On Feb. 24, the University brought in guest speaker Tom Healy to speak about a concept he developed called Limitless Leadership. Healy, a University of Ohio graduate, has degrees in management, marketing and strategic leadership. Healy has been to over 100 campuses and encouraged young people all over to stand up and become leaders in their everyday lives.
Healy began his speech by telling a story of a close friend in college who accomplished what seemed nearly impossible as he went from sleeping on couches mid-afternoons, to stepping up and coordinating a chain of Greek life events during one of the busiest times of the semester his senior year. Healy’s message in telling the story was that we all have strong capability.
“We’re all leaders, we all have this unbelievable potential inside of us and we can all do great things,” said Healy.
Healy then introduced his idea of limitless leadership, a concept he defined as: accepting you are a leader, determining what drives you and having the willingness to thrive rather than just survive. Healy is convinced that we all have this idea of limitless leadership within us and that it boils down to our perception and the choices we make.
After defining his concept, Healy spoke on five myths that people generally have about beings leaders. Number one- leadership is a gift, two- the idea that people are born leaders, three- leaders are assertive and aggressive, four- college degrees are crucial among leaders and five- leaders often have some kind of advantage on their side.
Healy went through and debunked every one of these myths starting with the idea that leadership is a gift. Healy explained that we are all leaders in some way and that it is up to us to find our niche as leaders. Healy continued his explanation in saying that although we are all leaders, the idea that we are born leaders is incorrect. Healy did stress that who we surround ourselves with and the environment we are exposed to can weigh in on our potential to become a leader.
The next myth Healy explained was the third myth, which stated that all leaders are aggressive and assertive, he proved that this boils down to personality and isn’t necessarily true. The fourth myth left the audience a bit puzzled as Healy went on to state that college degrees are not needed to be recognized as a leader in the real world.
“Where you went to college will have little to no effect on your impact on employers in the work field. Yes there will be a line between a degree being needed for select jobs but where you attended school, your GPA, it won’t matter,” said Healy.
The last myth was that leaders in some way shape or form usually have an advantage. Healy was passionate in explaining this. He stated that no advantages are needed to be a leader, only hard work and nobody gets lucky over others just because. Healy emphasized the fact that hard work will get you where need to be.
“No advantage is needed and there really is no such thing as luck. Luck is when hard work meets opportunity,” said Healy.
Healy finished up in saying in order to be a leader we just have to take action, work hard so that we create our luck and apply the changes that we learn along the way in life.
“What’s more impactful than inspiration is you actually learning something and applying it to your life,” said Healy.
The crowd of students felt deeply motivated by the speaker and had much to say afterwards.
“Not only was he a good speaker but he did really well with speaking to young people and reaching out to us,” said Emma De Rhodo, an elementary education major and a member of Alpha Sigma Tau Sorority Inc.
“It was a really good speech and there was even more of a connection with him because he was a part of Greek life himself,” said Scottie Dannelly, an accounting major of Tau Kappa Epsilon Fraternity Inc.
Healy stayed shortly after and answered several questions from students and even offered advice to different organizations on campus about recruitment and Greek life events.
