July 20, 2011
Collaborative principal Beverly Flaxington was recently interviewed on New England Cable News (NECN) about the recent survey of the “10 Best & Worst in Customer Service”. View the interview by clicking here.
By Tia Jackson, Brandmaker News
Entrepreneurs responded with a mix of frustration, optimism, and concern when asked about the real state of small business in America. As we inquired about whether help was available for their own businesses, the majority of the entrepreneurs surveyed said, “No.”….. While some entrepreneurs have tapped into resources to help their businesses, so many small businesses are still in need of assistance. Michael Slemmer, CFA of The Collaborative, shares his thoughts on what entrepreneurs should do to make themselves more attractive to investors and lenders… Click here for the rest of the article.
by Kim Wright Wiley; SellingPower Magazine
In some ways, being a manager is like being a parent: You can talk about what your sales team should be doing until you’re blue in the face, but if you aren’t modeling the behaviors you expect of the team, then your lectures will likely fall on deaf ears. This is especially true if you urge your salespeople to treat their customers and prospects as individuals but don’t model this behavior when dealing with your own staff.
“I’m not a big fan of the player/coach analogy in sales training,” says Beverly Flaxington, author of Understanding Other People: The Five Secrets to Human Behavior (ATA Press, 2009) and founder of The Collaborative (the-collaborative.com), a firm that helps companies and individuals reach their highest level of effectiveness. “The coach analogy implies that you’ve gathered people in a locker room at halftime, and you’re giving them all the same message in the same way. The manager’s real job is to see each person as an individual and ask, “How do I evolve this person? How do I get him or her to the level where he or she needs to be?” Click here for the rest of the article.
BOSTON, MA — September 15, 2010
Earlier this year, The Collaborative released its S.H.I.F.T Model for Success™, which has been embedded into the curriculum for Suffolk University‟s Leadership and Social Responsibility class for the fall semester. According to Beverly Flaxington, Collaborative Principal, after two decades of working with organizations and individuals it was apparent the time had come for a “shift” in the traditional thought processes.
“Most individuals and organizations overlook the key component to achieving success. This is the “I” in the model – ‘Identify the human element.’ Human emotions, relationships, stakeholders, etc. come into play in every situation and most models overlook their impact entirely. I ask that people and organizations Specify their goals (S), highlight and categorize their obstacles (H) and then identify the human factor (I) before they go into brainstorming alternatives and finding their options (F). Then, at the end of the process it’s common to just set an overall goal instead of taking disciplined action (T) as my model outlines,” Flaxington said.“ We’ve successfully used this model with individuals, start-ups and established organizations with great success.” According to Flaxington, having the specific steps outlined significantly increases the chances of goal achievement.
This was apparent to the administration of Suffolk University where Flaxington serves as a part-time lecturer of management and entrepreneurship. The course Flaxington helps teach is taken by all undergraduate business students. It was created out of a desire to teach students that not-for-profits are run by leaders who need solid business skills to handle the many resource constraints their organizations face. They learn about the importance of networking and strategic partnerships.
A representative from a Boston-area not-for-profit speaks to the class about challenges and obstacles the organization faces. The students are then charged with finding solutions and creating a plan for the not-for-profit to implement.” It’s exciting to have the model used in such an important endeavor – a class where students are learning about how to offer real help to a not-for-profit and use a proven model to provide this help”, says Flaxington.
According to Laurie Levesque, Associate Dean in Suffolk’s Sawyer Business School, “This model assists people move effectively through the phases of problem definition, idea generation, and solution planning. It has provided students with structure for problem-solving while simultaneously encouraging their creativity.”
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