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CCL (Center for Creative Leadership)

Is this your company?

Avoid this place unless you're just looking to elbow rub your way into a low-output, but low-pay role - Anonymous employee CCL (Center for Creative Leadership) Employee Review

1.0
15 Jan 2024
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Fostering personal development in the world is a great idea, and maybe they were once great at doing this, or at least in promoting these concepts.

Cons

Extreme layers of unnecessary management (I've never seen such a large C-suite, especially for such a simple and relatively small company), and that is true throughout the organization- layers upon layers of decision makers, but very few people who do any of the actual work (but plenty who have made a career path for themselves by clinging to their longevity in this org). Many people have spent their entire careers at this one organization so have zero industry knowledge, which causes the company to fall behind in all areas, particularly how to operate in a digital world. They operate like it's still the 20th century. I'm serious. This also creates a clique-culture (many reviews here speak to this). Being nice and liked are wayyyy more important than doing good work, or any actual work, really. Their brand recognition and current market reach must be the only things that keep them around, because they have no other competitive edge. They took a really simple business model (it's just coaching), and allowed their delivery model to become so excessively cumbersome and bloated that it takes teams of people to actually deliver, and the people who interface the most with the end customers, aren't even employees, they are all contractors. This has built up over decades of allowing the same people to do the same things, and just spread that status quo, and then defend and protect it. It is a really dysfunctional culture of people promoting their importance, while just being in the way of getting anything done, because they have a vested interest in keeping things the way they are. If you are liked, then you can probably continue as many have for many years without actually having to do much. The pay is not competitive, but the dysfunction means you won't actually need to deliver much because it is literally too cumbersome to get anything done. So just plod along and you will be fine, if relativity underpaid. If you fall out of favor however, well it will be real uncomfortable real quick. That's what happens when a company is based on who is liked rather than the work.

Explore other reviews about CCL (Center for Creative Leadership)

5.0
18 June 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Great people who collaborate well

Cons

Lack of global alignment at the time I was there

3.0
20 June 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The work is so important and so effective. You can feel that you are contributing good things to people's lives.

Cons

The management knows nothing. They have no understanding of our program and products. They lay people off not knowing what the job is. They don't know what part of the programs and which programs are most impactful and why. Sales is important, but it can only be effective if we have a great product and the sales people (and management) understand the product. The product is stale because the management does not care what the product is, only about getting whatever it is sold. And about what they ca cut.

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