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INTRODUCTION

• Oprah Gail Winfrey born on January 29, 1954: an American media proprietor, talk show host, actress, producer, and philanthropist .

• Richest African-American of the 20th century & was the most influential woman in the world.

• Credited with creating a more intimate confessional form of media communication.

• She is thought to have popularized and revolutionized the tabloid talk show.

• In 1990’s she had reinvented her show with a focus on literature, self-improvement, and spirituality.

• From 2006 to 2008, her support of Barack Obama got him over 1 Million votes.

Background

• born into poverty in rural Mississippi to a teenage single mother and later raised in an inner-city Milwaukee neighborhood.

• She experienced considerable hardship during her childhood, • claiming to be raped at age nine and becoming pregnant at

14; her son died in infancy., • Winfrey landed a job in radio while still in high school and

began co-anchoring the local evening news at the age of 19.• after boosting a third-rated local Chicago talk show to first

place; she launched her own production company and became internationally syndicated.

RECIPIE OF OPRAH’S SUCCESS

TEAM

VISIONVALUES

TEAM

• Oprah’s People • She knows how to motivate people.” Oprah’s people

strategy is simple. She invests in top talent, seeks out smart mentors, values her customer and consistently nourishes each relationship.

• , Oprah has become the best by surrounding herself with the best. carefully selects her top team to assure competence and compatibly, and then stands by them. She also seeks out mentors that she admires who will offer her guidance.

• She Is similarly smart not to take her audience for granted. often incorporates the audience into her content, signaling to them that she is listening.

• She notoriously shows her appreciation with gifts. “Oprah’s Big Give” is a dedicated show in which she gives her favorite things to the entire studio audience she speaks to them as equals who she cares about greatly.

• Not only does the nurturing of each of these relationships inform her success in the present, it sets up her future success. Investing in loyal mentors, peers, employees and consumers means she has a massive team that will follow her anywhere.

VISION

• Oprah’s principal strengths as a leader has been creating a vision of her success, communicating that vision to those around her and being resolute in its execution.

• She’s been brave enough to dream big and smart enough to climb step by step.

• Oprah crafted a focused brand and then slowly built it out by diversifying its distribution. Her underpinning was the television show.

• Next came her company, the production of movies and subsidiary TV shows, multiple charitable foundations, a magazine, a radio channel and a website. OWN will fill 24 hours a day with programming inspired and approved by Oprah.

VALUES• Oprah’s personal values and those that she’s injected into each arm

of her business represent the foundation of her success.• Her message of positivity—to “live your best life”—endears her to

everyone around her. 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.

• she established philanthropic efforts that bettered the world. The press at times questioned her motivations, but giving back allowed her the credibility to continue growing her wealth.

• She launched the Oprah winfrey Foundation, a school in South Africa and an audience-mobilizing effort, Oprah’s Angel Network.

• a personal dedication to continued reinvention and resilience has kept her brand strong over the decades

LEADERSHIP• Oprah’s leadership qualities are exemplified in the way that she

communicates and relates to people from all walks of life, empathizes with those in need, and the ability to look at issues from various perspectives.

• Oprah’s gift to communicate has fans viewing her show in 140 countries which includes 46 million viewers in the U.S. (Conlon, 2008). She is self-reflective and has openly admitted her shortcomings to millions. . Oprah surrounds herself with others that have the competencies she lacks and trusts in them to do what she cannot.

• she became an honors student and was awarded a full scholarship to college. Oprah has never forgotten where she came from and the strife that she lived through as a child. This appears to be the heart of her communication and leadership skills.

• She is aware of how influential she is in the world and views it as a responsibility and an opportunity to help others grow intellectually and spiritually. It is Oprah’s ability to make people believe in themselves that truly makes her a leader.

Oprah’s 10 best leadership practices

• Carefully Selects her Team• Gathers Trusted Mentors • Values her Customer• Strategically Extends her Brand • Keeps Her Brand Focused• Remains Resilient• Demonstrates a Social Conscience• Communicates her Vision• Dreams Big• Rewards Employees

As a leadership brand

• All leaders have a brand. Whether that term is used or not, leaders have an identifiable persona that is a reflection of what they do and how others perceive them. This is leadership brand.

• In a perceptive analysis, New York Times media columnist David Carr suggests that Winfrey's brand and the key to her longevity is a combination of things she didn't do as well as things that she did do.

• On the "don't do side," she did not over-merchandize nor take her company public.

• On the "do side," she always stayed true to herself. • The lessons of Oprah's brand are relevant to any leader. Brand is

what you develop as well as what others perceive. The balance between reality and perception can be shaky if you are not careful, but as we have seen from Oprah, not impossible.

Practice what you preach