Leadership and Ethic Research: Oprah Winfrey, Gandhi

LEADERSHIP AND ETHICS
A Research Project
Presented to:
Professor:
In partial fulfillment of
Requirements for
Fisher College
Sama Baroom
November 2, 2016
Introduction
There are quite a number of theories that largely describe leadership. Some of which indicate a clear cut approach to understanding the right leadership qualities. However, leadership is more than just the character and styles (Martin, 2015). In most of the cases, leaders are forced to apply more than one style in their leadership approach depending on the demand from situation at hand. While a leader may predominantly use one style, they may be required to mix up their approaches to meet the objectives and resolve current and even future challenges. Over the last more than 80 years, leadership styles have been largely revolutionized to embody the different skills and traits in the realm. At the same time, there are shifts in the society, whereby some of the characters that were once valuable to a leader are taking a back seat as the society becomes more integrated and self-aware (Martin, 2015). However, while there are quite a number of approaches of looking at leadership styles and traits, a good leader is one that is able to inspire those that he/she is working with to improve and achieve their goals. Some of the inspiring leaders though from different times, who have been quite influential are Gandhi and Oprah. These leaders are comparatively different and in some of the cases similar. Borrowing from their approach, it is possible to come up with a winning combination of quality leadership skills for an entrepreneur within the fashion industry.
Oprah Winfrey
Born in Kosciusko, Mississippi on 29th of January 1954, Oprah has had subtle successes in her career and has had influence on millions of people through her unique leadership approach. While she has experienced great success, she did not start off as influential. Growing up in a farming community, Oprah had a rough start in life. Her early childhood was on a farm with her grandmother, who helped her learn to read by the age of three. However, her life took a turn for the worst at the age of six when she was taken back by her mother who had now found work as a house maid. Some of her most vile ordeals include the fact that she was constantly abused sexually by a number of her relatives and friends to her mother. The abuses lasted between the age of nine and thirteen. After which she ran away from her mother at the age of 14 (Biography.com, 2016). Most of her teen years were filled with promiscuous episodes as she tried to survive on her own. At one point she lost a child at infancy, right before she went to Nashville in Tennessee to live with her father. This was one of the best decisions she made in her life, as she flourished under the strict care of her father. Much of her growth in character, as a person and as a leader can be traced back to age 17, when she won Miss Black Tennessee, a beauty pageant contest after which she was offered a job at the WVOL, a radio station that aired to the African American community in Nashville.
There are quite a number of aspects that have shown the basic character of the leader that Oprah has become over the years. To start with, she was the fi...