Team building Archives - The Grassy Road

When to tell your employees to take a hike

Small companies are like families. They are full of tension, tight relationships, dreams and disappointments and they form a culture all of their own. And when they are small how each and every employee behaves affects the culture of the company. What it is like to come to work every day, how people solve problems, how they interact and help each other, or don't. In every group of employees you hire you are bound to hire a few non performers, and it's management 101 that you know you have to [...]

By Penny Herscher|2020-01-09T11:23:39-08:00May 13, 2017|Leadership|0 Comments

Sales is a Team Sport

Sometimes sales culture glorifies the lone sales rep: the road warrior who goes out and hunts, slays the order and throws it, still bleeding, on your desk, seeking your praise like a big game hunter standing over his kill's rapidly cooling dead body. Is this how your best guys—your top performers—sell? Or do they view sales as a sport that's won as a team? Now, I'm the girl who hates sports on TV, who reads a book during Super Bowl parties (except during the ads of course) and has never [...]

By Penny Herscher|2017-12-03T02:44:27-08:00October 31, 2013|Leadership|0 Comments

Loyalty Matters

Seems like an old fashioned concept doesn't it? Loyalty. A word from the old feudal world being "of good quality, faithful and honorable" and "carrying out legal obligations" - with deeper origins in the Latin legalem, or law. Loyalty was expected in the past. You would be loyal to the company that employed you, and the company would be loyal back and employ you for your whole career. A 1950's dream that no longer exists in our current global competitive environment, as pensions get wiped out and companies downsize in [...]

By Penny Herscher|2017-12-03T02:44:32-08:00November 26, 2012|Career Advice|0 Comments

Progressive states of long offsite meetings

Long meetings can progressively sap energy and create altered states of being. Yes they can.We went offsite as a management team for 2 days this weekend to talk through our strategy and 2012 planning. 11 of us in 2 houses at Pajaro Dunes, lots of flip charts, heated discussions, cooking together, walking on the beach and generally spending time together thinking about our business. It was really fun but, even so, it was intense and, combined with long discussions late into the night about the state of the world accompanied [...]

By Penny Herscher|2017-12-06T17:01:55-08:00January 12, 2012|My Personal Journey|0 Comments

Raising over $31,000 for the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund

Earlier this year I set out a challenge for myself to do a really long swim for my mother, and on Monday that crazy idea grew into something really big for FirstRain and for the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund.We started doing athletic competitions at FirstRain back in 2008 as a way to build stronger teams inside the company and this Summer I decided to encourage Rainmakers to get involved in a series of events building up to my personal challenge of a 2.4 mile ocean swim off Maui.And to my [...]

By Penny Herscher|2017-12-06T17:04:08-08:00September 7, 2011|My Personal Journey|0 Comments

Are you an energy source or energy sink for your coworkers?

Everyone interacts differently in the office, based on their role and personality, but most people sort into one of two types with respect to their impact on other people: energy sources and energy sinks. The CEO has to be open to all, and to motivate and energize all, and so I become very aware of the net gain or drain of interaction with my coworkers - and everyone at all levels of the company is consciously or unconsciously impacting the energy level of the people around them. Energy sinks: - [...]

By Penny Herscher|2017-12-06T17:04:38-08:00August 9, 2011|Career Advice|2 Comments

My team completes the Splash and Dash!

Perfect, beautiful Cupertino evening last night. A few of us competed in the July Splash and Dash in the Stevens Creek Reservoir - a 1 mile swim and 3 mile run which is just the right distance to make you feel great! Aaron and Cory did both the swim and the run, Thomas ran in relay to my swim, and Doug completed the swim and decided he'd wait until next time to do the run....I am a big believer that competing in sporting events is a great way to build [...]

By Penny Herscher|2017-12-06T17:05:30-08:00July 8, 2011|My Personal Journey|0 Comments

Using pop psychology for team building

Diversity is a strength - especially in management teams - but it can also lead to tension, misunderstandings and all the challenges that can appear when two people are very different and don't "get" each other.Years ago it was popular to hire expensive consultants - often called coaches - to work with executive teams and help them form tight bonds and appreciate one another but having been put through that type of coaching several times in my career at different companies I am now a great believer in the home [...]

By Penny Herscher|2017-12-06T17:15:03-08:00March 31, 2010|Leadership|2 Comments

How “team” is different in a small tech company

Guest post: Michael Prospero, FirstRain Director of ResearchThroughout my professional career, I have worked for large financial organizations employing 100s to 1,000s of people. Therefore, I was one member of a very large so-called "team".Every organization I have worked for attempted to make me feel as though I am a part of a team working toward a common goal. However, if I am one analyst or one person in accounting ( or whatever your job function may be ) I really never feel like my group and the other departments, [...]

By Penny Herscher|2017-12-06T17:16:21-08:00October 13, 2009|Career Advice|0 Comments