

Sadnan is one of the top contributors of The Strategy Watch, he has been actively contributing since 2017 as a Content Analyst; He has finished his graduation from North South University with a dual major in Accounting & Finance. As a contributor, he has written for different topics including Leadership Styles and Qualities, Finance, and Economics. He also has a strong interest in SWOT & PESTLE Analysis and Marketing Strategy.

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Sample Essay On Oprah Winfrey Leadership Style

Type of paper: Essay

Topic: Skills , Theory , Communication , Leader , Success , Education , Students , Leadership

Words: 4000

Published: 03/16/2020

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The outcome of any situation, incident or event depends upon how the person faces them by using experience, skill, and trouble-shooting approach. The success of any business or organization is determined by the effective leadership. Leadership is a multi-dimensional concept. The paper focuses on the thorough discussion of leadership. The paper highlights the effective leadership qualities of Oprah Winfrey, one of the most influential personalities of our time. The paper starts with explaining a brief biography of Oprah Winfrey. The biography highlights Oprah's professional aspects rather than the personal aspects of her life. Among these aspects, her educational achievements, career achievement and her leadership qualities are introduced. Her philanthropic approach has also been highlighted. The researcher also explains his objective behind choosing Oprah as an ideal personality for the research. The researcher studies various qualities in Oprah that have made her the influential and charismatic leader. The paper also discusses various leadership theories. The theories are further applied to Oprah's leadership. The paper then tries to find out how her leadership style is suitable for other industry such as hospitality industry where she could have reached to the top. The paper concludes with the lesson, the researcher obtains from the leadership of Oprah and which lessons can be applied from Oprah's leadership to be an effective leader in future. Keywords: Leadership, theories and styles of leadership, Oprah Winfrey

A Brief Biography

The attributes of leadership were imbibed in Oprah since her childhood, directly and indirectly. Many adverse experiences taught her the qualities of being influential and picking up the best even from the worst. In her school days, she had been an excellent student. She had been voted as the most popular girl in the school. This is the beginning of her being as a charismatic leader. She was academically gifted student. She used to bag prizes for elocution competition on national level. She was an incredible orator during her school days. She stood first in Oratory contest, and on her oratory skill; she got scholarship of Tennessee State University. In the University, she won the title 'Miss Black Tennessee and Miss Black Nashville. The popularity as a good speaker gave her an opportunity to work as the first African American female co-anchor when she was just nineteen years old. In 1976, she graduated from the University in the area of communication. She was recruited as a news anchor of Six O'clock news. After that she worked in a local talk show 'People are Talking.' and she hosted the local version called Dialling for Dollars. After spending some time in some local business in Baltimore, Oprah got a chance to become the Head Anchor of AM Chicago. In 1985, considering the popularity of Oprah and encashing this popularity, the show was named as Oprah Winfrey Show. In 1986 she received a special award for her contribution in city's artistic community. She was named Women of Achievement by the National Organization of Women. The show was broadcast nationally and soon became the most popular and number one show in America. Winfrey was known and awarded as the Best Talk Show Host. Winfrey has also proved that she is very sensitive person, who is aware of her responsibilities towards the society. After gaining popularity and success, she started working for the poor children in Nelson Mandela Foundation. Along with this foundation, she also supported to the other organizations such as Moorhouse College, Harold Washington Library, The United Negro College Fund, Tennessee State University Fund and Christmas Kindness. She has also founded Winfrey, the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy Foundation for poor girls in South Africa. She contributed more than $40 million for the creation of this academy. She has donated $40 million for the establishment of the school. “This is the school for powerful girls who will use their power in service to their nation and to our world.” Oprah Winfrey. This is one of her popular statements. The statement reveals her skill of motivating others, influencing them and her globalized approach in real sense. She does not say to serve just to our country, but serve the people regardless of their race, ethnicity, religion, country and gender. Winfrey says she has never been motivated by money or a desire for power and prestige. Instead, she is driven to high performance by a personal mission to serve others by uplifting, enlightening, encouraging, and transforming how people see themselves. (Draft, 2007) It shows her philanthropic approach and in management what we call it a Corporate Social Responsibility.

Reason behind Choosing Her as a Leadership Model

For me, Winfrey was one of the epitomes of charismatic leaders in modern time. She deserves to be followed. What I appealed in her career as a leader, is that she hardly had any mentor. She started her career from scratch. She was always guided by her own experiences. She has an indomitable spirit which is one of the prerequisites of the charismatic leadership. She is intelligent, shrewd, and strategic. She also has an excellent understanding of disaster management. Her way of presenting herself and influencing people through her personality and pleasant appearance is also striking. I chose her because I wanted to study the career of such leader, who started his career from zero and reached to the highest peak on success.

The Leadership Style of Oprah Winfrey

Interpersonal Skill: One of the major qualities in Oprah is her interpersonal skill. The skill has made her an influential person. She can easily make the people comfortable with her excellent speech and her approach. While dealing with the variety of people from different domains, one has to have the understanding about the nature, attitude and the personality trait of the person. Obtaining information from the celebrity's career and asking them questions based on their outer information does not make any sense. You have to peep into the mind of the person in a very sensible manner. It is a skill, and it needs high level of maturity. This is one of the major traits of the leaders, Oprah has tremendous emotional maturity. Further she has a skill to communicate clearly and unambiguously. She is persuasive in her approach. Her persuasive skills have created the Oprah Winfrey Brand. ‘The power of “the Oprah Effect” influences how people vote and make purchases.’ (Hendren 2012) Her interpersonal skill includes one more quality and that is her way of respecting all her employees, establish a good rapport with them via effective communication. Her employees receive generous gift from her if they work hard during holidays. Energy & Enthusiasm: We always see her very enthusiastic. She brings life in even monotonous shows. What is appealing is that she has tremendous energy level, physical stamina and stress tolerance, it is I think because of her extreme level of tolerating things. Her verbal communication and her non verbal communication reflect the enthusiasm in her personality. Her use of proper and effective words and the ways she uses them is unique. Her enthusiasm is seen in her eyes, gesture, and her paralanguage. Her self confidence is the major drive for her optimum level of energy and enthusiasm. If the leader wants to be influential, he/she has to have self-confidence. Oprah is full confident not for herself but for those who come in contact with her. Transformation Leadership: Her style of business is very simple yet unique and effective. She has effectively built a business by investing top talents, seeking smart mentors and by giving optimum value to her customers. She nourishes each relationship with care. If you want to be the best, you should be surrounded by the best environment and best people. She selects the people who surely have competence and compatibility. Oprah Winfrey can be said to have the transformational leadership. Transformation leader as defined by Wang & Huang (2009) is the leader 'who who provide individualized consideration and intellectual stimulation, and who possess charisma (p. 381) She is quite aware of the fact that being successful is hardly possible without being supported by the efficient people. 'Individualized consideration is a behaviour where a leader recognizes individuals as important components to meet success (Sarros &Santora, 2001, p. 305). Keeping healthy relationship with her peers, mentors, employees and consumers reflects her vision. In business, just growing it is not enough, but the business should establish a good image in the minds of the people. It makes the organization a brand. Making an organization a brand, the major asset of the organization should be cherished and this is called human asset. It is a sign of a good leader that he/she likes people.

Personal Opinion about Oprah

There are very few leaders in the world, who have gained such leadership qualities as Oprah has. It is difficult to find the excellent combination of many leadership qualities in one person which Oprah has. She is a genuine person. Her genuine approach which I appeal the most. One more appealing quality of her personality is her ability to take risk. Her colour and gender could not stop her from becoming the successful entrepreneur in America. “Today, she is one of a handful of black billionaires across the globe; her net worth estimated at $2.5 billion” (Alleyne, 2008). She teaches us that nothing is impossible in the world. The path of success is there ahead, your task is just to follow it with all its hurdles. She is the epitome of an entrepreneur, a leader and the most important thing she is a very good human being.

Leadership Theories

Why a leader always stands opposite to the mass? It is because of the certain attributes or qualities he/she has possessed. The leadership theories can be rooted back in history when people follow the leaders who were in power. The leader would control the region and decide the fate of the people living in the region. In history we can trace many examples of good and bad leadership. At that time the scope of the leadership was limited to political scenario. But in the modern world, the concept of leadership is majorly influenced by corporate or industrial organization. Several Theories of leadership have been developed since 20th century. Here are some of the theories which are studied with the context of the leadership style of Oprah Winfrey. The following are the major theories of leadership Great Man Theory: According to Great Man Theory leaders are born and not made. This theory advocates that the great leaders are born and not made. It means that the leadership is an intrinsic quality and it cannot be possessed by experience of teaching. The internal forces are prominent to the external forces for their leadership qualities. The leadership according to this theory cannot be developed by it is imbibed in the person naturally. The theory was criticized on the basis that the great leaders are not by born but they are the products of social environment and social situation around them. These types of leaders emerge with their unique characteristics that encourage them to lead their life during adverse situations and to overcome the obstacles with some strategic moves. These are the charismatic or gifted leaders. According to the Great Man Theory there are certain qualities in the leaders. These qualities include commanding personality, charm, courage, intelligence, persuasiveness, and aggressiveness. Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, and Mahatma Gandhi were among the leaders, who can be the epitomes of Great Man's Theory. The Trait Theory: The Trait Theory focuses on the characteristics or the qualities of the personality. The traits related to habitual pattern of behaviour, thought, and emotions. The trait theory is further categorized into three major levels: - Cardinal Traits: These traits dominate the person in such a way that the person is recognized by these traits. - Central Traits: These types of traits are mainly associated with the general characteristics of the person. These characteristics shape the individual persoanality. The traits such as intelligence, honesty, smartness, firmness are some of the examples of Central traits. - Secondary Traits: These types of traits are associated with attitudes or preferences. These traits can be seen not in general but in specific circumstances or under specific situations.

Some of the traits of leadership are:

- Ambition and energy - The desire to lead - Honesty and Integrity - Self-confidence - Intelligence - job relevant knowledge. - Human Relation attitude - Vision and foresight Behavioural Theories: According to the behaviour theory, certain behaviours differentiate effective leaders from ineffective leaders. The difference between Trait theory and behavioural theory is that the Trait Theory tries to explain what the leaders are and Behavioural theory explains what the leaders do. The theory assumes that the leaders are made and not born. Contingency Theory: The contingency theory states that the leaders' quality to lead is contingent and it depends upon several situation factors such as leader's style of leadership, the capabilities and the behaviour of the followers and various situations. (Contingency Theory) The contingency theory is based on experiments and the analytical and strategic skills of the leaders. For instance, if the leader wants to motivate his followers, in every circumstance, the same technique cannot be applied. He/she has to understand the situation or circumstances and design his/her strategies. Power influence theory: Power influence theory advocates the view that leadership is based on the relationship between people rather than the abilities of the single person. It is closely associated with the interpersonal skills. It is adopted either by power or by influence. The power based tactics of leadership contains different factors such as Coercive power, Legitimate Power, Expert Power, reward power, reference power, informal power and connection power. Coercive power is based on fear, being hurt or fear of ill-treatment. The followers follow the leaders due to the fear factors. The best example of coercive theory is the leadership of Hitler. Legitimate theory is based on the position and the office of the leader. The people follow these leaders due to their position, status or office they have possessed. This kind of leadership includes the dean, director, chairman or secretary of the organization. The leaders with high profile or high positions get the compliance of others as the followers feel that the leader, due to his position and status has an authority. Expert theory states that the people follow the leader because of his knowledge, intellectual ability and his expertise. Reward power is associated with the rewards the followers get by following the leaders. Referent power is based on the person's personal qualities such as his/her charm, charisma and his creativity. Informational power of the leader is associated with the information he or she provides to the organization and the information further is very useful for the betterment and growth of the organization. Withholding the information is the effective way for these kinds of leaders to control other people. The connection power of the leader is related to his/her strong connection with the influential and important people within or outside of the organization. When the followers follow the leader because of his/influence, it is called influence theory. The leader influences the people through his/her actions, attitudes, beliefs, or values.

Discussion of Leadership Theory in context of Oprah’s Leadership Style

Oprah is the role model of the leadership. There are several leadership theories, which can be applied to the style of her leadership. According to the Great man theory the leaders are born and they are not made. Great Man's Theory according to Bowerman &Vart (2010) 'emerged to distinguish natural leaders based on inherited traits and accomplishments (Carlyle 1840) He further opines 'the theory is highly relevant to the Business world, where innumerable self-made business magnates have had great influence – for example, Andrew Carnegie, Leland Stanford, Sam Walton, Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey and Warren Buffet.' (Bowerman &Vart 2010) Oprah as said by them is a self-made leader. She has the potential of leadership and she developed her potential to be the good and charismatic leader. The cardinal trait of Oprah Winfrey is notable in her success as a charismatic leader. Here is the example. The Oprah Winfrey Show was known by the name of Oprah. Oprah being the leader has the central traits such as intelligence, honesty, smartness, and firmness. In secondary traits, the personality of Oprah as a leader has possessed the qualities such as her positive attitude towards looking at things. She is very ambitious, and every step of her career, she held big dream. She has successfully achieved those dreams. Her self confidence, knowledge in her own field, human relations, attitude and her vision can be discussed under the trait theory of leadership. Thus according to the trait theory it is explained, how Oprah is. In behaviour theory it is discussed what the leaders do. After the study of Oprah's personality, various facets of are revealed that can support how she can be fit in behaviour theory. She does remarkable things that are beyond imagination of the non-leader personality. She is a self-motivator. With her hard work, strenuous efforts she carved a niche in her own field. She works for the poor and needy people. She has spent substantial amount from her earning for these people, and thus, also carved her name in the list of great philanthropists of the world. While describing her style of leadership, Smith Et.al (2007) state, 'As a directive leader, she lets her staff know precisely what is expected of them, she works hard at letting her employees understand how to do their jobs, and give them clear guidance on how to accomplish their task of being an award winning entertainment company.' (Smith Et al 2007)The scholars thus regard her to be fit in the “Path Goal Theory.’ (Smith Et al 2007) Power influence theory can also be studied in context of Oprah, and her leadership. She is the powerful lady of Modern America. She has had complete hold on today's American entertaining industry. Though she has possessed the power, it should be noted that the power has been obtained by her with her own qualities, and her proven skills. She has been in the top position, which is a self-made and not given to her by anyone. Power and influence theory is based on the interpersonal skill of the person. Through her talk shows, Oprah has already proven her incredible interpersonal skill. She has obtained a particular status in her life through her influence and her personality. The power tactics of Oprah are not coercive or legitimate. As a leader, she has never forced or feared the followers to follow her. The people do not follow her because she was on a high position or enjoying the high status. Rather she was no one at the initial stage of her life. She was a common lady with no position or status. But still, at that time even she influenced the people through her oratory skills. Her leadership qualities had been flourishing since her college day itself. She would impress the people through her personality, enthusiasm and positive energy. Her knowledge in her own field, her experience and the maturity are the other attributes that have been used by Oprah to influence the leader. Thus she established herself as a charismatic leader. Reward power, reference power, informal power and connection power are out of question in regards to Winfrey. Her motivation has never been based on reward. Further the people do not follow her just because she has strong connection with the strong political leaders, business tycoons or other influential people from American society. She also has not been recommended by any strong person so that the people should follow her or accept her as a leader. Emotional Intelligence: Oprah is a media person. She is a good speaker. Had she not been there in Media and Entertainment industry, her leadership qualities would have been applied to the other industries such as hospitality. Oprah is a role model of a transformational leadership. The EI (Emotional Intelligence) is one of the key traits of an effective leadership. Oprah has tremendous ability to be aware of her emotions, she has the ability to control these emotions and thus with the help of the emotions, she can handle the interpersonal relationship judicially and empathetically. She is sensitive, emotional towards the people around her and towards the society. She uses her emotional intelligence to interact with the people effectively. EI is the major characteristic in maintaining long term relationship with the people. In hospitality industry, establishing brand is very important to achieve long term goals. In such situations, the interpersonal skills are very useful. Oprah is always persistent about the quality of her show. She helps her peers and employees to complete the task with quality. Her hands-on-approach boosts her employees to work for maintaining the quality. The hospitality industry can be sustained only by your product and service quality and your interpersonal relationship. The healthy and effective internal communication (With employees) and external communication (with stakeholders and consumers) are key to the success in an organization. Winfrey's entire life is like a management book. She proved herself as a strategic leader. She is a good communicator, a responsible person, a rebellious approach. She has inspired me with her ability to handle the people so easily. In my future career as a leader, I will follow some major traits of her personality. First is her indomitable spirit, tremendous self-confidence, an ambition to change the situation, her devotion and commitment towards her work and goal and her excellent interpersonal skill. I know that if I follow the path of the leadership of Winfrey, I would be able to be a successful leader.

