Page 169 - Anne Bruce - Building A HIgh Morale Workplace (2002)

Engendering Hope, Trust, Faith, and Belief ... 149

Oprah Teaches Grad Students a New
Brand of Management
The stereotype of theory-based business school curriculum
was broken at Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School
when Oprah Winfrey introduced a 10-week course called “Dynamics
of Leadership.” The program—designed by adjunct professors Winfrey
and Stedman Graham—focused on topics such as knowing your whole
self, identifying your beliefs as a leader, maintaining faith in yourself,
finding hope, instilling trust, and personal visioning.The top business
school attests that this was one of the most popular programs ever
offered and that students flocked to class to learn these important
management lessons, making way for a new kind of management pro-
gram at the institution.

Managers Hold Hope High

Great leaders honor the value of hope. One notable example
was Winston Churchill. Following World War II, a reporter asked
the Prime Minister of England what the greatest weapon had
been against Germany. Churchill responded, “It was what

England’s greatest weapon has always been. Hope.”
As a manager, you can use hope as your greatest weapon.
How are you currently using hope in your organization to build
employee morale? How do you think employees having greater

hope could make the overall work environment more positive?
Answering these questions will guide you in what you need to
do to hold hope high at all costs.

Employee Morale Is Partly Based on Hope

People will persevere and struggle against all odds if they have
hope. High employee morale and expectations are based in part
on a vision of hope—the hope for greater achievement and suc-

cess in all areas of life, the hope for a better tomorrow. When
you can get your employees to imagine a better way of doing
business and then get them to start believing in the power of
hope, all kinds of possibilities open up within the organization,

giving way to soaring morale.
When managers maintain hope, they also sustain their orga-