Romo Addresses Hispanic Leadership Day Group
UTSA President Ricardo Romo spoke about the qualities of successful leaders during his keynote address for the first San Antonio Hispanic Professional Leadership Day, held last week at the Downtown Campus. The audience included members of the local chapter of the National Society of Hispanic Business MBAs, which co-hosted the event with the UTSA College of Business and H-E-B. UTSA faculty members led discussions for the conferees.
"We've all heard it said that leaders are born, not made," Romo
said. "If that were true, none of us would be here today. Leaders are
developed, and they develop themselves."
Romo summarized strategies for achieving great leadership cited by several
contemporary business leaders in a recent article in Success magazine. Their
advice ranged from surrounding yourself with good people and remembering the
value of teamwork to maintaining a vision and passion for your work, perseverance,
listening carefully to others and being willing to create change, rather than
simply adapting to it.
"Respecting others, communicating with integrity and self-confidence
are also essential," Romo added.
Romo spoke about his own strategies, which include long-term goal-setting
and proactive preparation for their attainment. "About 20 years ago,
I decided that I wanted to write. I thought of myself as a scholar, and I
wanted to write scholarly journal articles and books," said Romo.
"I went out and began to buy books on writing, and I read these books
for at least three years. Then one day, I received a call from a congressman
who wanted me to write him a speech, which he was giving at 2 p.m. and needed
to have faxed to him that day by 1 p.m. so that he could review it. It was
then 10 a.m.
"I thought, 'I can do this. I've read the books.' And so I sat down and
wrote the speech for him. I faxed it off, and never heard from that congressman
again! But, I didn't mind so much not hearing from him because he had waited
until the last minute to ask."
Years later, Romo was part of a Texas delegation attending a conference in
Arizona. The Texas governor was among them. Suddenly, one of the governor's
aides ran up and said the governor needed some remarks to give at noon that
day. Would Romo write them? He would have less than an hour to complete them,
but he did it.
"We rushed into the room at 12:01 p.m. I handed the speech to the governor
who walked directly to the podium, looked down and began to read."
The years of preparation and Romo's confidence in his ability to perform had
paid off. He used the same strategy to prepare for the interviews that ultimately
led to his selection as president of UTSA. "Learning is a lifelong process,
and it is everyone's business," said Romo. "We can choose to learn
or not...choose to learn."
© The University of Texas at San Antonio, 2001