Conclusion:

Winfrey's whole life is inspirational. She is the role model for the young generation regardless of their interest and areas of specialization. The most remarkable thing about her is that she is the female African-American entrepreneur, who has crossed all the confines of American corporate world. Through her example, she has shown the world that no social and cultural barrier can obstruct the person from his goal. The social and cultural barriers are generally cantered around gender, race, ethnicity and the colour of the person. She is the inspiration for many black ladies, who are gifted, and wants to open the door of prosperity. The keys to success demonstrated by Winfrey are very helpful to achieve one's dream. Further she has given the lesson to the people that regardless of your origin (where you come from) your destination or goal, (where do you want to go) your path and your strategies, the most important thing is how you deal with the people around you. More than a mere talk show host, and business tycoon, she has been the mentor to the women from all over the world.

Bowerman, K. D., & Vart, M. V. (2010). The Business Leadership: An Introduction (p. 66). N.p.: M.E. Sharpe. Contingency Theory, (n.d.). Retrieved November 20, 2014, from http://changingminds.org/disciplines/leadership/theories/contingency_theory.htm Draft, R. D. (2007). The Leadership Experience (p. 227). N.p.: Cengage Learning publishers Smith, P., Brevis, T., Cronje, G., Vrba, M., & Smith, P. J. (2007). Management Principles: A Contemporary Edition for Africa(p. 284). N.p.: Juta & Company Publication. Sarros, J., & Santora, J. (2001). The transformational-transactional leadership model in practice. Leadership & Organization Development. Journal.22(8), 383-393. Wang, Y., & Huang, T. The Relationship of Transformational Leadership with Group Cohesiveness and Emotional Intelligence. Social Behavior and Personality. 37(3), 379-392. Hendren, L. (n.d.). The Oprah Effect: How Oprah Winfrey Persuades Viewers (Master's thesis).

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Real Leaders: Oprah Winfrey and the Power of Empathy

What we can learn from how Oprah built her business empire.

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In 1976, broadcast journalist Oprah Winfrey moved to Baltimore to coanchor the evening newscast at a local TV station. But she struggled in that spot and was moved to the morning talk show. That demotion led Winfrey to discover a professional calling that aligned with her personal sensibilities and emerging strengths. In the final episode of a four-part special series on leadership, HBR Editor in Chief Adi Ignatius and Harvard Business School professor and historian Nancy Koehn trace Winfrey’s career as an entrepreneur and leader of a media empire. They discover lessons on how to cultivate self-awareness, cross traditional boundaries, and responsibly wield influence.

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ADI IGNATIUS: Welcome to the HBR IdeaCast from Harvard Business Review. I’m Adi Ignatius. This is “Real Leaders,” a special series examining the lives of some of the world’s most compelling and effective leaders, past and present, with lessons for all of us today. This week we are ending our four-part series with…

OPRAH WINFREY: Oh, my goodness. I’m at Harvard.

ADI IGNATIUS: Yes, that is Oprah Winfrey, giving the commencement speech at Harvard University back in 2013.

OPRAH WINFREY: Harvard. [LAUGHTER]  Not too many little girls from rural Mississippi have made it all the way here to Cambridge. My one hope today is that I can be a source of some inspiration. I’m going to address my remarks to anybody who’s ever felt inferior or felt disadvantaged, felt screwed by life.

ADI IGNATIUS: I’m Adi Ignatius, Editor in Chief of Harvard Business Review. And I’m here with Nancy Koehn, the great historian and professor at Harvard Business School. Nancy has written a case study on Oprah Winfrey’s life as an entrepreneur and as the leader of a media empire. Hello, Nancy.

NANCY KOEHN: Hey, Adi.

ADI IGNATIUS: And Nancy that’s not the only time Oprah visited Harvard. She also came to your class at HBS, right?

NANCY KOEHN: I taught the case for the first time in I believe 2005. I talked to her on the phone twice at great length and all of her top staff —

ADI IGNATIUS: In researching the case —

NANCY KOEHN: In researching the case at Harpo, which was her production company that created and produced The Oprah Winfrey Show . We had asked her, very carefully, with the right protocol, if she would come to class on the day I planned to teach the class. And she said, “I can’t come. I’m somewhere else.” And that morning, my assistant called me and said, “I just got a call from the guard’s booth at the parking lot. Oprah Winfrey has arrived in three huge black SUV’s.” And so I get there way early, and there she is sitting in the sky deck which — for our listeners — is the top row of the Harvard Business School amphitheater classrooms, with her producer, her chief financial officer, her make-up artist, her hair person, and three more top people in her circle. She spoke for about 15 unscripted minutes and then she took questions. And she was astounding. She was smart. She was warm. She was serious. She knew how to take a tiny story as a metaphor and turn it into a life lesson or extraordinarily powerful takeaway for the students. And I think even some of my very, very skeptical male students, who were like, “Why do we think of Oprah Winfrey as being worth a Harvard Business School case?” And I’ve encountered much of that over the many years I’ve been working with this material. Even they, most of them, were like, “Wow.”

ADI IGNATIUS: So a little content setting about Oprah’s early life and how it shaped her. I mean what’s unusual for her is that she talks and she doesn’t hide and she brings people in. But there’s probably a reason why she’s talking about this stuff, so —

NANCY KOEHN: So, she was born in 1954 in a small town in Mississippi, poor family. And her parents shortly after her birth separated. They went different ways, and she spent the first say 10 years of her life moving back and forth between her parents. Her father moved to Tennessee. Her mother moved north to Milwaukee. Her father became a barber and built a relatively stable domestic life in Tennessee. Her mother did not build quite such a stable life. The most important part of this existence, shuttling between homes and very different environments [and] circumstances across many miles, was that she was abused sexually as a young girl. And what pretty quickly happened with her, now I’m repeating her words is she started to make trouble. She said, “I could have gone in a different direction and basically become a problem child, a juvenile delinquent.” Before she became an adolescent, her father basically said, “I’m going to take my daughter Oprah and she’s going to live with me in Tennessee.” And that was a more stable life for her, and she credits her father and his decision to try and bring her to Tennessee to live with him with being a very important moment of redemption and opening up a much better fork in the road for her. And so she spent her adolescent years, her high school years in Tennessee and eventually went to college in Nashville. That was the runway into college where she got interested in radio and then television. But she’s talked at great length about the scars that were left for her emotionally and physically. Eating disorders and some drug use, very limited, but drug use as a result of the emotional burden she carried — the legacy she carried of the sexual abuse. But all of it turned out to be part of the road that Oprah would travel as a television celebrity, which was, “My life is my classroom. Your life is your classroom. We’re all on a journey of self-development. Let me tell you where I started.”

ADI IGNATIUS: All right so let’s fill in a little of her early professional bio. Oprah starts her career at a local TV station in Nashville while she’s still in college. She becomes the first Black female TV correspondent there. Then she gets recruited by a Baltimore station to co-anchor the 6 p.m. newscast. So this is 1976. This is a huge move for her career. But it doesn’t go well. After two years she gets demoted to co-host a local morning show, which actually turns out to be something of a breakthrough.

NANCY KOEHN: Yes, it does because she discovers in a talk show that she can be much more authentic, she can be much more herself, and she realizes, “I found the right place for my work here.”

ADI IGNATIUS: All right. So things are looking up for Oprah. People are starting to notice her on that morning show in Baltimore, and then she gets a call from Chicago.

NANCY KOEHN: She does. Dennis Swanson at WLS-TV in Chicago, hires Oprah to host their morning talk show, A.M. Chicago . The show is a hit, and they quickly rename it The Oprah Winfrey show .

RECORDING OPRAH WINFREY SHOW: You tried every new drug in therapy and still can’t get any relief from the disease or affliction you have, but did you ever think relief could lead to be right inside your own mind? On the next Oprah Winfrey Show, meet the bestselling author of . . . [fades out]

ADI IGNATIUS: So this is a long time ago. The Oprah Winfrey Show started in the mid-80s, so it’s hard to remember what life was like before that. But this thing takes off. Can you explain what this was like when she was experimenting with the format and how it just kind of took off?

NANCY KOEHN: If we parachuted back to the mid-80s and Oprah being recruited to come and do a talk show in Chicago, Chicago A.M. , we would see a landscape of television talk shows that look quite a bit different. There were a few women that had done something like television talk shows, like Barbara Walters, but most television talk shows were Meet the Press . There weren’t television shows or other venues in the mass media that were primarily about emotional issues or primarily about difficult life experiences, in which talking about something like even divorce was common. The only exception to that, and this is important for the Oprah story, was Phil Donahue who was really in his own way a path breaker. He was the first person in any kind of talk show and almost any kind of television live format to talk about divorce. He talked about the difficulties of being Catholic. He talked about birth control. All of those topics in the early 1980s were generally considered verboten — you know, forbidden. And what happens is really quickly she out Donahue’s Phil Donahue by orders of magnitude. And within, you know within a quarter, a season, she’s bested him in the Chicago market — by the ratings calculator. And then she’s off to the races, so to speak, with this new format in which she’s going to vastly expand the spectrum of acceptable topics for a talk show. She’s just going to blow it up. And she’s going to, by doing that, with great immediate success in terms of audience reaction, first in Chicago and then nationally — because pretty quickly there are calls and interests in moving her national and syndicating the show. And pretty quickly she’s going to start laying the groundwork, if you will, for all kinds of talk shows that today we can consider absolutely standard fare.

ADI IGNATIUS: So Oprah has said that her empathy, I guess, kept her from being a good journalist. That, I guess that means that the cool detachment that at least, in the past, we thought of as necessary for serious journalists to do their job. Just didn’t suit her. She couldn’t report on the devastating crisis and keep her emotions and everything out of it. Let’s talk about her, you know, the need to be true to yourself. I mean that’s not always easy to do  – both professionally and socially — to say, “My personality’s not suited to this so I’m going to take a different path.” As you look at that decision, how do you think about the decision she made and can anyone else make a decision like that?

NANCY KOEHN: I think the way she came to that decision was that she got moved from more hard news, this is in Baltimore, this is the stepping stone to Chicago and the beginnings of what would be The Oprah Winfrey Show in the mid-80s. She got moved because she had so much empathy, she wasn’t able to stay so cool and detached from hard news to a talk show that she was co-hosting in Baltimore. And she said after the first show, “Oh my God, I felt like I came home.” So she stumbled into it. It wasn’t that she started off thinking, “I have this empathy, this is who I truly am. I need to do something that’s aligned with that.” She stumbled into it. She had this realization, and that’s the direction she started to steer her own ship in. And it turned out to be a very smart decision.

ADI IGNATIUS: So I feel like probably Harvard Business School, certainly Harvard Business Review, we talk a lot about the need for a high EQ and empathy. That that’s what makes good leaders. On the other hand, the narcissists seem to be doing pretty well, too. So maybe empathy is a trait we’d like. Does it necessarily correspond to good leadership? I mean good leadership looks different depending who it comes from.

NANCY KOEHN: I think the unbridled narcissists may end up with power. We know they do. History proves that right. That’s not the same thing as worthy leadership. Worthy impact. I’m a historian. History judges. It’s the nature of looking at the past. There are very few unbridled, unabashed narcissists in history that we look back and say, “Wow. They were great leaders.” Because great leadership turns out to correlate, as we now understand, pretty highly with self-development. And that means transcending pure, raw, unsheathed narcissism.

ADI IGNATIUS: One thing and I don’t know if this is you know, push back on the Oprah mystique or not. But like Oprah Magazine, O Magazine. Not only is her name on the magazine, her picture on the magazine. Her name and picture are on practically every page in the magazine. That seemed, to me, almost the definition of narcissism — as opposed to this kind of selfless, purpose-driven sense that people have about her when they talk about her. I’ve never been able to square that exactly.

NANCY KOEHN: I think what she understands is that people are interested in identifying with her. And people’s ability to say, “Oh Oprah’s learned that. I can learn that. That’s relevant to me.” Yes, is it narcissistic? Sure, we can frame it that way. But its purpose is not primarily to make Oprah more glamorous or Oprah more excited about herself. I don’t think it’s primarily about a quest for validation that is the primary driver of clinical narcissism, right. The quest for validation in the face of a deep innate sense of unworthiness. That is not, I think, what she’s up to in the world. I think what she understands is my brand is all about me and my life and how people pick away at that and use it and peel away things for themselves. And that is how she’s basically navigated her leadership journey.

ADI IGNATIUS: Coming up after the break, we’ll talk about some of Oprah’s high profile mistakes, how she handled them, and what we can learn from that process.

ADI IGNATIUS: Welcome back to Real Leaders, a special series of the HBR IdeaCast. I’m Adi Ignatius, with Nancy Koehn. Hey, Nancy.

ADI IGNATIUS: So as I think about Oprah and her life and try to draw lessons from it, it’s hard because in some ways she is unique. She’s this person who has had so much success, has made so much money, has had so much power and influences. And yet, people seem to think, “Yeah, she’s like one of us.” There aren’t a lot of people that you can say that about. So let’s look at Oprah Winfrey, businesswoman for a second. What lessons would you draw from the way in which she has grown and developed her business empire?

NANCY KOEHN: One, this incredible ability, back to empathy, Adi, to understand where your audience is headed before they even know themselves. Emotionally, practically, spiritually, she’d say. You know, Howard Schultz — lots of great entrepreneurs, Estee Lauder, lots and lots of great entrepreneurs that developed really interesting innovative market-making products, did this. She’s in a different business, but it’s completely analogous. She’s in services, media, entertainment, education, self-development. But she knows before her customer knows. In a sense, we can learn that you can lead on the demand side if you have very good antennae for understanding your audience and your potential audience. That’s the first thing. Second thing, she’s exceptionally strategic about how she built her empire, her pillars of influence. So she starts with a television show. She’s very, very calculated about, “What’s our portfolio of shows across five days every week?” They don’t do five days of how to pick a comfortable high heel. They do a very interesting mix. So Tom Cruise comes on one day, and then we do a show on campaign finance reform or money in politics. And then we do a show on how to buy a bathing suit. And then we do a show on climate change. And then we do a show on managing your sugar intake. So she’s been very calculated about what she offers, in what combination. That’s just like organizing the shelves of your store. Great merchandizing. The third thing I think that’s really important is within her show, she’s chosen these very interesting vehicles — all with her name and picture in them — that are really important, like the Book Club. The Book Club didn’t start off to create best sellers. It started off to create this peace of individual activity that Oprah thought was important, literacy and getting people to read books. And so she created a book club that then becomes its own kind of engine for authorial success. Um, Oprah’s Favorite Things. That was Oprah’s idea that every once in a while we’re going to talk about “something I really love that you might love too.” Like a celebrity endorsement. And that became again, this vicarious “ooh!” — almost like a fashion magazine or a sports player saying, “I love these Nike basketball shoes.” So that was a piece of it. Then her magazine, when she starts to broaden her media footprint. The television and movie production. All these occurring, not in the kind of walk step chronology, but in this more organic sense of where do we need to be to keep people interested and to build our audience. And then of course, her own website that really became the prelude to her getting interested in her own television network, The Oprah Winfrey Network, OWN Network. So she’s been very, very good at what we’d say at the Harvard Business School, leveraging the brand, acquiring or creating like assets.

