Goodbye and Congrats to a Buddy

This is something I have been dreading writing because I knew it would eventually happen. Many of you that I’ve met at conferences/meetings/etc have also got to know Steve Budd, Springfield Technical Community College Assistant VP of Development. As a next step in his career Steve recently decided to begin his search for a presidency and – no surprise to anyone that knows him – he has been offered and has accepted the presidency position at the New Hampshire Community Technical College – Claremont. The Clarement press release is linked here. This was actually the first presidency Steve interviewed for – congrats to Steve and Claremont – you’ve really made a great choice!

I would classify Steve as a new breed of Community College leader – willing to take some risk and understanding that risk does not always result in success. Working closely with Steve over the last few years we’ve had our share of successes and failures. I‘ve always believed the signs of a person’s true character appear after failure and not success. I’m sure most would agree.

One of my favorite bloggers, marketer Seth Godin, recently published a couple of short blogs, one titled Toxic employees and the second titled Toxic bosses. In the Toxic bosses blog Seth finishes with the following line:

“Great marketers often have the unusual combination of humility and confidence. Toxic ones have neither”.

I'm going to take some liberty and change "marketers" to "presidents" in Seth's quote.

I get out a lot – meet a lot of faculty, administrators and yes – presidents of colleges. I’ve met good ones and not-so-good ones (of course in my opinion and.... no names!). I usually can judge pretty quick but have never really been able to put into words how. Seth’s words hit it on the head - "the unusual combination of humility and confidence". Among other positive characteristics Steve has this unusual combination.

Congratulations again - Steve and Claremont.