Dulye & Co. in the news

With college commencements fast approaching, there’s an abundance of advice articles for new grads entering the workforce.

But what about the hiring manager? After all, it is a two-way street for that working relationship to actually work, well!

What do new grads most want in a workplace and a boss? Here are five success tips for making that perfect connection based on poll data from 2013 graduates of the Dulye Leadership Experience (DLE), a professional development / leadership program for college juniors and seniors that I’ve established with my alma mater, Syracuse University.

As a fiercly proud Syracuse University alumna, I am on Cloud 9 these days. Our men’s basketball team has applied the full Orange Crush mode to earn a slot in the NCAA Final Four Tournament this weekend in Atlanta.

Toppling the competition is the dream of sports teams — and companies — alike. Success hinges on many factors: individual talent, equipment and work practices, to name a few.

Paramount, however, is teamwork — the harmonious blending of personalities, experience and expertise into a collective, indominable force locked in focus on a common, shared goal.

In college basketball, head coaches are the leaders who own that job. In the workplace, it’s the responsibility of managers.

What is the recipe for coaching success that has catapulted my alma mater, along with Michigan, Louisville and Witchita State, into trophy contention?

Being a huge sports fanatic, Linda was recently asked about her opinion on Yankees pitcher Mariano Rivera's retirement.  Like professional athletes, it can be difficult for small business owners to walk away from the mound, so to speak, especially if they dedicated much of their lives to the business. So, how do you know when it is the right time to call it quits? 

Enough with the debate over Yahoo!’s virtual work ban.

Quite frankly, any leader who sounds off about the need for more and BETTER communication and collaboration ranks top in my mind. Most leader agendas are void of either topic for regular review and discussion.

Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer took inventory of her company’s culture and work practices – and decided that change was needed. Big change. Guided by metrics and hard data, Mayer called for a new way of working.

As you begin the new year and work towards finalizing and communicating your 2013 business goals, take a few minutes to read the articles below. Both feature helpful tips to keep you and your team on track.

Thank you for your time and interest!

For questions or comments, please email inquiries to Liz Smithers, lsmithers@dulye.com.

Let’s face it. Telling the truth isn’t always easy.

Lance Armstrong demonstrated that pretty well. He had us believing for years.

Lying on the job isn’t reserved for athletes or, for that matter, politicians. It also claims lots of airtime in the workplace. In fact, lying on the job is pretty common these days.

Participants of our Lying in the Workplace poll reported an increase in the prevalence of lying over the past five years. Fear (in various forms) was cited as the biggest trigger of workplace lies. Among the greatest fear factors that led to lying were fear of reprisal and fear of job loss.

No company, regardless of size, can afford the consequences of lying in the workplace. It is possible to create a workplace where truth can reign. More than 65 percent of Lying in the Workplace respondents said the catalyst for trust is effective communication between managers and associates.

Here are six ways to help managers create a truthful work environment through open communication and transparency...

Call it the Great Cafeteria Butter Rebellion.

Pittsburgh, October 16 – Communication professionals from a broad range of organizations report that “Employee Engagement” is their number-one challenge for 2013, according to a recent poll conducted by Dulye & Co.

The same poll uncovered that communication professionals view “Employee Engagement” as an issue that is not on the priority list for company executives.

Dulye & Co. was featured recently in Newsday's Small Business column. Read below for an excerpt and link to the full article:

No one likes sitting through a boring, pointless staff meeting, yet that's what many of us have to do on a daily or weekly basis.

If you're looking to avoid a roomful of employees' dull stares at your next staff meeting, you need to find ways to break out of the traditional meeting mold, and that starts with doing less talking and more listening, say experts.

"Meetings aren't just for the big boss and the manager with the biggest title to do all the talking," says Linda Dulye, president of Dulye & Co., a Warwick, N.Y.-based management workplace consultancy. "It's a staff meeting and needs to be communally owned."

Input from staff is critical if you're going to move beyond just a one-sided information share.

"We want people to be engaged at the meeting," says Dulye. "You shouldn't pay people to be spectators."

Build engagement
That's why she recommends that each meeting have a co-facilitator who can help design the agenda and help lead the meeting. You'd rotate this position among employees. It not only creates engagement within the meeting, but also gives you insight into employees' most pressing concerns, she says.

Create an agenda that can go out at least 24 hours in advance of the meeting so people can prepare and you can keep the meeting on course, Dulye advises. ...

Read the full article here.