ADI IGNATIUS: Her show was also, from early moments, sort of purpose-driven. Uou know, that’s table stakes now. Oil companies are purpose driven. Tobacco companies are purpose-driven, everybody’s purpose driven. But there was sort of a standard, “This is appropriate for the show. This isn’t.” Even as she was sort of breaking down barriers.

NANCY KOEHN: Absolutely. That was something that she from the very beginning thought, “Why are we doing this show? What’s the purpose?” She said in the case when I interviewed her, she said, “I never go downstairs to tape a show. Any kind of media appearance that I don’t have a conversation by myself alone, I need time alone, and I say, what’s my intention here? What am I doing here?” So this very conscious, very emotionally aware set of software that she’s developed in herself and is using or calling on in order to advance what she sees as a worthy goal. And there’s this moment that she described in my class and in the case, where she said, “I realized early on that we hadn’t thought about how low we could go in terms of what we would explore. And when I realized that we actually had to set limits on acceptable topics, everything that was emotionally intense, or that had been forbidden and now we were going to try and discover whether it wasn’t, was not OK.” And she says, “I remembered this. I realized this. One day at a break in the show, we were interviewing Nazi sympathizers, members of a Nazi youth group. And they were talking about the uses of violence. And at the break in the show” — when they tape, I’ve seen the show taped a couple times. They stop and the camera stops rolling and the audience takes a breath and anything goes then because you’re off camera. She said, “The young men started doing high fives to other people in the audience. As if – Yeah, now we’re getting our message across!” And she said, “That was it. I realized — there’s a floor beneath which you don’t go. And we were enabling, empowering, a message we actually didn’t really want to get out.” So, she changed the game and then she realized how you change it and how much you change it and where you draw lines is really important. And she backed up and said, “We’re going to be real careful about the subjects we cover.” And that continued for the rest of the run of the show, and I think it’s been something she’s been very diligent in thinking about in the ensuing years.

ADI IGNATIUS: I think if you look at her career you can find examples of missteps, of empowering new voices on her show that, whether it’s medical quackery or your example, that doesn’t look good in hindsight. What’s interesting with her though is that she has often owned it. Actually one of the great examples is James Frey’s memoir, A Million Little Pieces , which she recommended. She has this incredible power. She recommends a book, and it is a best seller. I’m not sure there’s ever been an exception to that in all these months and years. It turned out memoir was largely made up. She initially sort of doubled down defending that book and defending him. And so that’s a mistake. But what’s interesting is when she makes a mistake, and people point it out, and she realizes it, “OK that was not good.” She knows she has the power, “Alright, let’s have a national conversation about that.” And her power, I guess, both to convene and to be a kind of moral authority — there aren’t many people who have that, or who have had that. And she completely changed the conversation and, you know, in a sense put the book publishing industry on notice that you can’t be so sloppy with what you define as a memoir because we’re actually paying attention. We’re actually rallying people to say, “No, we’re not OK with this.”

NANCY KOEHN: You’re right. I mean she starts off by apologizing, saying, “I was wrong.” Let’s not underestimate the power of that self-acknowledgment to then begin this conversation that she has. So it’s not, “Oh, this was really Nan Talese, right, the person, the editor who was in charge of A Million Little Pieces .” This is, “Let me begin with, I was wrong. I should have done better fact, we should have done better homework on this book before I embraced it. And there’s some other issues here. Let’s get down to publishing. If you’re publishing memoirs that are fake it is not good news.” I think part of her power is about her willingness to apologize and say, “How do we make this better next time and avoid this mistake?”

ADI IGNATIUS: So it’s kind of what you do with that power. There is that Oprah effect. She has this army of people who will buy what she suggests, will read the books she suggests —

NANCY KOEHN: March on Washington.

ADI IGNATIUS: Will March of Washington, if that’s said. Who really take her cues. Not in a, well maybe in a culty way — but not simply in a culty way. And that is sort of the test of leadership. “ OK, you have that power. You have access. What do you do with that?”

NANCY KOEHN: I mean, you’re answering the question. I think you’re absolutely spot on, Adi. I don’t think she has made very many moves, including the missteps and the apologies for those, where she doesn’t own the responsibility of the power. Now we’re living in an age when in all kinds of spheres, from government to religion, to business — lots of leaders with lots and lots of power don’t own the authority. I mean the great debate now [is] what will Big Tech, the most influential companies in the world and in our lives and in our polity, from Amazon to Google, to Facebook, to Apple. What will these big companies do with the extraordinary authority and power that they have to affect everything from the environment to wages in towns where there are Amazon fulfillment centers? What will they do with that power? Will they own the social, environmental, political responsibility that is inescapably, irrevocably attached to that power?

ADI IGNATIUS: So, help me understand the concept of Oprah Winfrey as leader. I mean she certainly has been incredible, a pioneer, really reinvented the talk show format, a very successful business woman. You’ve written about Abe Lincoln and Frederick Douglass and Ernest Shackleton and people who were, you’d say, “Oh yeah, that fits my standard definition of leadership.” Place Oprah, then, on that spectrum.

NANCY KOEHN: So let’s go back to David Foster Wallace’s definition that I use a lot and that we’ve referenced in this series around effective leaders as individuals who help us overcome the limitations of our own weaknesses, laziness, selfishness, and fears, and get us to do harder, better things than we can get ourselves to do on our own. Oprah Winfrey has done that in spades for most of her life as a media figure, as a talk show host, as a speaker, as an entrepreneur in her company and her choices about distribution channels, as an author. That’s what she does. That’s what she’s interested in. She’s interested in, “How do I help people do the hard work of becoming their better selves?” And she would say “their best selves.” That’s a term she likes a lot. I know from teaching this case in scores of venues — I can’t tell you the hundreds of people that over the years have raised their hands to tell a story about how Oprah made a positive impact on helping them or their family members. You know, the son in my MBA classroom who said, “My mother has said for 10 years she could never have gotten through a horrific divorce without Oprah’s inspiration and Oprah’s guidance.” There are millions of people who consider her someone, I think with good justification, who’s helped them do harder, better things than they could have done on their own. That’s all aside from “If Oprah can do it, maybe I can do it,” which is the role that lots and lots of leaders play as a kind of unacknowledged inspiration or North Star for people.

ADI IGNATIUS: So Nancy, this episode concludes the first run of this special series, “Real Leaders.” I have to say these conversations have been a total pleasure for me.

NANCY KOEHN: And for me as well, Adi.

ADI IGNATIUS: You studied all these people a lot. I guess I’m wondering if you’re analyzing someone’s life and something happened — someone in the family died and then their life turned out this way, there’s a temptation to say, “Well their life turned out this way because their parent died.” How do you deal with trying to extract real lessons as opposed to what somebody could say is cherry picking from the life stories of these important leaders?

NANCY KOEHN: Well you begin with trying to reconstruct the journey as carefully as you can. You don’t go down the byways and highways that they didn’t travel. So there aren’t any what if’s. You follow the bread crumbs of their paths. And then over that process, which is really all about detective work, inevitably something really interesting, and what I’ve learned, something really relevant to today, emerges. And that’s the essence of the work. That’s the essence of a historian’s craft.

ADI IGNATIUS: And is there some way, let’s take the four episodes that we’ve done where you would say, “OK, these four leaders are all alike in some fundamental way?” Or is every story and every journey unique?

NANCY KOEHN: Well everyone’s journey is unique, but there are themes or threads that connect these four. And I think one of the most important is that consciously or unconsciously each of these people, early on in their life, decided to get better, to work on themselves. And then using that learning, to make a positive impact on the world.

ADI IGNATIUS: And some of this comes back to the point you made a few episodes ago, which is that the greatest leaders in the world are not born that way, they are made.

NANCY KOEHN: They are made, and a lot of it is self-making. We can all get better by working on ourselves and by using our experiences as classrooms or as petri dishes for that learning.

ADI IGNATIUS: So as we wrap up this mini-series, I want to thank our listeners for tuning in. Nancy and I hope to return before long with more episodes, profiling more leaders and their lessons. If you missed the other episodes in this series, please find them. Give them a listen. They cover the polar explorer Ernest Shackleton, writer and environmentalist Rachel Carson and U.S. President Abraham Lincoln. And please tell us what you think of the series. Send us your reactions and questions and let us know which leaders you would like us to cover next. Our email address is [email protected] . That’s IdeaCast spelled I-D-E-A-C-A-S-T at HBR.org. This episode was produced by Anne Saini and edited by Curt Nickisch. We get technical help from Rob Eckhardt, and Adam Buchholz is our audio product manager. I’m Adi Ignatius, Editor in Chief of Harvard Business Review. I want to thank you for listening to “Real Leaders,” a special series of HBR IdeaCast .

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Unleashing the Winfrey Way: Leadership Lessons from Oprah’s Extraordinary Journey

Embarking on Oprah’s Leadership Odyssey

In today’s world of rapid change and seemingly endless challenges, strong leadership is more important than ever. Among the many influential figures who have shaped our society, few have had the impact and staying power of Oprah Winfrey. With a career spanning four decades, Oprah has transcended the boundaries of media, business, and philanthropy, touching the lives of millions and breaking barriers along the way. Her story is one of resilience, vision, and unwavering determination. As we embark on an exploration of her leadership journey, we aim to uncover the guiding principles and key lessons that have contributed to her extraordinary success.

Oprah Winfrey’s rise to prominence began with her eponymous talk show, which launched in 1986 and ran for an impressive 25 seasons. Over the years, “The Oprah Winfrey Show” became a cultural phenomenon, providing a platform for open and often groundbreaking conversations about topics that were previously considered taboo or too sensitive for mainstream television. Through her unique ability to connect with audiences on a deeply personal level, Oprah created a safe space for individuals from all walks of life to share their stories and be heard.

However, Oprah’s impact extends far beyond the world of television. As a businesswoman, she has built a media empire that includes a production company, a cable network, and a successful magazine. In addition, her philanthropic efforts have been transformative, providing resources and opportunities for underserved communities and empowering the next generation of leaders. Through her many ventures, Oprah has demonstrated an unyielding commitment to creating a more inclusive, compassionate, and just world.

In this article, we will delve into the life and career of Oprah Winfrey, examining the experiences that have shaped her leadership style and the guiding principles that have driven her success. We will highlight key leadership lessons that can be drawn from her journey, providing valuable insights for those who aspire to lead with authenticity, vision, and purpose. Additionally, we will share captivating stories from Oprah’s career that illustrate her unique approach to leadership, as well as the profound impact she has had on the lives of others. In doing so, we hope to inspire readers to embrace their own leadership potential and apply these lessons in their personal and professional lives.

As we navigate the ever-changing landscape of the 21st century, it is essential that we look to the leaders who have come before us for guidance and inspiration. Oprah Winfrey’s remarkable journey offers a treasure trove of wisdom and insights that can help us all become more effective, empathetic, and resilient leaders. By studying her story and embracing the principles that have fueled her success, we can not only transform our own lives but also make a meaningful impact on the world around us.

Early Life and Overcoming Adversity

Childhood and upbringing.

Oprah Winfrey’s early life was marked by adversity and hardship, experiences that would later play a critical role in shaping her leadership philosophy. Born in 1954 in rural Mississippi, Oprah spent her childhood living in poverty, moving between the homes of her mother, grandmother, and father as they struggled to make ends meet. Despite these challenging circumstances, young Oprah displayed an innate curiosity and love for learning. Her grandmother, recognizing her potential, taught her to read at an early age and instilled in her the importance of education as a means to rise above her circumstances.

Overcoming personal and professional challenges

Throughout her life, Oprah faced numerous personal and professional challenges, including episodes of abuse and discrimination, which she would later openly discuss with her audience. These experiences served to fuel her determination to overcome obstacles and create a better life for herself and others. As a young woman, she began her career in broadcasting, quickly gaining recognition for her talent and on-air presence. However, even as her career began to take off, Oprah encountered further challenges, including being fired from her job as a co-anchor at a Baltimore television station. Instead of allowing this setback to define her, she used it as an opportunity to grow and pivot towards a new career path.

The formation of her leadership identity

Oprah’s journey of overcoming adversity shaped her leadership identity and laid the foundation for her future success. Her ability to transform personal challenges into opportunities for growth and self-discovery became a cornerstone of her leadership style. She learned the value of resilience, empathy, and self-awareness, and these qualities would later become key components of her approach to leadership. As she moved forward in her career, Oprah used her own experiences as a catalyst for change, inspiring others to confront and overcome their own obstacles.

Oprah’s early life and the adversity she faced taught her valuable lessons about the importance of perseverance, self-belief, and the power of education. These lessons would inform her approach to leadership and ultimately contribute to her extraordinary impact on the lives of millions of people around the world. By overcoming her own obstacles, she was able to inspire others to do the same, fostering a sense of empowerment and self-determination that has become synonymous with her brand.

In the next section, we will explore how Oprah built her media empire and expanded her influence, using her unique leadership style to create lasting change and make a meaningful impact on society.

Building the Oprah Winfrey Brand

The oprah winfrey show: turning adversity into opportunity, creating a platform for important conversations.

In 1986, Oprah Winfrey took a chance on a new format for her talk show, seeking to create a space for deeper, more meaningful conversations that would resonate with her audience. By focusing on personal stories and tackling difficult topics such as addiction, abuse, and mental health, she broke new ground in the world of television, forging a powerful connection with her viewers. Oprah’s willingness to be vulnerable and share her own experiences allowed her to create a sense of trust and authenticity with her audience, setting the stage for open and honest dialogue. Through her talk show, she demonstrated the power of empathy and vulnerability in leadership, inspiring millions to confront their own challenges and make positive changes in their lives.

Pioneering a new talk show format

The format of “The Oprah Winfrey Show” was a significant departure from traditional talk shows of the time. Oprah’s approach was characterized by a focus on storytelling, emotional depth, and the celebration of the human spirit. This innovative format allowed her to create a space where people felt heard and understood, and where difficult topics could be discussed with compassion and sensitivity. Her ability to engage with her guests and audience on a deeply personal level was a testament to her skill as a leader and communicator, and it played a crucial role in the show’s enduring success.

Expanding her media empire

Formation of harpo productions.

In 1988, Oprah founded Harpo Productions, her own production company, to gain more creative control over her show and future projects. This bold move demonstrated her entrepreneurial spirit and commitment to her vision. By taking control of her brand, Oprah was able to shape her message and maintain her authentic voice, further solidifying her status as a leader in the media industry. Under Harpo Productions, she produced numerous films and television shows, including the critically acclaimed “Beloved” and the popular daytime series “Dr. Phil” and “The Dr. Oz Show.”

