Page 40 - BusinessWest September 5, 2022

their time in many respects.”
As GE was in the process of selling
its aerospace division, she moved onto Duracell, then Allied Signal and Public Service Electric and Gas.
She made a number of job changes at a time unlike today, when such movement is expected and even appre- ciated by many of those doing the hir- ing, because she wanted to be in differ- ent environments, experience different organizations, and learn from different leaders.
“I wanted to experience different cultures and leadership styles and get smart in different industries,” she said. “Even though I knew family business, I
wanted to learn global business.” Eventually, after growing tired of
lengthy daily commutes to work, she decided to go into business for her- self, essentially to pass on to business leaders what she had learned while working for her parents, but also while working in corporate America.
“I knew what companies needed most,” she explained. “They needed people to help their leaders connect with the front-line folks, to help explain change, to help get people motivated, to move forward with goals. With all the work I had done, I wanted to focus on leadership communication and employee engagement.”
Connecting the Dots
As she talked about her business and the value it provides to clients, Dulye focused on that word ‘engage- ment,’ its importance in the workplace, getting people to be part of the team in question, and having them help leader- ship run the business.
Which brings her back to the impor- tance of having a spectator-free work environment, which businesses appre- ciate, even if they know they need help to achieve such an environment.
The key, she said, is to give employ- ees the opportunity to get on the play- ing field.
“Which means you have to share information, you have to be open to their ideas, and you have to involve them in making decisions on how the business needs to move forward,” she explained. “Otherwise, you’re going
to have spectators; that means really stopping, listening, and having conver- sations, not presentations.
“Presentations do not build rela- tionships; conversations build rela- tionships,” she went on. “That’s what leaders, more than ever, need to do. “Leaders say, ‘I don’t have time’ — and I understand, time management is
a massive challenge. However, if you don’t have time to help your people understand what’s going on and why and you think it can be done better, then you’re losing out on the greatest resource you have to help you improve as a business — and as a leader.”
Finding time and becoming spectator-free is obviously challeng- ing, said Dulye, adding that it almost always requires adjustments in culture and leadership dynamics, with a hard focus on upgrading people skills, pro- cesses, and practices that ultimately create what she calls a “connected organization.”
Providing critical help with this
“Presentations do not build relationships; conversations build relationships.”
complex assignment through tools such as its Engagement through Action Planning Process has enabled Dulye & Co. to grow and consistently add new clients over the years, she went on, adding that there have been times — the Great Recession of 2008 was one
of them, and the early months of the pandemic was another — when even the largest corporations cut back on consultants.
And it was during what became a very slow period for the company in the fall of 2008, when the company lost 80% of its work, when Dulye found a patch of blue and conceived of what would become the Dulye Leadership Experience.
“In my consulting work, I was noticing that the new grads coming into the businesses really weren’t pre- pared to integrate well,” she recalled. “They were very smart in their tech- nical majors, but they’d gone from
a bubble of being able to pick their friends, being able to hang around a lot of people their own age, and being able to know when there was a test because they would get a syllabus and knew what to read, to showing up and not knowing anyone, and being in a hodgepodge, diverse team that they
Dulye
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40 SEPTEMBER 5, 2022
WOMEN IN BUSINESS
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