Leadership does not trust its people & people can't trust leadership - Anonymous employee Colorado Christian University Employee Review

Leadership: Jim Collins is right when he says, that “True leadership only exists if people follow when they have the freedom not to. If people follow you because they have no choice, then you are not leading.” The CCU administrators do not lead – they exercise power. The new president may have gone on a listening tour, but no positive action followed the tour. People in lower ranks are told what is going to take place; contradictory opinions are not welcomed; contradictory data is ignored or downplayed. More than once the message I heard was “I am the boss. That’s why it’s going to go this way.” Pulling rank is a way of saying that the leader has run out of good arguments; it is poor “leadership,” destroys morale, and biblical examples show its danger (2 Samuel 24:4). Biblical principles taught in Proverbs 27:6; Proverbs 11:14; 15:22; 20:18; 24:6 are verbally endorsed but ignored in practice – if you try to bring your expertise to the table, be prepared to be ignored, rejected, or ridiculed (yes, as in mocked!) contrary to any evidence you might present. Relationship to Employees: There are occasions that people are hired, promoted, and retained not because they are highly qualified but because the leadership knows that they won’t put up a fight. A significant number of highly competent people have either voluntarily or involuntarily left the school in recent years. The president has made it his mission to hire and retain the best faculty because, “Students are attracted by good faculty and not by programs.” The problem: the best of the best will know their job, and such individuals will not stay if their expertise is ignored by their leaders. The president seems to fail in his mission, for some of the most-beloved faculty have left in recent years. Lack of transparency/honesty: The new administration promised transparency, which has not materialized. In the fall of 2023, employees were told that the administration would communicate how CCU is doing financially, and that for the time being, CCU was on track. Two months later, without warning, several people were let go. The administration continued to tell employees how well the various divisions were doing. In the last days of the fiscal year, more than a dozen employees were fired without warning, and the remaining people were told that we barely made a profit (goal was 1+%; reality was somewhere around 0.0001%). Employees were not told how CCU was doing until it was too late. Instead, the administration laid off approximately 10% of the entire workforce within 18 months. Maybe the administration should have offered to take a 10% pay cut before laying off that many people without prior communication. In 2025, Chancellor’s term expired (his employment ended) … a fact that was announced after his last day. Job inflation: The academic advising division was cut by 60%, and their workload distributed to the faculty without discussion. Job descriptions just inflate … of course, without any adjustment in pay and (as is the habit) without first talking with the people who will be affected by this decision. It does not matter if you are qualified or trained for the task, it’s your responsibility to now perform more work than before without sacrificing quality. Communication: Be prepared to hear about promises and plans, which are then altered without discussion or warning. Project planning is basically impossible on the lower levels of the organization, because the administration will drop new projects into your lap, no matter how unrelated the project may be to your actual job. The administration will also give you a timeline and then change the project or timeline at the drop of a hat. Open-door policy: That is taught and even practiced at CCU. But what is the point of an open-door policy if what you share is ignored, downplayed, and rebuked every single time you walk through the open door?