Launching the OWN network

In 2011, Oprah took another significant step in expanding her media empire by launching the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN), a cable network dedicated to providing uplifting and empowering programming. The creation of OWN was a testament to Oprah’s visionary leadership and her commitment to creating content that inspired and uplifted her audience. With a diverse range of programming, including talk shows, documentaries, and scripted series, OWN has continued to build on Oprah’s legacy and her mission to entertain, inform, and inspire.

Philanthropy and social impact

The oprah winfrey foundation.

Throughout her career, Oprah has been a dedicated philanthropist, using her wealth and influence to create positive change in the world. The Oprah Winfrey Foundation, established in 1998, has supported numerous organizations and initiatives focused on education, health, and social services for underserved communities. Through her foundation, Oprah has demonstrated her commitment to giving back and using her resources to empower others, a key aspect of her leadership philosophy.

Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls

In 2007, Oprah opened the doors to the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa, providing high-quality education and leadership training to young girls from disadvantaged backgrounds. This initiative is a testament to her belief in the power of education to transform lives and her commitment to nurturing the next generation of leaders. By investing in these girls’ futures, Oprah has shown her dedication to creating lasting change and fostering a sense of hope and possibility.

We have explored the various ways in which Oprah has built her brand and expanded her influence, using her unique leadership style to create a lasting impact on society. In the next section, we will delve into the key leadership lessons that can be drawn from Oprah Winfrey’s journey, providing valuable insights for those who aspire to lead with authenticity, vision, and purpose.

By examining the various facets of Oprah’s career, we can see how she has consistently leveraged her leadership skills to inspire and empower others. Her success as a talk show host, entrepreneur, and philanthropist is a testament to her ability to forge meaningful connections, take calculated risks, and stay true to her values. As we continue to explore her journey, we will uncover the principles that have guided her throughout her remarkable career, and learn how these lessons can be applied to our own lives and leadership journeys .

Key Leadership Lessons from Oprah Winfrey

Authenticity: staying true to oneself, connecting with audiences through vulnerability.

One of Oprah’s most powerful leadership qualities is her unwavering authenticity. She has never shied away from sharing her personal experiences, both the triumphs and the struggles, with her audience. By being open and vulnerable, she has forged a deep connection with millions of people around the world. This genuine approach to communication has allowed her to create a safe space for others to share their stories, fostering empathy and understanding. As leaders, embracing authenticity and vulnerability can help us build trust, encourage open dialogue, and inspire others to be their true selves.

The importance of self-reflection

Oprah’s commitment to self-reflection and personal growth has been a driving force in her leadership journey. Throughout her career, she has consistently sought to learn from her experiences, to grow as a person, and to become a more effective leader. This dedication to self-improvement has allowed her to remain grounded, focused, and true to her values, even in the face of adversity. For aspiring leaders, cultivating the habit of self-reflection can help us stay connected to our inner selves and our values, ensuring that our actions and decisions are aligned with our true purpose.

Empowerment: Lifting others up

Fostering an inclusive and diverse environment.

Oprah has consistently used her platform to champion diversity and inclusivity, both on her show and in her various business ventures. By giving a voice to individuals from different backgrounds and celebrating their unique perspectives, she has created an environment where people feel seen, heard, and valued. As leaders, fostering an inclusive and diverse culture can help us create stronger, more resilient teams that are better equipped to navigate the challenges of the modern world.

Encouraging personal growth and development

A key aspect of Oprah’s leadership style is her commitment to empowering others to reach their full potential. Through her philanthropic initiatives, she has provided resources and opportunities to underserved communities, inspiring countless individuals to pursue their dreams and achieve success. By investing in the personal growth and development of those around us, we can create a ripple effect of positive change, lifting others up and contributing to a more just and equitable society.

Vision: Setting and achieving bold goals

Overcoming fear and embracing risk.

Throughout her career, Oprah has demonstrated the importance of setting bold, visionary goals and having the courage to pursue them, even in the face of uncertainty. From launching her own production company to creating the OWN network, she has consistently taken calculated risks in order to achieve her dreams. As leaders, we must learn to embrace risk and overcome our fears in order to make meaningful progress and create lasting change.

The power of perseverance and resilience

Oprah’s journey is a testament to the power of perseverance and resilience. Despite the many obstacles she has encountered along the way, she has remained steadfast in her pursuit of her goals, never allowing setbacks to deter her from her mission. By cultivating resilience and maintaining a strong sense of purpose, we can overcome challenges and continue moving forward, even in the face of adversity.

Communication: The art of effective storytelling

Engaging and inspiring millions through stories.

Oprah is a master storyteller, using her unique ability to engage and inspire millions of people through the power of narrative. By sharing compelling stories that resonate on a deeply emotional level, she has been able to create lasting connections with her audience and inspire positive change. As leaders, honing our storytelling skills can help us effectively communicate our vision, motivate our teams, and drive meaningful impact.

Mastering the art of listening

Oprah’s success as a communicator is not only due to her storytelling abilities but also her exceptional listening skills. She has demonstrated time and again the importance of truly hearing and understanding the stories of others. By actively listening and asking thoughtful questions, she has been able to foster empathy, build trust, and facilitate authentic conversations. As leaders, mastering the art of listening is essential for creating an environment where people feel valued and respected, and it allows us to make more informed decisions based on the perspectives and insights of those around us.

We have highlighted several key leadership lessons that can be drawn from Oprah Winfrey’s remarkable journey. By embracing authenticity, empowering others, maintaining a clear vision, and honing our communication skills, we can become more effective and compassionate leaders in our own right.

As we conclude our exploration of Oprah Winfrey’s leadership journey, it is clear that her success is a testament to her resilience, empathy, and unwavering determination. Her story serves as an inspiration for us all, reminding us of the power of perseverance, the importance of staying true to our values, and the potential for positive change that lies within each of us. By applying the lessons learned from Oprah’s journey to our own lives and leadership endeavors, we can work together to create a brighter, more inclusive future for all.

Inspiring Leadership Stories from Oprah’s Career

The power of intention: oprah’s journey to create own.

Oprah’s decision to create the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) is a prime example of her visionary leadership and the power of intention. Fueled by a desire to provide programming that inspired, educated, and uplifted viewers, Oprah set out to create a network that would embody her values and vision. Despite facing numerous challenges, including financial setbacks and initial low ratings, she remained steadfast in her belief that OWN could transform the television landscape. By trusting her instincts and staying true to her vision, Oprah was able to overcome these obstacles and build a successful network that continues to make a meaningful impact on the lives of its viewers.

Oprah’s Super Soul Conversations: Deepening connections with thought leaders

Another inspiring story from Oprah’s career is the development of her podcast, “Oprah’s Super Soul Conversations.” Launched in 2017, the podcast features intimate interviews with renowned thought leaders, spiritual teachers, and influential figures, exploring themes such as personal growth, spirituality, and well-being. Through these conversations, Oprah has deepened her connections with her audience and expanded her reach, bringing transformative ideas and insights to millions of listeners around the world. Her ability to engage with these thought leaders and facilitate powerful, thought-provoking discussions is a testament to her skill as an interviewer and her commitment to fostering personal growth and self-discovery.

The book club phenomenon: Cultivating a culture of reading and learning

In 1996, Oprah launched “Oprah’s Book Club,” a segment on her talk show that quickly became a cultural phenomenon. By selecting and discussing thought-provoking books, she encouraged her viewers to engage in meaningful conversations and fostered a culture of reading and learning. Her influence in the literary world was so significant that books selected for the club often became instant bestsellers. This initiative exemplifies Oprah’s dedication to empowering her audience through education and her belief in the transformative power of literature. By cultivating a love for reading and learning, she has inspired countless individuals to expand their horizons and explore new ideas.

Leading with empathy: Oprah’s response to Hurricane Katrina

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Oprah demonstrated her empathetic leadership by mobilizing her resources and influence to help the affected communities. Through her show, she raised awareness of the ongoing crisis, giving a voice to the victims and sharing their stories with the world. She also personally donated millions of dollars to relief efforts and organized a team of volunteers from her staff to assist in rebuilding efforts on the ground. Oprah’s compassionate response to the disaster showcased her ability to lead with empathy and her unwavering commitment to making a positive impact on the lives of others.

These inspiring leadership stories from Oprah Winfrey’s career offer valuable insights into her approach to leadership and the principles that have guided her journey. By examining these stories, we can gain a deeper understanding of the qualities that have made her such an influential figure and learn how to apply these lessons to our own leadership endeavors. As we continue to navigate the challenges of the 21st century, Oprah’s example serves as a beacon of hope and inspiration, reminding us of the power of empathy, vision, and resilience in creating lasting change.

Oprah’s Legacy: Continuing the Circle of Leadership

Mentoring future leaders.

One of the most significant aspects of Oprah’s leadership legacy is her commitment to mentoring and nurturing future leaders. Throughout her career, she has made it a priority to share her wisdom and experiences with those who aspire to follow in her footsteps, fostering a new generation of leaders equipped with the tools and insights to create meaningful change in the world. From her work with the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls to her informal mentorship of countless individuals in the media and entertainment industries, Oprah has consistently demonstrated her dedication to helping others reach their full potential and achieve their dreams.

Cultivating a new generation of media moguls

Oprah’s impact on the media landscape extends far beyond her own career achievements. As a trailblazer and role model for aspiring media professionals, she has inspired a new generation of media moguls who are forging their paths and making a mark on the industry. By breaking barriers and challenging conventional norms, Oprah has paved the way for others to follow her example, demonstrating that it is possible to create powerful and influential media platforms that reflect a diverse range of voices and perspectives. Her lasting influence can be seen in the rising prominence of diverse media leaders and the continued growth of inclusive and empowering content across various platforms.

Encouraging others to embrace their own leadership potential

Perhaps one of the most enduring aspects of Oprah’s legacy is her ability to inspire others to recognize and embrace their own leadership potential. Through her work as a talk show host, entrepreneur, and philanthropist, she has consistently demonstrated that everyone has the capacity to make a difference in the world, regardless of their background or circumstances. By sharing her own story and amplifying the stories of others, she has encouraged countless individuals to confront their fears, overcome obstacles, and pursue their dreams with courage and determination.

Oprah’s message of empowerment and self-belief has resonated with millions of people around the globe, fostering a sense of hope and possibility that transcends borders and cultural divides. Her example serves as a powerful reminder that each of us has the power to create lasting change and to make a positive impact on the lives of others. By embracing our own leadership potential and supporting the growth and development of those around us, we can continue the circle of leadership and contribute to a brighter, more inclusive future.

Oprah Winfrey’s remarkable leadership journey offers invaluable lessons and insights for those who aspire to make a difference in the world. By examining her successes and challenges, we can gain a deeper understanding of the qualities and principles that have shaped her extraordinary career, and apply these lessons to our own leadership endeavors. As we continue to face the complex challenges of the 21st century, Oprah’s legacy serves as a beacon of hope and inspiration, reminding us of the power of empathy , vision, and resilience in creating lasting change.

Embracing Oprah’s Leadership Principles in Our Own Lives

Living with purpose and intention.

One of the most profound lessons we can learn from Oprah’s leadership journey is the importance of living with purpose and intention. By staying true to her values and following her passion, Oprah has been able to create a life that is deeply fulfilling and impactful. As we seek to apply her leadership principles to our own lives, it is essential that we take the time to reflect on our values, passions, and goals, and make a conscious effort to align our actions and decisions with our true purpose. By doing so, we can cultivate a sense of meaning and direction in our lives, empowering us to create lasting change in the world.

Embracing the power of vulnerability

Another key lesson from Oprah’s journey is the power of vulnerability in fostering authentic connections and building trust. As leaders, it is essential that we are willing to be open and transparent with those around us, sharing our experiences and emotions in a genuine and honest manner. By embracing vulnerability, we can create an environment where people feel safe to express their feelings, ask for help, and share their own stories, fostering a culture of empathy, understanding, and collaboration.

Investing in personal growth and development

Oprah’s unwavering commitment to personal growth and development serves as an important reminder of the value of investing in ourselves. As leaders, it is crucial that we prioritize our own learning and development, seeking out new experiences, knowledge, and insights to continually grow and evolve. By cultivating a growth mindset and embracing a lifelong learning mentality, we can become more adaptable, resilient, and effective leaders, better equipped to navigate the challenges of the modern world.

Empowering others to succeed

One of the most inspiring aspects of Oprah’s leadership journey is her dedication to empowering others to succeed. Whether through her philanthropic initiatives, mentorship, or the content she produces, she consistently seeks to uplift and support those around her. As leaders, we can follow her example by investing in the growth and development of our team members, providing them with the resources, opportunities, and encouragement they need to reach their full potential. By fostering a culture of empowerment and collaboration, we can create stronger, more resilient teams that are better equipped to tackle the challenges and seize the opportunities of the 21st century.

Leading with empathy and compassion

Oprah’s empathetic leadership style has been a key factor in her ability to connect with and inspire millions of people around the world. As we strive to apply her leadership principles to our own lives, it is essential that we cultivate empathy and compassion, seeking to understand the experiences and perspectives of those around us. By leading with empathy, we can create more inclusive and supportive environments where people feel valued and respected, fostering a sense of belonging and unity that can drive positive change.

We have explored some of the most important leadership principles that we can learn from Oprah Winfrey’s extraordinary journey. By embracing these principles and integrating them into our own lives, we can become more effective, compassionate, and visionary leaders, better equipped to create lasting change in the world. As we continue to navigate the challenges and opportunities of the 21st century, Oprah’s example serves as a powerful reminder of the potential that lies within each of us to make a positive impact and leave a lasting legacy.

The Ripple Effect: How Oprah’s Leadership Has Inspired Global Change

Influencing social and cultural conversations.

Throughout her career, Oprah Winfrey has used her platform to influence social and cultural conversations on a global scale. By addressing important issues such as racism, gender equality, mental health, and poverty, she has helped to raise awareness and stimulate meaningful discussions on topics that might have otherwise been overlooked or marginalized. As a result, Oprah’s leadership has played a critical role in promoting social change and inspiring a greater sense of empathy and understanding among people of diverse backgrounds and perspectives.

Philanthropic impact

Oprah’s leadership extends far beyond her work in the media and entertainment industries, as evidenced by her significant philanthropic contributions. Through her various charitable endeavors, including the Oprah Winfrey Foundation and the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls, she has helped to improve the lives of countless individuals around the world. By investing in education, health, and community development projects, Oprah has demonstrated her unwavering commitment to making a positive impact on the world and has inspired others to follow her example by giving back to their communities and supporting those in need.

Fostering a global community of inspiration and empowerment

Oprah’s leadership has also played a pivotal role in fostering a global community of inspiration and empowerment. By sharing her own story and amplifying the stories of others, she has encouraged millions of people around the world to confront their fears, overcome obstacles, and pursue their dreams with courage and determination. Her message of self-belief and personal growth has resonated with individuals from all walks of life, transcending borders and cultural divides to create a shared sense of hope and possibility.

Inspiring the next generation of leaders

Perhaps one of the most enduring aspects of Oprah’s leadership legacy is the impact she has had on the next generation of leaders. By serving as a role model and mentor to countless individuals, she has inspired a new generation to recognize their own leadership potential and embrace the qualities and principles that have guided her journey. As these emerging leaders continue to make their mark on the world, they will carry with them the lessons and inspiration they have gained from Oprah’s example, perpetuating the cycle of leadership and ensuring a brighter, more inclusive future for all.

Shaping the future of media and storytelling

Finally, Oprah’s leadership has had a profound impact on the future of media and storytelling. As a trailblazer in the media industry, she has demonstrated the power of authenticity, empathy, and vulnerability in connecting with audiences and fostering meaningful conversations. Her influence has inspired a new generation of media professionals to prioritize inclusivity and diversity, both in terms of representation and the stories they choose to tell. As a result, Oprah’s leadership has played a critical role in shaping the future of media and storytelling, ensuring that the industry continues to evolve and adapt to the needs and desires of a changing world.

