The Individuals Pathway To Leadership
Born into a broken home in rural Mississippi on January 9, 1954 Opera Wineries troubled adolescence and life experiences made her the amazingly influential woman she is today. Testing her circumstances and blossoming into an inspirational young actress, producer and highly powerful host of the popular ‘The Opera Winfred Show, the power of media enabled her to enlighten millions of viewers and develop into a “global media leader,” while her accomplishments and charitable endeavourers have established her as a respected leader in the public eye.
However none of this was without, tremendous suffering, trauma and struggle. As an unwanted child raised by her grandmother, Opera experienced a childhood of constant insecurity and after moving in with her mother (Veranda Lee) at the age of 6 became a victim of sexual abuse by male relatives. Suffering from this trauma Opera turned rebellious and at the tender age 14 gave birth to a premature baby that died. After choosing to move in with her father (Vernon Winfred) as a teenager her life changed completely.
With her father insisting on discipline and control Opera gained the ability to find tidiness and motivation to excel in school and change her life. Wining a college scholarship that allowed her to attend Tennessee State University, in 1971 when she was, she began working part time as a radio announcer in Nashville where she became the first black female and youngest news anchor at the station. In 1973, Opera moved to Baltimore, where she hosted the TV chat show People Are Talking. The show became a hit and 8 years later she was recruited by a Chicago TV station to host her own morning show, ‘AM Chicago.
The very first episode aired on the 2nd January 1984 and within few months, Winery’s open, warm-hearted personal style and willingness to help others had had taken her show from last place to first in the ratings. Furthermore due to the success of the television show, it was renamed ‘The Opera Winfred Show, which broadcasted nationally on the 8th September 1986. This made Winfred the first African American to host a talk show that was nationally syndicated. ‘The Opera Winfred Show broadcasted for twenty-five years from the 8th September 1986 to 25th May 2011.
After taking every conflict she experienced as a hill and using it in a positive way, throughout Opera Wineries pathway to leadership she became possibly one of the most powerful and influential women in television.. The leadership style- Leadership relates to the guidance and direction an individual gives to others in order to attain a goal. A leader has capabilities that enable them to communicate and inspire group members in order to fulfill a task. Opera Winfred encompasses a number of different leadership styles to effectively touch, inspire and communicate with her audience.
Her leadership style is a collaboration of task-orientated, people orientated, collaborative, transformational and cultural values. Transformational Leaders are those who are highly inspiring and motivational. They are effective at addressing groups who require stimulation and encouragement. Transformational leaders are often highly respected by the audience/group members benefiting from their leadership. Generally, they focus of individual development and in turn, group development Opera is possibly one of the most inspiring women in television.
With the struggle of her upbringing that she openly expresses to her audience on her how too her tremendous accomplishment today, it’s easily seen that individuals are greatly inspired by her. She is persuasive and compelling, coaches her audience to take on greater obstacles and praises them for their efforts. Wineries inspirational way of leadership makes her the unique leader she is known as today. Cultural Leaders are those who represent the values and standards of specific cultures in their leadership approach.
They incorporate the cultural beliefs and practices of the various cultural groups they are leading. In upholding this definition, as Winfred was rough up as a deprived African American she relates especially easily with the African culture of America and has become a major role model for the under privileged African Americans who watch and take guidance from her television show. Winfred furthermore possesses the ability to empathic with other African Americans due to her first hand knowledge and experiences making her such the unique and powerful leader she is.
Task orientated leaders are those who are focused on the task at hand and are ambitious to complete the Job as proficiently and successfully as possible. Their ability to communicate to ensure a task is achievable is typically phenomenal. Opera Winfred, as shown in her show is capable of achieving individual’s dreams by constantly giving. Her generosity is absurd and her willingness to meet other people’s sufficient needs is incredible. This is shown in her show where in each week we observe generous amounts of money and luxurious gifts being given away.
People orientated leaders focus on ensuring group members are content and satisfied with their role and function within the group. Opera says ‘my team is my family. Majority of her success has been from her great ability to organize and manage her “family’ also known as her production team. Without those around her, helping her to create such a highly successful and beneficial television show and her ability to keep each and every one of them satisfied the show would not run near as smooth nor be as victorious as it is today. Collaborative leaders are democratic in their leadership style and look to guarantee equal group involvement.
They greatly value teamwork and group effort and share common goals with others. Collaborative leaders look to ensure all members feel valued which in turn reduces conflict with a group. This is shown in Operas TV show when she collaborates with her guests such as Ellen Designers. It is also seen, as mentioned above in her concern and longing to work cohesively and keep her crew happy as not only did the nurturing of each of these relationships inform her success in the present, it set up her future and the future of her show.
Opera combines various characteristics of each of these leadership styles to effectively communicate and empathic with her audience which is exemplified in her ability to look at issues from various perspectives and relate as well as help so many different individuals, making her such an influential and successful leader today. Effectiveness of the leadership Throughout the last two-and-a-half decades Opera has built an incredible empire; the key to her success and the effectiveness of this being her incomparable personality traits.
Her message and example of positivist to “live your best life” endears her to everyone around her. Opera continuously is held in the highest esteem because of her humor, reliability and optimism. Compassionate, humble, wise, unbiased and generous, Opera invited a world of strangers into her life – and we let her into ours. In doing this, her powerful message and leadership became relied on by people of all religious and cultural backgrounds. She effectively built a community based on that shared experience as well as her personal attributes that became too lovable and charming to resist.
Her accomplishments as a global media leader and humanitarian have established her as one of the most respected and admired public figures today. One of Opera’s main strengths as a leader has been creating a vision of her success, communicating that vision to those around her and being resolute in its doing what she set out. Step by step Opera crafted a focused brand and then slowly built it out by branching its distribution. After the success of her show came her company, the production of movies and other TV shows, multiple charitable foundations, a magazine, a radio channel and a website.
In April 2000, Opera and Hearst Magazines introduced O, The Opera Magazine, a monthly magazine that has become one of today’s leading women’s lifestyle publications. With inspiring messages and compelling stories, Opera’s union became bigger and better. In April 2002, Opera launched the first international edition of O, The Opera Magazine in South Africa, extending her live your best life message to another broad audience. Opera soon after launched “Opera & Friends” satellite radio channel in September 2006, which was renamed “Opera Radio” in 2009.
Effectively more people now became able to take from Opera’s leadership. Through her private charity, The Opera Winfred Foundation, she has awarded hundreds of grants to organizations that support the education and empowerment of women, children and families in the United States and around the world. Amongst her various humanitarian contributions, she has donated millions of dollars toward providing a better education for children in order to ensure their upbringing did not parallel hers.
She also created “The Opera Winfred Scholars Program,” which gives scholarships to students determined to use their education to give back to their communities in the United States and abroad. Her exceeding generosity fails to cease with gifts and money given away every show. Three of the main foundations that she donates to are The Angel Network, The Opera Winfred Foundation and The Opera Winfred Operating Foundation. Not only does she gift with money and expensive gifts but also achieves aging dreams come true for individuals throughout the world.
