How to Make the Oprah
Succession Work for You

Mentoring is so important that it should be a commandment, because not a soul on this earth accomplishes anything significant all alone. It will take a host of people who provide resources, advice, support, ideas, decisions, and inspiration. Those people who offer any or all of these critical services for a period of time are mentors.

Nobody understands the concept of mentoring better than Oprah Winfrey. Even if you aren’t particularly an Oprah fan, you can’t ignore the trickle down of her good works that I’ve come to call “The Oprah Succession.” Though her way of mentoring may not be as personal as what you’d traditionally understand, the services she provides are much the same as listed in the first paragraph. Because her vehicles for touching individuals are bigger … her results are bigger.

Almost every profession that requires state licensing has a mentoring program. Yes: Mentoring is that critical. Anyone who has a great impact on the public, who finds a place in our history, has had a mentor. Here are few examples provided by Rey Carr of Peer Resources.

Mentoring is a leadership trait. According to Shelia Wellington, author of the respected guidebook, Be Your Own Mentor: Strategies from Top Women on the Secrets of Success*, “the most important reason why—among the equally talented—men tend to rise higher than women is that most men have mentors and most women do not.” If you are in the “do not” category, you need to get busy changing that right now, and not only for yourself. As you accept the offerings of a mentor, you must also return that gift. And that is where you begin to make the succession work for you. Take cues from how Oprah does it:

If you had asked Dr. Elion why she became a biochemist, she would have explained that it was a mission of love to help protect others from the fate her beloved grandfather suffered after a long battle with cancer. The awards and achievements piled so high for this woman that they cannot all be printed here, but what is special to note is that she considered some of her best work to be mentoring. Jonathan Elion, M.D., said of his aunt, “When she was a visiting professor at Brown, she didn’t want to meet with the VIPs and department heads; she asked to arrange for time with the students.”

I personally was so touched by Dr. Elion’s accomplishments and her ability to inspire that I set up a field trip and took a group of young people to meet this 70-something “fireball.” As she passed the replica of her Nobel Prize around for everyone to hold, she gushed about the excitement at the ceremony when she was bestowed the award. When it was time to leave, not a single youth departed without giving her a hug. Nor did I. Dr. Elion died at the age of 81, leaving an indelible mark on the fields of science and medicine and on the lives of those she’s helped to save and those she has inspired to help others.

It’s your turn…your succession.