We have examined the far-reaching impact of Oprah Winfrey’s leadership on the world at large. From her influence on social and cultural conversations to her philanthropic efforts and her impact on the next generation of leaders, Oprah’s leadership has had a ripple effect that extends far beyond her own career achievements. As we continue to navigate the complex challenges and opportunities of the 21st century, her example serves as a powerful reminder of the potential that lies within each of us to create lasting change and make a positive impact on the lives of others.

Embracing the Oprah Effect: A Lasting Leadership Legacy

Oprah Winfrey’s extraordinary leadership journey offers a wealth of insights and lessons that can inspire and guide individuals from all walks of life. As we have explored throughout this article, Oprah’s success can be attributed to her unwavering dedication to her values, her commitment to personal growth and development, and her ability to connect with others through empathy and vulnerability. Her leadership style has left a lasting impact on countless lives, transcending borders and cultural divides to create a global community of inspiration and empowerment.

We have examined numerous aspects of Oprah’s journey, including her early life and career, her unique leadership style, inspiring stories from her career, her legacy, the leadership principles she embodies, the ripple effect of her influence, and the far-reaching impact of her leadership on the world at large. Through each of these sections, we have gained a deeper understanding of the qualities and principles that have shaped her extraordinary career and have sought to apply these lessons to our own leadership endeavors.

As we continue to face the complex challenges of the 21st century, Oprah’s example serves as a powerful reminder of the potential that lies within each of us to create lasting change and make a positive impact on the lives of others. By embracing the leadership principles that have guided Oprah’s journey, we can become more effective, compassionate, and visionary leaders, better equipped to navigate the challenges and seize the opportunities that lie ahead.

Furthermore, Oprah’s legacy serves as a testament to the power of resilience, determination, and a belief in one’s own abilities. Her journey has shown that with hard work, perseverance, and a commitment to living with purpose and intention, it is possible to overcome adversity and achieve extraordinary success. By following her example, we can inspire others to recognize their own leadership potential, fostering a new generation of leaders who are empowered to create positive change in the world.

As we conclude this exploration of Oprah Winfrey’s leadership journey, let us carry the lessons and insights we have gained into our own lives, and let us commit ourselves to embodying the qualities and principles that have guided her remarkable career. In doing so, we can create a lasting legacy of our own, one that is characterized by empathy, vision, and resilience, and that leaves a positive and lasting impact on the world around us.

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Oprah Winfrey Leadership Style & Principles

• 2020-11-27 11:19:40
• 17 minute(s)

Oprah Winfrey — Leadership Style & Principles

W hat can we learn from the leadership style of Oprah Winfrey? How could we adopt her leadership principles to drive our teams and empower them?

Experts agree that Oprah is a leader to emulate.

Important She is uniquely able to inspire her team and execute her vision while maintaining mass appeal. She is a remarkable businesswoman.

Oprah Winfrey would not only grow up to be one of the finest women entrepreneurs in the world. She would also go on to become the Queen Of All Media.

If there ever was a true, rags-to-riches story that stands as a testament to the fact that bold leadership can achieve great things, it would be the story of this little black girl born in the southern state of Mississippi.

Transformational leaders like Oprah serve to transform our lives for the better.

Their very decisions are planted with the premise that how others are impacted matters most; whether others benefit matters most; how high others can be elevated matters most; and whether others can be empowered is what matters most.

The tremendous challenges she overcame make Oprah’s career especially inspiring.

The fact that she has handled her success so adeptly, despite her impoverished childhood , is astounding. Then, she successfully touched the lives of people with the combination of her wit, impudence and kindness.

Her charismatic leadership style is known to draw people towards her vision. As a great leader, Oprah Winfrey never fails to influence people with her inspiring thoughts.

She has influenced a lot of people just by her presence and stature. Her achievements today would not have been possible if she was not equipped with the right characteristics, strengths and weaknesses. Here is a look at Oprah Winfrey’s leadership style.

Dream Big Then Dream Bigger

Increase your charisma, be bold & take risks, strive for significance, don't believe in failure, value people, drive change.

I f Oprah Winfrey had allowed her humble beginnings to define what she could achieve, she would never have become as successful and influential as she is today. Instead she harnessed the power of her education and found a career that she was passionate about.

True leaders must have a bold vision, believe in it and people will believe in them as a leader.

Even once she found success with The Oprah Winfrey Show , she had the courage the dream even bigger. She continued to focus on the talk show as the linchpin of her brand, but went into other related areas such as publishing and production which ultimately led to her own television channel, the Oprah Winfrey Network .

Because of this strategy, Oprah Winfrey is not only a celebrity, but also a tycoon. But there is one important leadership trait that transformational leaders share.

Important They are focused on the one thing they have mastery over. While she may seem to be everywhere, she is focused on one area — media. Media is where she excels at, which is why she concentrated on it and worked to have dominance over it.

🔈 Oprah's said

The big secret in life is that there is no big secret. Whatever your goal, you can get there if you’re willing to work.– Oprah Winfrey Click To Tweet

One of Oprah’s principal strengths as a leader has been creating a vision of her success.

Important She’s been communicating that vision to those around her and resolute in its execution. She’s been brave enough to dream big and smart enough to climb step by step.

Most successful people have big dreams and goals that they worked hard to see through. Oprah is no different.

Although she came from nothing, she managed to find a platform to build herself on and succeeded. She always believed that she can turn her dreams into a reality and, with confidence in her abilities, she found the ultimate success.

Forget about the fast lane. If you really want to fly, harness your power to your passion. Honor your calling. Everybody has one. Trust your heart, and success will come to you.

Oprah is not afraid to get behind a myriad of projects at once, and she always makes sure each one is a success.

Her own magazine, called The O Magazine , has been very successful. Oprah’s Book Club, started on her talk show, influences bestseller lists everywhere.

📚 Additional reading

Ms. Winfrey has raised the bar as a genuinely authentic and transformational leader. She exhibits the qualities and competencies that the best business books and executive education programs steer us to attain.

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O prah Winfrey is good at attracting attention from the public because people see her to have a strong temperament. Aside from that, she is very competent when it comes to business.

In the case of Oprah Winfrey, she doesn’t have to force her way for people to like her.

Rather, her approach to reach out and persuade people and her persistence has earned her the trust and praise of people around her. Moreover, she has the will that is grounded in respect and belief that she has compassion as her supports has for her.

Just the name Oprah is analogous with an American national landmark and a global treasure.

She speaks and we listen without one ounce of authority over us; this is pure influence and authenticity at play here people! We do this because she brings a level of integrity, credibility, charisma and emotional intelligence that is hardly surpassed.

If you want to accomplish the goals of your life, you have to begin with the spirit.– Oprah Winfrey Click To Tweet

Leadership isn’t about glorifying ‘self’; it’s about acting with your purest intentions to make your vision a reality.

Ego is any thought, action or intention that makes you think you’re something that you’re not, that takes you further from who you truly are. Leading with your ego is bad for you and, ultimately, it’s bad for business.

Charismatic leaders have many attributes; they are described as having a strong sense of moral values, self-confidence, and having a fierce desire to influence others.

Important Oprah’s leadership style fits with this definition; she is self-confident, dominant, and most definitely influences others. Her “Oprah’s Favorite Things” episodes, which aired annually on her Oprah Winfrey Show and listed her favorite products, were the most watched of all of her shows.

Charisma is more than being engaging or witty. We’re attracted to those who truly listen to us, who give us their undivided focus and leave us feeling seen and heard. Those who dare to be vulnerable and who genuinely want to connect and share and treat us with respect and kindness.

Be vulnerable. This is not about being sad; it’s about being brave.

When you have the courage to share with another person who you are , and what matters, you invite them to do the same. And when this happens, connection occurs.

Have you ever met anyone with whom you’re inexplicably drawn? Their magnetism has nothing to do with their bank balance; there’s just something about them that is irresistible. That’s charisma at work.

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A s a self-made multi-billionaire who grew up through a life of poverty, Oprah does remind us that we are in control of our own destinies , and that our lives are shaped by the choices we make and how we choose to move forward in the face of adversity.

One of the reasons I enjoy watching Oprah is her optimism. Great leaders are optimists.

They believe we can do better . They believe there is a higher calling. They believe there is hope. And that inspires everyone around them to do better, be better and keep pushing forward. Oprah displays this optimism and it helps her bounce back constantly.

Another key traits of Oprah is her willingness to be bold and take risks.

Important Oprah believes risky situations also are significant opportunities. She believes that one of life’s greatest risks is never daring to risk.

Where there is no struggle, there is no strength.– Oprah Winfrey Click To Tweet

Oprah is hard-working and has persevered to get what she wants.

Under her father’s guidance and support, she became an honor student and earned prizes in dramatic recitation and oratory. Oprah became the first female African American billionaire, because of her hard work and her refusal to give up, she went from nearly being sent to juvenile detention to becoming a leading American icon.

To accomplish what Oprah has takes insatiable ambition, drive and focus. It takes an iron stomach of stamina. Her message and example of positivity—to live your best life—endears her to everyone around her.

Important Leaders who are viewed as selfish or unethical are quickly dethroned. Oprah continuously is held in the highest esteem because her humor, relatability , optimism and generosity associate her with a greater good.

Work equals fun. Y ou know you are on the road to success if you would do your job, and not be paid for it.  When you’re doing the work you’re meant to do, it feels right and every day is a bonus, regardless of what you’re getting paid.”

Being a bold leader does not mean being bold without a clear vision, direction or purpose.

Bold leaders channel their bold ideas, opinions, and actions to motivate, inspire, and guide others toward a greater good. They are the ones who stand out in the crowd, challenge norms, and think outside the box.

You CAN have it all. You just can’t have it all at once. The lack of instant success is not failure.

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O prah was born in rural Mississippi with the odds of success overwhelmingly stacked against her, but her dream was never to become a millionaire. She understood from an early age that she was responsible for her own life and that her purpose was to pursue the fullest expression of her true self.

Strive for significance and success will follow. All of her success came as a by-product of that humble vision.

Important As a leader, if you’re able to align your dreams with your values, you can inspire the people around you and move your organization towards success. Your customers will also be able to sense your authenticity and will be more receptive towards you.

Winfrey’s extraordinary success can be partly attributed to how she has managed to align her values with her dreams.

She is a strong proponent of having a positive mindset and being your best self, and she believes that living in alignment with your values will put you on the life path you should be on.

Use your life to serve the world, and you will find that it also serves you.– Oprah Winfrey Click To Tweet

Living a life of service isn’t servitude. It’s understanding that when you lend your light to one person, they’ll shine it on another and another and another.

Excellent service to customers and colleagues is not just about what you do. The story you tell about who you are and why you do what you do is the narrative that really matters, that really moves people and deepens your engagement with them.

Is there a plan, or are you just driving? You want to be in the driver’s seat of your own life, or life will just drive you.

Important You must have some kind of vision for your life. Even if you don’t have a plan, you have to have a direction of where you want to go.

Martin Luther King said that not everybody can be famous but everybody can be great because greatness comes from serving. The real truth is that it takes service and significance.

Every one of us is born with a purpose. I’m talking about a supreme moment of destiny, the reason you are here on earth.

No matter who you are, or how far you think you have to go, you have been tapped by a force greater than yourself to step into your God-given calling. This goes far beyond what you do to earn your living.

Once you find your passion, the world opens up to you in an incredible way. So, take it from Oprah, find what fuels you, then follow it to the ends of Earth.

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O prah realized that failing is a part of succeeding and that much can be learned when plans go awry. In her words, “So go ahead. Fall down. The world looks different from the ground.”

You can never fail if you refuse to lose, especially if you have the necessary self-awareness to turn your wounds into wisdom. Don’t be afraid to fail.

What Oprah has is a unique combination of empathy, determination, and the ability to keep moving forward when all else had fallen apart. Moral of the story? Have passion, believe in your dreams, believe in yourself even when no one else does, and keep going when hope is lost.

If you’ve never failed at something, how do you know when you’re succeeding?

Important The thing is, when you don’t fail, you don’t allow yourself to become stronger in that process , resulting in more resilience — which is a key part of being a successful leader.

I believe the choice to be excellent begins with aligning your thoughts and words with the intention to require more from yourself.– Oprah Winfrey Click To Tweet

While we may not share Oprah’s original challenges, we can all relate to the fear of not being good enough.

We can tell ourselves that it’s a terrible idea, it will never work, and that we need to save ourselves from the pain and embarrassment the idea represents. Or, we can tell ourselves that’s just a story, and it doesn’t have to be our story .

Failure is part of the journey you’re on, and no matter how much you would like to avoid it, you cannot. Instead, you must learn how to better handle it and overcome it.

Important When failure strikes, there is always a lot of things you can do, but often only ONE that you should. Successful leaders are those who remain focused on this ONE solution that will turn failure into success. Don’t get distracted by what you could do.

Failure ultimately shapes you as a leader. Failure is the most powerful source for know-how and understanding.  It teaches you about survival, renewal and reinvention of yourself and the organization you are leading.

If we never take risks, then we never grow. As leaders, we cannot lead quiet, mouse-like existences.

Our teams and our organizations are depending upon us to make decisions that help the organization be successful. We absolutely cannot allow the fear of failed outcome to prevent us from taking risks.

Do the one thing you think you cannot do. Fail at it. Try again. Do better the second time. The only people who never tumble are those who never mount the high wire.

• Sara Blakely – Failure Driven Billionaire

A true leader acknowledges the fact that success need not be a solo endeavor. When forming a team, however, Oprah Winfrey only hires and supports talented people that she believes in.

Winfrey knows that it is necessary to value two important sets of people: her team and her audience.

She surrounded herself with the best people based on their skills and compatibility with organizational values. She inspired them with her vision and rewarded them for their hard work and loyalty (she once gave her 1,000+ employees and their families an all-expenses trip to Hawaii to thank them for their service).

When you take care of your employees, you get people who are willing to lie on the tracks for you. Put people first.

Important Leaders must gain and sustain loyalty from their own team as well as from the community. Oprah demonstrates universally applauded values like self-improvement, positivity and charity.

Surround yourself with only people who are going to lift you higher.– Oprah Winfrey Click To Tweet

If customers bring in the profit, employees are the lifeblood of a company. They make the wheels turn, so business operation goes smoothly.

As a way of thanking them for their efforts, Oprah has been known to lavish her team praises and vacations. She even give handpicked gifts to top staff members. Who doesn’t want a leader like that?

It would not be hard to imagine the efforts that her staff put in to ensure she succeeds, which definitely works to her advantage.

Important Putting people first is a philosophy backed up by a set of actions which prioritizes the people of an organization above all else including shareholder value and profits, even if it means that leaders must make personal sacrifices.

Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others. Help your employees grow by giving them the vision, respect, and autonomy they need to contribute at their full potential.

A people-centric organization explicitly values the happiness and well-being of its people.

It does this not just through slogans or catchphrases, but through developing programs that support employee success. The leaders of people-centric companies understand that it’s people who make their company successful.

Treat your people like people. This strengthens an organization with trusting, mature and inspired employees.

• Herb Kelleher – Leadership Style & Principles In The Spotlight
• Jeff Weiner – Leadership Style & Principles

O prah truly believes that if we want to make changes — be it for ourselves or the world — then we shouldn’t wonder or talk about it; instead, we should work to make it happen.

