Pros
- Staff are dedicated and mission-driven
- Employees work hard to support students/clients despite systemic challenges
Cons
- Executive leadership: the CEO’s leadership approach is widely described as inconsistent, indecisive, and lacking clear strategic direction. There is no clearly communicated long-term vision or multi-year plan, which limits organizational alignment.
- Lack of strategic clarity: Departments are expected to develop goals and strategies without a defined organizational roadmap, resulting in fragmented priorities and inconsistent execution across programs.
- Disregard for expertise: Subject-matter expertise and licensed professional recommendations are not consistently incorporated into decision-making.
- Program-level decisions are at times overridden without clear rationale, limiting effectiveness and undermining professional autonomy.
- Lack of accountability: There are recurring instances where prior decisions are not acknowledged or are attributed to others, leading to confusion and reduced trust in leadership.
- Misalignment with evidence-based practice: Data-driven or research-based recommendations are not consistently prioritized, with decisions sometimes driven by intuition rather than established best practices or educators.
- Organizational strain: Leadership decisions contribute to misalignment across departments, particularly between therapeutic and educational services, impacting consistency of care.
- Workplace culture: Employees report a lack of trust from leadership regarding productivity and workload. There is a significant gap between expectations and actual capacity, contributing to burnout.
- Ineffective communication and conflict avoidance: Difficult decisions are often delegated to mid-level staff rather than communicated directly by executive leadership, placing unnecessary strain on teams.