Essay On Oprah Winfrey, The Influential Leader

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The Notion of Influential Leadership
As for the Leadership style, one should be aware that it is a complex approach providing strategic course, adequate embodiment; it is utilized as the major motive for a number of people. The civilization has undergone a variety of leaders, each justifying his/her individual ideas. Owing to Lewin, many scholars managed to figure out certain styles of leadership (Lewin., LIippit., White, 1939, p. 12). To be precise, it is possible to distinguish three leadership styles. They are as follows: authoritarian, participative and delegative. It is important to make mention that many leaders appeared to combine the abovementioned styles (Frey., Kerrn., Snow., Curlette, 2009). As for this essay, it is aimed at analyzing one of the most generous women in the world who invented her own leadership style and devoted her entire life to helping the others.

Biographical Facts about Oprah Winfrey

That would be reasonable to start the description of this woman, listing her life proverb. Once she said, “I always feel if you do right, right will follow.” It is possible to see that those are not just words, but the words of a person committed greatly to her daily visions of life. Oprah Winfrey is the great media proprietor, actress and producer; she was born on January 29th, 1954 in Mississippi, United States. She is distinguished all over the world due to her award-winning talk show that has become the highest-rated program in the entire history of talk shows. Although she is regarded to be the richest African American woman in the twentieth century, she is extremely generous for her numerous funds and donations. That is why many observers treat her as one of the greatest philanthropists in the world. The major reason for her generosity is that she was born in poverty in the rural Mississippi to a teenage mother. She was unlucky to face a lot of life challenges in the childhood. In some interviews she mentioned that she had been raped at the age of nine and became pregnant when aged 14, thus she lost her son in infancy. She was globally respected for her ad-lib delivery and ability to answer the most complicated questions spontaneously. And this greatly contributed to her career growth, where she needed only a couple of years to become a radio speaker, than the TV evening news reporter and, finally, one of the central figures in the daytime-talk-show arena in Tennessee. Soon, she was noticed to launch her own production company that allowed her creating a more intimate confessional form of media communication (Mair, 2001, p. 46). That greatly aided to shape the tabloid talk show genre. In the middle of the 1990s, she reinvented her show, creating the major focus upon literature, culture, spirituality and self-improvement. And, although she is somewhere highly criticized for her emotion-centered approach, she is frequently praised for her ability and intention to help others, by spending huge money to cover poverty and save many people from sufferings.

Oprah Winfrey’s Leadership Style and Its Importance

Her personal leadership style is often referred to as the ‘Spiritual Leadership’. In the modern context it is anyway mostly applied as the influential leadership. Launching her own TV channel Change Your Life TV, the woman was lucky to attract the twenty-two million audiences, the majority of which were females. That is why Oprah Winfrey was often treated as the post-modern priestess or the icon of church-free spirituality. Via her numerous talk shows the woman raised the numerous inspirational topics, which at the same time inspired the viewers to be altruists and to help the Congolese women and build the orphanage. Orphanism was often associated with the religion. What is more, it is expected to become the mainstream religion in 3000 AD. After the events of September 11 attacks, Rudy Guliani requested Oprah to initiate a Prayer for the United States of America. One more point of our interest is her attitude towards Islam religions, which was portrayed in ‘Islam 101’, where Islam was depicted as the religion of peace. After launching the self-help program called The Secret, Winfrey was aimed to prove the maintenance of peace is above all.

Was She a Great Leader?

I regard Oprah Winfrey to be a great leader. This is because she managed to shape the media, brining the essence of intimacy towards ordinary Americans. She managed to show her real love towards people as well make most American families watch true TV, analyze accurate information and gain the motivation to both live happy and be ready to help. I greatly appreciate her sense of philanthropy. In 1998 she intentionally established the Oprah’s Angel Network that was considered to be the charity foundation, supporting numerous charitable projects, fostering the development of non-profit organizations all over the world. All $80,000,000 raised definitely went to charity. One more point of her donation initiatives is that she is the altruist and she is intended to implement the number of charity programs, promoting the overall public charity.

Comparison of Personal Leadership Style with Ideology Oprah Winfrey

I do not want to compare myself with the outstanding woman whose role in American society is more than fundamental. Perhaps, I am also generous towards others, but I cannot afford to help them due to the lack of all necessary resources. I am not a leader yet. Although, if I were to follow the leadership style, I would definitely choose the delegative leadership as the one of the leadership styles that suggests the combination of free approach with knowledge work. I suppose that Oprah Winfrey is the epitome of priestess in the world. I greatly admire her purity and I would like to strive to become at least a part of her.
In my view, in order to improve my effectiveness as a leader it is also necessary to be aware of how to communicate with the audience when presenting the points. It is not just about the urgency of the ideas you are attempting to deliver; needless to say, it is about certain tools necessary to be used when the success speech is required. While taking a view of Winfrey’s speech, I have emphasized some of the pivotal keys of effective leadership. They are decision-making, planning and interpersonal skills. To my mind, these three elements are present in the speech of many influential leaders.

References

Frey M., Kerrn R.,Snow J. & Curlette W. (2009). Lifestyle and Transformational Leadership
Hitt W. (1993). The Model Leader: A Fully Functioning Person. Leadership & Organization
evelopment Journal. 14 (7), 4-11.
Lewin, K., LIippit, R. and White, R. K. (1939). Patterns of aggressive behavior in
experimentally created social climates. Journal of Social Psychology 10, pp. 271-301.
Mair, G. (2001). Oprah Winfrey: The Real Story. Citadel Press ISBN 1-55972-250-9.