If one thing characterizes the pioneering leadership of Oprah Winfrey, it’s her absolute willingness to go after whatever she wants, and to manifest her vision.

She not only dreams up a vision, but also communicates it with her team with clarity and then inspires them to help her see it through. Motivating her staff comes naturally for her, and this is one ability that is often considered the best in her list of best leadership practices.

Oprah Winfrey walks the talk, and this alignment of her values with her dreams has attracted like-minded people to work in her organization to great success.

Important Her authenticity is also how she has built such a massive audience. People believe her words and ideas because she clearly believes in them. Your audience can sense if you’re being “real” versus just saying something to sell more product.

Passion is energy. Feel the power that comes from focusing on what excites you.– Oprah Winfrey Click To Tweet

Oprah has unique leadership skills in terms of compassion, ethics, inspiration and justice. She has the ability inspire people because she conforms to what is right and she fights for it.

Important Although she is unable to help everybody, she has the effort to back it up. So, no wonder she is so loved by the people who consider her as a blessing to others.

Organizational change always has to start inside the minds of your people. Once you get people to change the way they think, they’ll start doing things differently and your business strategy comes to life.

As a leader, you must be able to navigate in the inevitable uncertainty that encompasses change, and ensure that your people are not only able but also willing to buy in on your vision. Therefore, driving change is to a large extent about emotions.

Leaders either move actively through an organization or unconsciously. When an unconscious leader attempts to fake their way through culture change they will not create the necessary experiences required to instill the correct beliefs. Without the needed cultural beliefs, actions will not achieve results.

Successful change leaders are willing to set the purpose and direction for the work of others, and clearly identify objectives and deadlines.

They don’t shy away from using forceful speech and setting high demands whenever required, even if it means being tough and assertive, putting people under pressure. But in order to drive change, leaders must also be open and inclusive and ask others for alternative ideas to secure their active involvement.

By empowering others and stimulating personal and professional growth, successful leaders also act as talent magnets, ensuring an efficient leadership pipeline in the organization.

• Change Management – How Leaders Are Driving Change
• Seven Ways High-performing Leaders Forge Clarity

Final Thoughts

O prah Winfrey has been acknowledged as one of the most influential women of her time. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013 by President Obama.

Anybody can be an instant celebrity simply by just catching the attention of followers around the globe.

Important However, being a leader is a different concept because it requires total dedication to the things that you believe. This popularity will last, unlike those who are put in oblivion because they don’t have the leadership qualities that are only bestowed on deserving individuals like Oprah Winfrey.

Oprah is an inspirational figure to many, as a great deal can be learned from her successes.

The road to her vast wealth and influence has not been full of triumphs, her trials were just as essential a part in the making of her successful entrepreneurial career. She is the epitome of success because she never gives up, she always picks back up and is always trying something new, and giving her all to everything she puts her name on.

In Oprah, one can see many of the traits that all leaders strive to acquire. 

An integral trait of entrepreneurs is to never be complacent, as someone else is always working twice as hard as you are, and for more hours in the day. You can never stop trying to reach your potential, and when you do, you have to strive further, as Oprah has.

Lead like Oprah Winfrey and you are likely to write your own success story.

Let’s work to be better versions of ourselves each day and keep spreading the joy of belief to everyone around us! Be a leader! Share your thoughts in the comments section below!

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Leadership is a hero’s journey

The best leaders are not in the business for personal glory or iron-fisted control.

They lead because they seek to serve a higher purpose and use their unique gifts, talents, and skills to make a positive impact on their organizations and the people they encounter.

Do you have the courage to be an authentic leader, to go in and claim that treasure on your own heroic journey?

Oprah Winfrey’s Leadership Style

Oprah Winfrey is an iconic American television talk show host, and a mogul in the entertainment industry. From 1986 to 2011, she hosted The Oprah Winfrey Show , which was the highest rated talk show of in history. She is currently the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Harpo Productions, and Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Operating Officer of the Oprah Winfrey Network (an American television channel).

She is also known for her philanthropy, and is passionate about causes related to education and African-Americans in the United States.

Oprah Winfrey’s Leadership Style: The Top 3 Leadership Qualities of the woman behind the famous TV show and HARPO Productions.

1. 1. dream big.

If Winfrey had allowed her humble beginnings to define what she could achieve, she would never have become as successful and influential as she is today. Instead she harnessed the power of her education and found a career that she was passionate about.

Even once she found success with The Oprah Winfrey Show, she had the courage the dream even bigger. She continued to focus on the talk show as the linchpin of her brand, but went into other related areas such as publishing and production. This ultimately led to her own television channel, the Oprah Winfrey Network.

Have a bold vision, believe in it and people will believe in you as a leader.

2. Value people

Winfrey knew that it was necessary to value two important sets of people: her team and her audience.

Winfrey surrounded herself with the best people based on their skills and compatibility with organizational values. She inspired them with her vision and rewarded them for their hard work and loyalty (she once gave her 1,000+ employees and their families an all-expenses trip to Hawaii to thank them for their service).

For any business, your customers are your #1 priority; Winfrey never forgot this. During the run of The Oprah Winfrey Show , she often had lavish giveaways where her studio audience would be gifted with free stuff. During the last year of her show, she famously gave every audience member a free trip to Australia! More than that, Winfrey was known for listening to her audience and even including them in her shows. This demonstrated care for her audience and so they remained engaged with her show and followed her other projects.

Think about your own business or organization, and the importance of your team and your customers. How can you value them and make them feel appreciated? As a leader, never forget that people are the heart of your business , not profits.

3. Align your dreams with your values

“I had no idea that being your authentic self could make me as rich as I’ve become. If I had, I’d have done it a lot earlier.” Winfrey’s extraordinary success can be partly attributed to how she has managed to align her values with her dreams. She is a strong proponent of having a positive mindset and being your best self, and she believes that living in alignment with your values will put you on the life path you should be on.

Winfrey also believes in the value of hard work, and has worked tirelessly over the years to build her media empire. At the same time, she values giving back and her charitable works and contributions is testament to her desire to make a difference in the lives of those less privileged.

Winfrey walks the talk, and this alignment of her values with her dreams has attracted like-minded people to work in her organization to great success. Her authenticity is also how she has built such a massive audience; people believe her words and ideas because she clearly believes in them. Your audience can sense if you’re being “real” versus just saying something to sell more product.

As a leader, if you’re able to align your dreams with your values, you can inspire the people around you and move your organization towards success. Your customers will also be able to sense your authenticity and will be more receptive towards you.

Who is Oprah Winfrey? A Short Biography

Oprah Winfrey was born on January 29th, 1964 in Mississippi to a teenaged unwed mother. She had a difficult childhood; she grew up in poverty and suffered sexual abuse. She had a troubled relationship with her strict mother and was a rebellious teenager. With her mother at her wit’s end, Winfrey moved to Nashville, Tennessee to live with Vernon Winfrey, her biological father.

Her father encouraged her to do well in school and as a result, Winfrey became an honors student and secured a full scholarship to Tennessee State University by winning a speech contest. She graduated with a degree in communications.

Winfrey started working in the media as a news anchor in Nashville. Her big break came in 1983 when she moved to Chicago to host AM Chicago, a morning talk show. With her as host, the show became the highest-rated talk show in Chicago within months. This success led to the creation of The Oprah Winfrey Show.

The Oprah Winfrey Show became a huge success and at height during 1991-1992, attracted 13.1 million viewers each day. Other than the show, Winfrey set up Harpo Productions, published magazines and started the popular Oprah’s Book Club. She also acted in and/or produced several films, including the acclaimed The Color Purple for which she earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

When her talk show ended in 2011, Winfrey moved on to the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN), a partnership with the Discovery Network. She continues to work at OWN today.

As of 2015, Winfrey’s estimated net worth is $3.1 billion. Her charitable contributions include over $400 million to educational causes, 400 scholarships to Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, $12 million to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture and $10 million to help with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Winfrey is acknowledged as one of the most influential women of her time. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013 by President Obama.

Books about  Oprah Winfrey

What I Know For Sure

Learn all about life and every aspect of the human experience from these unique lessons by Oprah Winfrey. After 14 years of sharing wisdom with worldwide audiences, Oprah Winfrey’s most beloved and cherished thoughts and words are now carefully compiled, edited and updated in this beautiful book.

Oprah Winfrey: 50 Life and Business Lessons from Oprah Winfrey

Oprah Winfrey is the richest African American in history, and her success was self-made. See how she rose from a poor childhood in rural Mississippi to become one of the nation’s most beloved heroines.

The Oprah Winfrey Show: Reflections on an American Legacy

Rarely has there been such a versatile, eclectic and widely popular celebrity like Oprah Winfrey. Her famous talk show reached unmatched worldwide success making her name synonymous with success in all corners of the world. In this book, Oprah Winfrey reveals the secrets of her success.

Oprah Winfrey Leadership Video

Listen to Oprah’s 2013 commencement speech at Harvard:

Further Reading

If you liked this post, consider checking out our post on the Top 15 Leadership Quotes from Oprah Winfrey .

Oprah Winfrey Leadership Qualities

Updated On: November 20, 2023

Communication

Before we get into it... who am i?

Always good to put a name to a face, so firstly, my name is Hope!

Like you, I was stuck working 8-10 hour days building someone else’s dream.

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To a lot of people that’s a dream, but to me… something was missing.

All I really wanted, was to actually enjoy life – more vacations, less stress, buy myself nice things without worrying about the cost… but that was something my 9-5 couldn’t provide me.

That was until a few years ago when I discovered a way to make money online by actually helping real people. 

People in this case were local business owners across the US.

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They have no clue what it’s actually like to run the different types of businesses they write about.

I have absolutely no relationship with this program, so you can rest easy knowing I’m going to give you my honest opinion.

This review is written based on my own experiences with this business model.

All that being said, let’s jump into things.

Yesterday on Blog Talk Radio, Center for Work Life held a live trivia session called  How has EI helped an entertainment mogul emerge and explode?  We discussed a globally recognized entertainment businesswomen and how that individual built her success on emotional intelligence. Though the chat was designed to be a guessing game, feel free to check it out for some extra information you may not have known about Oprah.

New Conscious Biz Podcasts  with  Top Performer  on BlogTalkRadio

This brings us to the focus of today’s post: Oprah Winfrey and her leadership qualities. Overcoming abuse in her childhood, Oprah has taken life like a bull by the horns and has carved out a place for herself in history. Her courage, wisdom and genuine nature have landed her numerous awards and the respect of millions worldwide. Among other game changers such as Margaret Thatcher and Neil Armstrong, Oprah has received numerous awards including the  Presidential Medal of Freedom . But what are her values at her core, and the actions in her life, that drove these accomplishments? Below are some ideas.

Leadership Qualities of Oprah Winfrey

1. emotionally intelligent.

Emotional Intelligence (EI) boosts self-awareness, monitors feelings, improves communication skills and increases social awareness. In addition it helps prevent conflict and strengthen  mediation skills . This can be easily seen through Oprah’s leadership style . Her awareness of her own vision has led her to achieve big goals while her listening skills and empathy have enabled her to motivate others.

2. Relatable

Oprah once said “I am a woman in process. I’m just trying like everybody else. I try to take every conflict, every experience, and learn from it. Life is never dull.” ( Brainy Quote ). Though she’s not a doctor or psychologist, people trust Oprah with their darkest secrets and invite her to share in their greatest accomplishments. Personal battles with  struggles like weight gain  which she has openly shared through the years are issues with which people can identify. People follow leaders who are transparent and relatable.

3. Humanist

Being an empathetic and caring individual, Oprah doesn’t take justice and humanitarian issues lightly. Refusing to hold her tongue or hide in the shadows,  her history for philanthropy  and fighting for the common good is nearly unparalleled. From initiating the National Child Protection Act in 1991 ( Oprah.com ) to transforming lives for the better through education with initiatives such as  The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls , Oprah has proven the power of one strong leader to positively impact many lives.

4. Inspirational

Oprah is the epitome of leading by example. Her focus on being the best person she can be, translates to the way other people choose to live their lives in response. Sure, Oprah gives advice and offers suggestions to others in hard times, but it is her nature to always be improving professionally and personally that inspires people to take her advice.

Read Our In Depth Breakdown Of The Top 5 Communication Courses For 2024

Of course, there are many more important Oprah Winfrey leadership qualities. But, what does this all boil down to? You change yourself, you change the world. Oprah said “The greatest discovery of all time is that a person can change his future by merely changing his attitude” ( Goodreads ).

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Oprah Winfrey Leadership Style (Guide)

Oprah Winfrey is a leading figure in the world of business and an icon of influential leadership. Her success as a businesswoman and media personality is a testament to her unique leadership style and strategies. Oprah’s leadership approach is characterized by empowering others and inspiring change. In this article, we will explore Oprah Winfrey’s leadership style , influential leadership traits , and successful leadership strategies that have made her a role model for aspiring leaders worldwide.

Key Takeaways:

• Oprah Winfrey’s leadership style is characterized by empowering others and inspiring change.
• Her influential leadership traits have propelled her to the forefront of the entertainment industry.
• Oprah’s successful leadership strategies include leading with empathy and embracing failure as a learning opportunity.
• Her empowering leadership approach has created a supportive and nurturing environment.
• Leaders can implement Oprah’s leadership lessons by leading with empathy, embracing failure , and being authentic.

Table of Contents

The Power of Vision: Oprah’s Leadership Principles

Oprah Winfrey’s leadership is built on her visionary leadership principles , successful leadership strategies , and transformational leadership style . Central to her leadership approach is the power of vision. Oprah believes that success is not a matter of chance, but a deliberate choice to follow one’s dreams. She encourages individuals to identify their passions, set meaningful goals, and work tirelessly towards achieving them.

“The biggest adventure you can take is to live the life of your dreams.” – Oprah Winfrey

By inspiring others to dream big and pursue their aspirations, Oprah empowers individuals to unlock their full potential and make impactful changes in their lives.

Oprah’s visionary leadership principles have guided her throughout her career, enabling her to achieve remarkable success in various endeavors. Her ability to envision the future, coupled with her unwavering determination, has propelled her to great heights.

One compelling example of Oprah’s visionary leadership is the creation of her media empire, including the renowned Oprah Winfrey Network. She saw the opportunity to use television as a platform for empowering and uplifting others, defying traditional norms and paving the way for inclusive and diverse programming.

In addition to her visionary mindset, Oprah embraces a transformational leadership style . She understands that leadership is not just about achieving personal success but also about fostering growth and inspiring positive change in others.

“Leadership is about empathy. It is about having the ability to relate to and connect with people for the purpose of inspiring and empowering them.” – Oprah Winfrey

Through her leadership, Oprah cultivates a sense of purpose, encourages personal development, and creates an environment where individuals can thrive. She leads by example, embodying the values and principles she espouses.

Key Elements of Oprah’s Visionary and Transformational Leadership:

• Belief in the power of dreams and passions
• Setting meaningful goals and working towards their achievement
• Inspiring others to embrace their potential
• Fostering growth and development in individuals
• Leading by example and embodying core values
• Promoting inclusivity and diversity
• Empowering others to make a positive impact

Oprah’s visionary leadership principles and transformational leadership style have not only shaped her own success but have also inspired countless individuals around the world. The combination of her strategic vision, commitment to personal growth, and dedication to empowering others makes her a true role model for aspiring leaders.

In the next section, we will explore another crucial aspect of Oprah’s leadership approach: empathy and connection.

Empathy and Connection: Oprah’s Leadership Approach

One of the key aspects of Oprah Winfrey’s leadership approach is her empowering leadership approach , which emphasizes the importance of understanding and connecting with others. Oprah believes that effective leaders must be able to empathize with those around them and recognize their perspectives and struggles. By doing so, leaders can build meaningful connections and foster a supportive and inclusive environment.

