Oprah Winfrey

  • LESSON: Use empathy and self-revelation to inspire others to be their better selves.

Background

Biography: Media mogul, philanthropist, talk show host. Most influential person in US. Shares her life of overcoming poverty and hardship to inspire others.
Goals: Attain personal fulfillment; spread compassion and understanding; establish rapport; help raise consciousness and connect people to their inner being; help others lead a better life.
Governing Principle: Everything you do should be part of your purpose on this planet.

Traits

Empathetic, emotional, spiritual, confessional, ambitious, nurturing, determined, opportunistic, collaborative, passionate, compassionate

Values

Value people over processes and learning and understanding over results. Intentions are important. Mistakes are part of the journey. Everything has a purpose; you just need to find it. Mindfulness and purpose should shape your actions. Find opportunities to give and help. Being is more important than doing. Luck=preparation meets opportunity.

Questions

  • What are the underlying feelings and emotions that might be driving behaviors?
  • How can you and your group resolve conflicts and develop more understanding?
  • Will this help people learn and discover?
  • How does this make the world a better place?
  • How can you nurture the talent in your team?
  • How is this part of a larger plan?

Behaviors

  • Master rapport-building techniques – Be cognizant of the body language, speech patterns, and types of words used by others and try to match them.
  • Listen well – Recap and question to test understanding.
  • Build empathy – When speaking with others, put yourself in their shoes.
  • Be self-revealing – Lead a conversation by talking about your feelings, insecurities, hopes and wishes.
  • Ask the hard questions – Do what it takes to get at internal beliefs and conflicts that are holding people back.
  • Address conflicts as they arise – Don’t let them fester.
  • Encourage others to reveal their feelings and intentions – Reveal your own if needed.
  • Find the greater context for your work to inspire others – Always look for the bigger purpose.
  • Be nurturing – Help develop others with care and concern. Take on apprentices.

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Instructions

Here are some suggestions for using the icons. Click on the i icon to open this box again.

One-on-Conversations

The icons are useful when conducting any kind of port mortem or difficult conversations, like project, progress, or performance reviews. 

Each person chooses a card that reflects the perspective he wants the other to hear. One person shows the card, and, together, both brainstorm the feedback that the persona would give. Repeat using the second person’s chosen card. Both compare and contrast the feedback and agree on lessons going forward. If deadlocked or otherwise desired, they can choose a third card and perform the feedback again

Expectations Setting

Use the icons at the start of project or with a team to understand each person’s default behaviors and identify potential conflicts.  

Each person chooses three cards: one that best represents her, one that she would most like to work with on the project, and one she would least like to work with. Each discusses her picks and agrees to actions for working together.

Team building

The goals are to create awareness of missing skills and traits on the team, use the personalities to fill those gaps, and to improve team creativity by role-playing other perspectives.

Review the cards to determine which personas the team needs but is lacking. Conducting the expectations setting exercise first may help. Create virtual seats for these leaders and assign team members the responsibilities for representing these perspectives.

 

Brainstorming

During brainstorming, choose cards at random and generate ideas as the leader personas. Alternately, team members can act as the leaders during the meetings.

Meeting feedback

At the end of the meeting, each participant, including the meeting leader, chooses a card, either randomly or deliberately, and takes turns providing feedback in the manner of the personality. Alternately, the meeting leader can choose cards at random and ask participants for feedback in that leader’s perspective.

Personal Development (method acting)

1. Look through the profiles and read the summary sections with the lessons, goals, principles, traits, and values. Find one that “speaks” to you or that has a lesson you could use at the moment. Liking the person or sharing that person’s values is irrelevant, though it may require slightly more effort on your part.

2.  Keep in mind that you control the experience and can adopt as much or as little as you feel comfortable doing. Most of the changes you will be making will be internal, in your thought processes and resultant behaviors, and you are not expected to impersonate someone outwardly like you would for Halloween or a play.

3. Explanation of sections:

  • To get into character– This section describes clothing, speech, and eating habits to adopt. The purpose of this is to break out of your routine and ingrained patterns of behavior. If you start the day eating or dressing differently, you will be more likely to act differently. Use your judgment to determine the extent of the changes needed to change your habits without being disruptive.
  • Activities Alone – Conduct these activities first as they are meant to help you get into character and better understand that person’s values and motivation. They are also indicative of activities the character performs on a regular basis. Again, use your judgment regarding which activities make sense for you, but please make sure you do at least some.
  • Activities with Others – Again, choose which activities pertain most to your situation. These are an excellent opportunity to practice being your persona and solicit advice from others on “What would this person do?”
  • Behaviors – While activities are one-off or have a concrete start and end, the behaviors and questions should be ongoing when you are enacting the profile.

4. It should take you somewhere between 1-3 weeks to master the character. We recommend that you plan on two weeks, and continue if you need more time to fully internalize the persona. Thinking like the persona or exhibiting their behaviors without thinking are signs that you have internalized the skills. We encourage you to tell the people you are with what you are doing so that they can help you master the character and provide feedback. It’s perfectly acceptable to ask others what they think that person would do.

5. If you have trouble getting started or feel stuck, just ask yourself “What would this person do?