Applying Leadership Theory
Leadership entails using one’s skills to cause social influence to enable others to attain a specified goal (Northouse, 2021). The trait theory of leadership explains how leaders apply characteristics, such as cooperativeness, sociability, drive, initiative, decisiveness, self-confidence, and personality to influence their followers. Effective leaders set goals and put measures in place to attain them. Northouse (2021) cites integrity, determination, discipline, self-confidence, and intelligence as the crucial traits that a leader must possess. One of the contemporary leaders who exemplifies trait leadership approach is Oprah Winfrey, the celebrated talk show host and television producer.
Oprah Winfrey is motivating, charismatic, and influential, traits that saw her gain success with her talk show, The Oprah Winfrey Show. She exudes selflessness and inspiration to maintain her leadership status as Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN). Zafar et al. (2018) note that employees of the network have cited Oprah as full of knowledge, supportive, and caring. Her traits have had a great impact on her leadership, especially when she was the team leader in The Oprah Winfrey Show. She demonstrated competency evident by her ability to run a top-rated show for over two decades. Further, Oprah has amassed a following from all over the world, an indication that viewers find her intelligent, entertaining, honest, and competent (Wahab et al., 2020). She exuded confidence and honesty when advertising products on her show, which made many people embrace the products.
The trait leadership approach is a critical way of understanding Oprah’s leadership as it offers constructive information about her leadership. It helps one understand Oprah’s identity and the way she impacts other people professionally and personally (Zafar et al., 2018). Oprah continues to hone these traits as time goes by and has passed them to her followers. For example, she has encouraged many women to become self-confident and follow their dreams. The change Oprah has inspired in people is a clear indication of the type of a leader she is. Therefore, were it not for her traits, Oprah would not have been that successful as a leader.
References
Northouse, P. G. (2021). Leadership: Theory and practice (9th ed.). Sage Publications.
Wahab, S. A., Rasidi, N. M. F. M., & Wahab, S. (2020). Influences of women’s leadership performance towards the corporate, political and social success: A review and research agenda. Asian Journal of Research in Business and Management, 2(4), 54-68.
Zafar, S. M., Al Ajmi, Q., Chaubey, D. S., & Salando, J. B. (2018). Analyzing leadership style to become a legend leader: An exploration. International Journal of Engineering and Management Research (IJEMR), 8(3), 49-56. 10.31033/ijemr.8.3.6
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