Oprah possesses exceptional communication skills that she uses to inspire and uplift others. Through her talk show, Oprah has impacted millions of lives by sharing her own experiences and inviting guests to open up about their challenges. Her authenticity and vulnerability have been instrumental in creating a strong bond with her audience and team members.

By actively listening and showing genuine care, Oprah establishes a deep connection with others. She understands the power of empathy in building trust and encouraging collaboration. Whether on screen or off, Oprah’s inspirational leadership qualities shine through as she motivates and empowers those around her.

The Benefits of Empathy and Connection in Leadership

When leaders possess the ability to empathize and connect with others, several benefits can arise:

• Improved teamwork and collaboration: Empathy helps build trust and foster an environment of mutual support, leading to better teamwork and collaboration within the organization.
• Enhanced communication: By understanding others’ perspectives, leaders can effectively communicate and address their team members’ needs, resulting in clearer and more impactful messaging.
• Increased employee engagement: When leaders show genuine care and empathy, employees feel valued and motivated, leading to higher levels of engagement and productivity.
• Stronger relationships: Building connections based on empathy and understanding creates stronger bonds among team members, leading to a more harmonious and supportive work environment.

Overall, Oprah Winfrey’s leadership approach demonstrates the power of empathy and connection in inspiring and empowering others. By embracing these qualities, leaders can cultivate an inclusive and supportive culture that fosters growth and success.

Embracing Failure: Lessons from Oprah’s Leadership Journey

Oprah Winfrey’s leadership journey has been marked by numerous challenges and failures. However, she has always embraced failure as a learning opportunity rather than letting it hinder her success. She encourages others to view failure as a teacher and an integral part of the process towards success. By embracing failure , Oprah has been able to grow, innovate, and continuously improve her leadership skills. Her ability to bounce back from setbacks is a testament to her influential leadership traits and successful leadership strategies.

The Power of Learning from Failure

Failure is often seen as a negative outcome, something to be avoided or feared. However, Oprah Winfrey’s leadership style challenges this perception by emphasizing the value of failure as a catalyst for growth. Instead of dwelling on mistakes or setbacks, she uses them as stepping stones to achieve greater success.

Oprah believes that embracing failure is essential for personal and professional development. It fosters resilience, adaptability, and the ability to think critically. By acknowledging her own failures and learning from them, she sets an example for others to do the same.

Embracing Failure as a Catalyst for Growth

Oprah’s journey is a testament to the power of embracing failure. Through her own experiences, she has learned valuable lessons and developed influential leadership traits that have propelled her to success.

One of the key lessons Oprah teaches is that failure offers an opportunity to reflect, reassess, and make necessary changes. It allows leaders to reassess their strategies, identify areas for improvement, and develop new approaches.

Moreover, embracing failure enables leaders to take risks and step out of their comfort zones. It instills a sense of courage and fearlessness, empowering leaders to innovate and explore uncharted territories.

Successful Leadership Strategies Born from Failure

Oprah’s ability to embrace failure has led her to develop successful leadership strategies that continue to shape her journey. These strategies are founded on resilience, self-reflection, and a growth mindset.

Oprah Winfrey’s leadership journey serves as a reminder that failure is not an endpoint but a stepping stone to success. By embracing failure, leaders can cultivate influential leadership traits, develop successful leadership strategies, and propel themselves and their teams towards greater achievements.

Impactful Philanthropy: Oprah’s Leadership Legacy

Oprah Winfrey’s leadership extends beyond the realm of business and entertainment. She has made a significant impact through her philanthropic efforts, exemplifying an empowering leadership approach . Guided by her influential leadership traits and transformational leadership style , Oprah believes in the value of giving back and making a positive difference in the world.

Throughout her career, Oprah has generously donated millions of dollars to numerous causes, schools, and educational programs, empowering individuals and communities to strive for success. Her philanthropic endeavors reflect her commitment to creating a better future for all.

By leveraging her success and resources, Oprah has been able to transform lives and inspire others to embrace their own potential. Her influential leadership traits, such as empathy, compassion, and resilience, have played a crucial role in her philanthropic success. Through her transformational leadership style , she fosters a sense of purpose, engagement, and empowerment among those she helps.

Oprah Winfrey’s impactful philanthropy is a testament to her leadership legacy and her belief in the power of unity and shared prosperity. Her commitment to making a positive difference continues to inspire individuals and organizations around the world.

Breaking Barriers: Oprah’s Leadership in the Media Industry

Oprah Winfrey’s leadership in the media industry has been nothing short of extraordinary. As a trailblazer and a role model for aspiring leaders, she has shattered barriers and paved the way for other women and minorities to thrive in the competitive world of media.

Oprah’s influential leadership traits, visionary leadership principles, and successful leadership strategies have propelled her to the forefront of the entertainment industry, positioning her as one of the most respected and influential figures in media.

Challenging the Status Quo

Oprah’s journey as the first African American woman to own and produce her own talk show is a testament to her determination and resilience. Through her groundbreaking show, The Oprah Winfrey Show , she revolutionized the talk show format, bringing a fresh and authentic approach that resonated with viewers worldwide.

By challenging the status quo and confronting sensitive topics, Oprah disrupted traditional norms and provided a platform for meaningful conversations. Her fearlessness and commitment to giving a voice to unheard stories have created a lasting impact on the media landscape.

Create a Beautiful table

Throughout her career, Oprah has embraced new opportunities, continually pushing boundaries and expanding her influence.

Empowering Others to Succeed

Oprah’s leadership approach is rooted in empowering others to succeed. She has become a mentor and advocate for individuals seeking personal and professional growth. Through various philanthropic initiatives, she has provided educational opportunities to underprivileged communities, inspiring a generation to overcome adversity and pursue their dreams.

By leveraging her influential leadership traits and visionary leadership principles, Oprah has fostered a culture of creativity , collaboration, and excellence. Her commitment to uplifting others has not only transformed the lives of countless individuals but has also left an indelible mark on the media industry as a whole.

Implementing Oprah’s Leadership Lessons

Leaders can learn valuable insights from Oprah Winfrey’s leadership style and apply them to their own professional journey. By incorporating successful leadership strategies such as leading with empathy, embracing failure, and being authentic, individuals can cultivate their own impactful leadership style and inspire others.

Leading with Empathy

One of the key aspects of Oprah’s leadership is her ability to empathize with others and establish a deep connection. By understanding the perspectives and struggles of team members, leaders can create a supportive and inclusive environment. Practicing active listening, demonstrating genuine care, and valuing diverse viewpoints are essential for leading with empathy.

Embracing Failure as a Learning Opportunity

Oprah Winfrey’s journey is a testament to the importance of embracing failure as a stepping stone to success. Leaders should view failures as valuable learning experiences and opportunities for growth. By embracing failure, leaders can encourage innovative thinking, resilience, and continuous improvement among their teams.

Being Authentic and Transparent

Oprah’s authenticity and transparency have been pivotal in establishing trust and fostering meaningful connections. By being true to oneself and openly communicating with others, leaders can create an environment where individuals feel valued and motivated. Authenticity promotes open dialogue, encourages collaboration, and nurtures a positive organizational culture.

Essential Leadership Lessons from Oprah Winfrey:

• Lead with empathy, understanding the perspectives and struggles of others.
• Embrace failure as a learning opportunity and encourage innovation.
• Be authentic and transparent, fostering trust and meaningful connections.

By implementing these leadership lessons inspired by Oprah Winfrey’s leadership style, individuals can cultivate their own successful leadership strategies and make a positive impact in their organizations.

Oprah Winfrey’s leadership style is a true testament to the power of influential leadership traits and successful leadership strategies. Her innate ability to inspire and empower others has established her as a highly respected and admired leader in various fields. By embracing Oprah’s vision, leading with empathy, and embracing failure as a learning opportunity, individuals can incorporate her transformative leadership principles into their own leadership journey.

Oprah’s legacy as a transformative leader will continue to inspire generations to come. Her empowering leadership approach , coupled with her visionary leadership principles, has allowed her to break barriers and create meaningful change in both the business and entertainment industries. Through her philanthropic efforts, Oprah has demonstrated the impact of leadership that extends beyond personal success, making a positive difference in the lives of others.

By implementing Oprah Winfrey’s leadership lessons, individuals can cultivate their own unique leadership style. By leading with authenticity, empathy, and resilience, they can inspire others, create meaningful connections, and achieve their goals. Oprah’s leadership journey serves as a guiding light, reminding us of the power of influential leadership traits and successful leadership strategies in making a lasting impact.

What is Oprah Winfrey’s leadership style?

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8 Oprah Winfrey Leadership Style Secrets

Knowing the Secrets Behind Oprah Winfrey’s Leadership Style Talk show host, American media proprietor, actress, producer, businesswoman and philanthropist, Oprah Winfrey has several titles attached to her name, all of which comes with great responsibilities which she breezes through impressively. So it is no surprise that she is also one of the most powerful and influential women in the world, someone who affect change in a positive way and inspire others at the same time. These traits also make her a great leader. In a report in Forbes, it is said that she has been known to rely on a “leadership philosophy that prioritizes people, vision and values”. So, if you are looking for a leader to emulate, Oprah Winfrey is an ideal choice.

Her achievements today would not have been possible if she was not equipped with the right characteristics, strengths and weaknesses.

• She is open to new experiences, which is evident in many of the titles and roles that she play. What is even better is that she owns them all.
• She is conscientious in everything that she does, exercising fairness to others.
• She cares about others beyond her circle, which is why she set up charitable organizations that garnered here the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civil honor in America.

In her shows, millions of viewers can clearly see her energy, outgoing personality, positivity, encouragement, and her awareness about other people.

Based on leadership evaluation, Oprah Winfrey is a transformational leader who rules by inspiring others. She has the charisma and confidence to influence other people. Transformational leadership is covered in four components:

1. Inspirational motivation –  Ability to inspire followers through motivation and by clearly expressing high expectations to them.

2. Individualized consideration –  Ability to listen carefully and consider individual concerns of each follower.

3. Idealized influence –  Attracts attention and admiration while inspiring and influencing others at the same time.

4. Intellectual stimulation –  Encourages followers to be creative and innovative.

Here is a look at Oprah Winfrey’s leadership style.

1. She strategically selects members of her team.

A true leader acknowledges the fact that success need not be a solo endeavor. When forming a team, however, Oprah Winfrey only hires and supports talented people that she believes in. Dr. Oz, Suze Orman and Liz Dolan are just some of the people that she surrounds herself with. The benefits work two ways – they boost her brand and they get wide exposure in return. Working with one of the world’s powerful women is not too bad either.

2. She values excellent mentorship.

According to biographer Kitty Kelley, Oprah credits her initial success with her long-term partnership with lawyer Jeff Jacobs. He was one crucial factor, that is. She also made it a point to build mentor relationships with industry experts, especially during her earlier years. This only shows that it is wrong to think that leaders only lead. They need guidance too from trusted mentors and industry insiders. So anyone who claims they don’t need anyone’s advice and input to perform their duties is not a true leader.

3. She values her customers.

In the business world, clients bring in the profit. Without them, a company would fail, which is why excellent customer service is a top priority. Oprah recognizes this and shows her appreciation to her viewers by giving them generous gifts, and studio audience get so lucky, especially during the holidays or even when there is no particular occasion. She can be very extravagant too. More than the gifts, however, she also listens to them and even integrates them in her shows. Gifts and an ear who listens would make anyone wish they can be one of Oprah’s studio audience.

4. She strategically extends her brand.

What started out as a brand in television, branched out into radio, magazines, movies, subsidiary TV shows, and then an entire network. She made all these happen by extending her brand strategically. Because of this strategy, Oprah Winfrey is not only a celebrity, but also a tycoon.

But there is one important leadership trait that transformational leaders share, they are focused on the one thing they have mastery and expertise over. While she may seem to be everywhere, she is focused on one area – media, with the exception of charity works. Media is where she excels at, which is why she concentrated on it and worked to have dominance over it.

5. She takes care of her employees.

If customers bring in the profit, employees are the lifeblood of a company. They make the wheels turn, so business operation goes smoothly. As a way of thanking them for their efforts, Oprah has been known to lavish her team praises and vacations. She even give handpicked gifts to top staff members. Who doesn’t want a leader like that?

It would not be hard to imagine the efforts that her staff put in to ensure she succeeds, which definitely works to her advantage.

6. She dreams big.

Most successful people have big dreams and goals that they worked hard to see through. Oprah is no different. Although she came from nothing, she managed to find a platform to build herself on and succeeded. She always believed that she can turn her dreams into a reality and, with confidence in her abilities, she found the ultimate success – from talk show host to owner of an entire network.

7. She clearly communicates her visions.

Remember inspirational motivation? Oprah Winfrey definitely has this particular characteristic. She not only dreams up a vision, but also communicates it with her team with clarity and then inspires them to help her see it through. Motivating her staff comes naturally for her, and this is one ability that is often considered the best in her list of best leadership practices.

8. She cares for the community.

Her dedication to her charitable works and foundation is a testament to Oprah’s social conscience. It also made her one of those people who is lauded for her positivity, self-improvement and charity. Such traits allow her to gain and sustain loyalty from her followers and from the community.

Lead like Oprah Winfrey and you are likely to write your own success story.

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Oprah Winfrey Leadership Qualities

This Blog has been featured by the  West Orange Chamber of Commerce . Sources such as  HLN  have also been home to publications by Dr. Farnaz Namin-Hedayati and she has been cited by the  Orlando Business Journal . 

Yesterday on Blog Talk Radio, Center for Work Life held a live trivia session called How has EI helped an entertainment mogul emerge and explode?  We discussed a globally recognized entertainment businesswomen and how that individual built her success on emotional intelligence . Though the chat was designed to be a guessing game, feel free to check it out for some extra information you may not have known about Oprah.

This brings us to the focus of today’s post: Oprah Winfrey and her leadership qualities. Overcoming abuse in her childhood, Oprah has taken life like a bull by the horns and has carved out a place for herself in history. Her courage, wisdom and genuine nature have landed her numerous awards and the respect of millions worldwide. Among other game changers such as Margaret Thatcher and Neil Armstrong, Oprah has received numerous awards including the Presidential Medal of Freedom . But what are her values at her core, and the actions in her life, that drove these accomplishments? Below are some ideas.

Leadership Qualities of Oprah Winfrey

1. Emotionally Intelligent

Emotional Intelligence (EI) boosts self-awareness, monitors feelings, improves communication skills and increases social awareness. In addition it helps prevent conflict and strengthen mediation skills . This can be easily seen through Oprah’s leadership style. Her awareness of her own vision has led her to achieve big goals while her listening skills and empathy have enabled her to motivate others.

2. Relatable

Oprah once said “I am a woman in process. I’m just trying like everybody else. I try to take every conflict, every experience, and learn from it. Life is never dull.” ( Brainy Quote ). Though she’s not a doctor or psychologist, people trust Oprah with their darkest secrets and invite her to share in their greatest accomplishments. Personal battles with struggles like weight gain which she has openly shared through the years are issues with which people can identify. People follow leaders who are transparent and relatable.

3. Humanist

Being an empathetic and caring individual, Oprah doesn’t take justice and humanitarian issues lightly. Refusing to hold her tongue or hide in the shadows, her history for philanthropy and fighting for the common good is nearly unparalleled. From initiating the National Child Protection Act in 1991 ( Oprah.com ) to transforming lives for the better through education with initiatives such as The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls , Oprah has proven the power of one strong leader to positively impact many lives.

