Leadership

Leadership Qualities – Styles, Traits and Skills of Oprah Winfrey

by Sadnan Bin Sattar

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.

Leadership Qualities – Styles, Traits and Skills of Oprah Winfrey

  • 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.

To Sum Up

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.

Related

Sources

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