4. Inspirational

Oprah is the epitome of leading by example. Her focus on being the best person she can be, translates to the way other people choose to live their lives in response. Sure, Oprah gives advice and offers suggestions to others in hard times, but it is her nature to always be improving professionally and personally that inspires people to take her advice.

Of course, there are many more important Oprah Winfrey leadership qualities. But, what does this all boil down to? You change yourself, you change the world. Oprah said “The greatest discovery of all time is that a person can change his future by merely changing his attitude” ( Goodreads ).

Photo Credit: Wickerfurniture via Flickr

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The Essence of Leadership: Warren Buffet and Oprah Winfrey Report (Assessment)

Executive summary, introduction, conclusion and recommendations, reference list.

This report provides an analysis of leadership as one of the most important elements in the success of states, organisations, and societies. This analysis has been done by identifying two successful leaders who include Warren Buffet and Oprah Winfrey. The report illustrates their personal profile in the effort to illustrate their leadership capacity.

To understand the concept of leadership, the report evaluates the leadership qualities that the two leaders have developed. Moreover, it also evaluates the leadership styles that have been adopted by the two leaders. Through the evaluation, Warren Buffet is identified as the most effective leader. In conclusion, the report recommends what the leaders can do to be successful and/or be able to deal with diverse issues that emerge from leadership positions.

Background Information

Leadership refers to the ability of an individual to influence others towards attaining their goals. Any group of people, an organisation, or a country that has no proper leadership in place is prone to conflicts that arise between or among different individuals. The reason behind the conflicts rests on the fact that the organisation, for instance, has no one to steer the affected category towards a specific direction while taking care of the demands of the people he or she leads.

Therefore, a leader can be compared to a vehicle’s steering wheel without which the vehicle cannot follow a targeted route. How does one become a leader? Ricketts and Ricketts (2011) reveal that leadership is a learnt behaviour. Hence, anyone has the capacity to acquire leadership skills if he or she is committed to developing such skills. The authors observe that the main role of leaders is to serve. Thus, leaders play a critical role in the proper functioning of organisations, states, nations, and communities.

Leaders possess unique characteristics such as respect, responsibility, confidence, and poise. Many people envy these traits. Numerous leaders have emerged over the years. However, their level of success varies significantly. Blanchard and Miller (2012, p. 1) assert, “Some leaders soar above others”. This claim means that although two leaders may be leading under a similar capacity, it is very rare for the two leaders to demonstrate similar headship styles.

Subsequently, one can assert that the extent to which leaders are able to influence others is dependent on their personal growth. Considering the changing environment, leaders have an obligation to enhance their growth. Needle (2011) identifies poor leadership as one of the major reasons why some organisations have incurred substantial losses. Warren Buffet and Oprah Winfrey are ranked amongst the most successful leaders in the world. Their success is associated with a number of factors.

This report evaluates what has made Warren Buffet and Oprah Winfrey very successful in their leadership.

Leaders’ Profile

Warren buffet.

Warren Edward Buffet was born on 30 th August 1930 in Omaha, Nebraska. He is a United States’ citizen. He has a Master of Science (MSc.) in economics from Lincoln Columbia Business School from Nebraska University. He is the chairperson and chief executive officer of Berkshire Hathaway.

Buffet has developed himself into an investor, philanthropist, and a business magnate. He is ranked amongst the greatest investors of the 21 st century and amongst the wealthiest individuals in the world. Despite this enormous wealth, Warren Buffet is a strict adherent to personal frugality as one of his values. In 2012, the Times Magazine ranked Buffet amongst the most influential individuals in the world. Buffet supports different philanthropic courses through the Bill Gates Foundation.

Oprah Winfrey

Oprah Gail Winfrey was born on 29 th January 1954 in Montecito, California. She is an American citizen. She is one of the most renowned media proprietors, producer, talks show host, and a philanthropist. Her talk show ‘The Oprah Winfrey Show’ has won numerous awards over the years.

Besides, it is the highest-rated television programmes in the US. Oprah is one of the wealthiest African-American of the 21 st century. She is the chairperson, chief operating officer, and chief executive officer of Oprah Winfrey Network. She is also the CEO and chair of Harpo Productions. In addition to being a businessperson, Oprah is also a philanthropist.

She is ranked the greatest black American philanthropists. Other assessments have also considered Winfrey one of the most influential individuals of the 21 st century. In 2013, Barack Obama, the US President, awarded Oprah the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Harvard University also awarded Oprah an honorary doctorate degree.

Leadership Qualities

Warren Buffet has demonstrated a number of leadership qualities. Some of these qualities are evaluated herein.

Communication

Effective communication is a critical component in one’s quest to position himself or herself as a leader. According to Siraj-Blatchford and Manni (2010), communication is both multi-directional and multi-functional.

This characteristic arises from the fact that it entails a number of aspects, which include speaking, interpreting, listening, consulting, reflecting, summarising, debating, verifying, acknowledging, and translating. Leaders who possess adequate communication skills are able to integrate a sense of vision, consistency, and ethos amongst their followers.

Warren Buffet has developed adequate communication skills. He is cognisant of the importance of selecting the right place and time in order to communicate to the targeted parties. Moreover, Buffet appreciates the importance of understanding the people that he intends to reach before the actual communication. Subsequently, he listens to the target stakeholders, which improve his ability to communicate the intended message.

According to Roberts and Hanna (2012), humility is an important leadership attribute because it authenticates humanity. However, many leaders often overlook it. If one intends to be an effective leader, he or she must be humble. Humility comprises a number of aspects, which include compassion, concern, sincerity, patience, and being ‘down to earth’.

Previous studies show that humble leaders depict a sense of modesty and restraint. Moreover, a humble individual appreciates the fact that human beings are not perfect but rather frail creatures. In line with this position, Buffet acknowledges that individuals have weaknesses and strengths.

Buffet’s humility is evidenced by his philanthropic tendencies, which are aimed at improving the wellbeing of the less fortunate people in the society.

For example, in 2006, he donated $1.5 billion to Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Over the years, Buffet has consistently emphasised the value of sharing the wealth in improving the society’s welfare. In addition to the above, Buffet is very caring and loving. He is detail-oriented and committed towards ensuring that other people feel important to him despite their personal or professional background.

According to Goudreau (2010), foresight is a major element that has contributed towards Buffet’s success as a leader. Over the years, he has held different positions that have enabled him garner sufficient knowledge and experience on different issues. He is able to apply the knowledge gained in dealing with diverse issues.

Moreover, Buffet is able to apply the lessons learned in predicting the future. His foresight characteristic is evidenced by the fact that he has become one of the most successful investors of the 21 st century. His foresight quality has made Buffet one of the most sought advisors on financial and economic matters.

Leading by Example

According to Llopis (2013), leading by example is not as simple as it sounds. Subsequently, only few leaders adhere to this value. However, successful leaders tend to practice what they advocate.

Moreover, they are keen on their actions because they recognise the fact that they are being watched by many people. His capability to lead by example is illustrated by his commitment in honouring the pledges that he has made to various philanthropic foundations. In addition to money, Buffet also sacrifices a substantial amount of his time in assisting individuals who have trouble.

Successful leaders are very effective in motivating others. Nelson and Quick (2011) define motivation as the process of stirring and maintaining goal-directed behaviour amongst followers. Warren’s leadership characteristic as a motivator is illustrated by the fact that he listens and respects the contribution of his juniors. For example, he respects the opinion of his managers regarding the operation of his business.

He depicts a high level of trust and forgiveness to his followers. Furthermore, his ability to motivate others is evidenced by the fact that he delegates tasks to other individuals as a way of giving them a sense of responsibility. Delegation gives other employees an opportunity to progress in their career. Moreover, Buffet is cognisant of the significance of teamwork. Subsequently, he loves to interact and discuss with others on different issues.

Businesses cannot rule out the possibility of an economic recession. The likelihood of businesses to survive during such periods is dependent on management’s ability to invest the company’s funds. Subsequently, it is imperative for business leaders to be conscious of the importance of saving.

Buffet has demonstrated high levels of frugality with regard to saving. Thus, he has developed sufficient money saving skills. This strategy has played a critical role in his success as a leader. Moreover, his frugality has significantly enhanced the level of respect from his followers.

Leadership Qualities of Oprah Winfrey

Similar to Warren Buffet, Oprah Winfrey’s success as one of the most influential people in the world has arisen from a number of leadership qualities. Below is an analysis of some of the qualities that have made Oprah a successful leader.

Emotional Intelligence

Previous studies have linked leadership success to emotional intelligence. In the course of executing their duties, leaders encounter different emotional situations that might affect their performance. Emotional intelligence plays a critical role in improving an individual’s communication skills because one develops a high level of self-awareness, hence improving his or her ability to monitor his or her feelings.

Moreover, emotional awareness contributes to a high level of social awareness, which is a critical element in developing sufficient mediation skills. Oprah Winfrey has a high level of emotional intelligence, which is evidenced by her awareness on her personal vision. Subsequently, she has attained high levels of success.

Winfrey appreciates the importance of teamwork. As a result, she motivates her followers using a simple strategy, which entails investing in top talents. Oprah is committed towards motivating her followers using her TV talk show. For example, she invites renowned and successful personalities to mentor her followers.

Moreover, she values the relationship that she has developed with other people. Moreover, she has surrounded herself with the most influential and successful individuals. Oprah does not discriminate individuals based on any variable. On the contrary, she interacts with individuals of all occupations. Moreover, she empathises with people who have different needs in the society.

Oprah is committed towards becoming the best that the can be in society. Subsequently, she invests a lot of time towards improving her success. Oprah advises her followers on how they can deal with hard times in order to be successful both personally and professionally.

Oprah has developed herself into a caring and empathetic person, as evidenced by her focus on justice and humanitarian issues. Over the years, Oprah has aired her voice on different issues affecting the society. In fact, her commitment led to the formulation of the National Child Protection Act of 1991 in the US. Moreover, the commitment to transform the lives of other individuals is also evidenced by the establishment of the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls.

Comparison of Warren Buffet and Oprah Winfrey’s Leadership Styles

A comparison of leadership styles is important in determining whether there is any need to abandon or strengthen the styles for the benefit of those who are led. A leadership style refers to the approach or manner that an individual adopts in providing direction to his or her followers, motivating people, and implementing diverse operational plans.

Different leadership styles have been developed in the effort to guarantee the best service to people. Some of these styles include democratic or participative, laissez-faire or delegative style, and autocratic or authoritarian style.

Leaders adopt different leadership styles in an effort to achieve their goals. Warren Buffet has demonstrated a democratic leadership style. He nurtures a high level of collaboration with his followers. Moreover, he is committed towards developing an environment conducive for working.

Other elements that Warren Buffet focuses on in the course of controlling his companies include developing mutual trust, effective communication and respect for all. He is considered one of the most forgiving and loving leaders. He also recognises the contribution of the junior employees besides giving credit where it is due.

Moreover, Warren has also integrated servant leadership style. Silber and Kearny (2010) define this type of leadership as a style that is focused on serving others.

Servant leadership contributes towards the sharing of power with various individuals and groups. Some of the most notable qualities that positions Buffet as a servant leader is his empathy and motivation. Buffet has adopted Theory Y in an effort to motivate his followers and employees. Subsequently, he assigns challenging tasks to employees in an effort to stimulate them to attain their career and personal goals.

Unlike Warren Buffet, Oprah Winfrey has adopted delegative or the laissez-faire and transformational leadership styles (Bass & Steidlmeier 2002). The laissez-faire leadership style is utilised in situations whereby the leader delegates tasks to experienced individuals to undertake a particular task.

Subsequently, the leader recognises that he or she is not conversant with everything. Oprah Winfrey is a courageous woman who takes the bull by its horn. She is not shy to try new issues. Over the years, she has demonstrated a high level of determination and knowledge.

Moreover, Oprah has also integrated transformational leadership style as evidenced by the fact that she surrounds herself with experienced and brilliant individuals who have remarkably influenced her success. She is committed towards breaking out of her comfort zone and learning new issues. This strategy has played a critical role in her success as both a celebrity and a business personality.

Oprah Winfrey is committed towards transforming the life of other individuals. To achieve this noble goal, she has developed a strong team, which is charged with the responsibility of seeking brilliant and successful people from whom her followers can learn.

She also motivates individuals to believe in themselves and become the best in whatever that they do. Her transformational leadership style is further enhanced by the fact that she is very charismatic. Her charismatic nature is further enhanced by the fact that she inspires confidence amongst her followers.

Comparison of the Two Leaders

The above analysis shows that the two leaders are very influential. The two leaders have demonstrated adequate capacity to influence their followers positively. Subsequently, they have positioned themselves as role models to many people around the world. Their leadership acumen has played a fundamental role in motivating other individuals to attain their career and personal objectives.

In my own assessment, Warren Buffet stands out to be a more effective leader compared to Oprah Winfrey. This inference is evidenced by the numerous leadership qualities that he has developed over the years as discussed above. Moreover, his effectiveness in leadership is also illustrated by the fact that he has steered Berkshire Hathaway to be one of the most successful businesses in the US.

Besides, he is committed towards developing an environment that is conducive for working. Consequently, he has adopted a democratic leadership style. As a result, he allocates challenging tasks to other employees, hence providing them with an opportunity to attain their career goals.

He is also very frugal with regard to finance. This trait has greatly contributed towards his success as a leader with regard to investment. Aspects such as his level of philanthropy and the extent to which he advocates other people to be concerned about improving the wellbeing of other people also illustrate his commitment in leading by example.

The above analysis identifies leadership as one of the most important determinants in the success of organisations and countries. Warren Buffet and Oprah Winfrey are identified as some of the most influential people of the 21 st century. Their ability to influence their followers has emanated from their commitment and level of focus with regard to leadership.

The report indicates that it is imperative for leaders to ensure that they develop effective leadership skills. Some of the skills that they need to consider include leading by example, humility, motivation, foresight, effective communication, humility, emotional intelligence, and being socially responsible.

It is imperative for leaders to integrate effective leadership styles to influence the behaviour of their followers successfully. Furthermore, it is critical for the two leaders to grow their leadership capability continuously. This strategy will enhance their capability to deal with new leadership issues.

Bass, B & Steidlmeier, P 2002, ‘Ethics, character, and authentic transformational leadership behaviour’, The Leadership Quarterly, vol. 10 no. 2, pp. 181- 237.

Blanchard, K & Miller, M 2012, Great leaders grow; becoming a leader for life, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, San Francisco.

Goudreau, J 2010, How to lead like Oprah . Web.

Llopis, G 2013, The most successful leaders do 15 things automatically every day . Web.

Needle, D 2011, Business in context: an introduction to business and its environment , Thompson, London.

Nelson, D & Quick, J 2011. ORGB Student, Cengage, Ohio.

Ricketts, C & Ricketts, B 2011, Leadership; personal development and career success, Delmar, New York, NY.

Roberts, K & Hanna, S 2012, The first year experience of successful superintendents , Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Lanham.

Silber, K & Kearny, L 2010, Organisational intelligence; a guide to understanding the business of your organisation for HR, training and performance consulting , Pfeiffer, San Francisco.

Siraj-Blatchford, I & Manni, L 2007, Effective leadership in the early years sector , Institute of Education, London.

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IvyPanda. (2024, March 26). The Essence of Leadership: Warren Buffet and Oprah Winfrey. https://ivypanda.com/essays/leadership-19/

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Bibliography

IvyPanda . "The Essence of Leadership: Warren Buffet and Oprah Winfrey." March 26, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/leadership-19/.

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