Performance by Design; How We Develop the Best Customized Solution for Your Business
Successful business initiatives don’t often happen by accident. Planning an impactful B2B loyalty or incentive program is a very intentional process at Motivation Excellence. For us, it all starts with a consultative approach we call Performance by Design.
“It’s really about being able to create a financially balanced and metrics-driven reward program designed specifically for a client’s data, goals and participants,” says Bob Graham, CEO & President of Motivation Excellence.
When our clients can share pertinent internal data, like sales figures, inventory, distribution models and historical trends, we can offer benefits like:
- Risk reduction
- Meaningful analytics and insights
- Financial models
“The best program results happen when we are able to take that deep dive not only into a client’s history, but also the industry and their competitors. The more a client can share, the better it is for our team to build a rule structure with ROI built in, and determine the best metrics to track toward success,” says Graham.
One of the best results we see repeatedly for clients through this approach is the ability to bring their data to life in a way they haven’t seen before.
“Sometimes, it’s because different departments warehouse their records separately. Our process pulls it all together in one big picture for greater business intelligence. It’s so rewarding to hear that we’ve done something for a client they weren’t able to do internally.”
Starting an incentive or loyalty program is a big undertaking and one that can likely feel overwhelming without an experienced partner by your side. Did you know that a well-designed program can pay for itself through the incremental performance it motivates? That’s one of the biggest benefits of working with our team. After 40 years in the industry, we know how to build programs that match your needs.
While Performance by Design is a great way to begin your partnership with us, it’s not a mandatory part of the journey. If you don’t have access to the elements needed for this type of foundational process, it’s OK. We can still apply our expertise and work with you to build a customized solution to fit your needs.
Our goal is to help our clients Inspire Extraordinary Performance with the people who mean the most to the success of their business. We do this through customized incentive and loyalty programs, global meetings & events, aspirational group travel experiences and personalized rewards. Explore all of our solutions on our website and click on Let’s Connect to get started today!
Reduce Your Stress in December (and All Year Long)
With multiple family gatherings, pressure to find meaningful gifts, and the push to wrap up the corporate year successfully, we all have the potential to feel more stress in the last four weeks of the year than we think we can handle! Firstbeat, a Scandinavian company that focuses on heart rate variability data to improve sports performance, shows in their data that stress levels in December are higher than at any other time of the year.
So, if we know what we’re heading into, let’s be proactive in keeping our stress levels under the boiling point by using some simple strategies.
You Can Say No
If you’re a people-pleaser, the temptation to say yes to any ask is pretty high. The problem with the end of the year is there are a lot more people asking for your time, expertise, ear… the list goes on! Saying yes to everything doesn’t make you an awesome person—it makes you a stretched-thin person, which can mean you’re not giving 100% to anyone.
If you listen to the Julia Louis-Dreyfus podcast “Wiser Than Me,” you’ll hear a repeating sentiment: “No is a complete sentence.” Many of us feel like we need to explain why we can’t do something. Yes, it feels like the nice thing to do, but we, women especially, don’t need to voice our reasonable excuses. A simple, “No, I can’t,” is sufficient. Of course, when your boss is the one asking, perhaps a little explanation is good, so you still have a job to come back to in January!
Limit Your Expectations
Nothing can disappoint someone like failed expectations. The good news here is we own our expectations and can adjust them accordingly. Perhaps you think you’ve found THE BEST GIFT for so-and-so, but when they open it, their enthusiasm fails to convey that you did a great job. Maybe your thoughts of serving the perfect meal are crushed when your dinner guests arrive an hour late. A blog on Tiny Buddha sums it up well: When expectations rule our lives, we set ourselves up for disappointment, and then we judge ourselves harshly as a result.
Adjust how you envision end-of-the-year situations. Dissect ahead of time the areas you can control, and come up with alternate plans for when the parts you can’t control go out of whack. Someone doesn’t like their gift as much as you thought they would? Be happy with yourself for the effort made. Company is late for dinner? Give yourself some leeway on timing in the kitchen, or accept that the microwave might come into play. The most important thing is spending time with people you care about. That’s where the memories are made, not what sits on your dinner plate.
Take Time for You
Taking time for yourself can mean exercising, enjoying a massage, solving Wordle, playing with your pet, slipping in a 30-minute catnap or relaxing in a bath. You don’t need to carve out hours of dedicated time every day, but making sure you have 5 to15 minute intervals of “me time” is important during stressful periods.
The trick here is not to add stress to your life figuring out what your “me time” looks like. It could be a few minutes of yoga or an hour reading a book. If you’re flexible, you can grab some recharging time on the fly even if it’s just concentrating on your breathing for five minutes in your car between errands.
Make Conscious Dietary Choices
Oh my goodness, the end of the year parade of parties and social obligations can be daunting! Add to it the copious amounts of rich or sugary food readily available and the social norm of consuming alcohol to celebrate, and any kind of nutritious habits you dedicated yourself to earlier in the year start to buckle.
Along with sleep and exercise, nutrition is a key indicator of good health. Heart.org lays out some useful tips to help you make healthy choices when it comes to food and beverages over the holidays.
- Eat fruit and veggies before a party so you don’t arrive famished
- Keep a bottle of water nearby so when you want to sip something it’s an easy choice
- Enjoy the things you love, just in moderation
Fueling your body with the good stuff will help your immunity, sleep and waistline!
Prioritize
What REALLY needs to get done? For the corporate setting, Parabol, itemized 45 questions to ask yourself that deal with risk assessment, practicality and value among other things. Outside of a work setting there are questions you can ask yourself to help decide which tasks MUST get done and which ones can wait.
1. What’s the worst-case scenario if I don’t do this task ASAP?
2. Can someone else get this done so I can take it off my plate?
3. Does this task align with my current life goals?
4. What will have the greater impact on my well-being, getting it done now, or letting it go for a while?
While it’s easy to mark every to-do as urgent this time of year, likely, most are not. Your house does not need to be “real estate showing” ready to host guests, and every package does not need to be wrapped in matching paper. If you can recognize some of the pressures you put on yourself, you’ll be one step closer to giving yourself a break.
Our team at Motivation Excellence is ready to help relieve your stress when it comes to connecting with the people who mean the most to your business. Our B2B loyalty programs, group travel, incentives, and meetings & events are a great way to Inspire Extraordinary Performance any time of year. Explore all of our solutions on our website!
Our New Website is LIVE! Explore Flexible Incentive Solutions in 2025
Performance improvement agency, Motivation Excellence, just launched a new website highlighting their group travel, incentives, meetings and events solutions. The website is designed for both experienced users and those new to implementing B2B incentives and loyalty initiatives to Inspire Extraordinary Performance. The team at Motivation Excellence encourages business leaders in all verticals to explore their offerings and reach out for a consultation via the new website.
“Our new website does a great job of explaining why incentives, meetings and events are meaningful and how Motivation Excellence partners with our clients to bring them to life,” says Bob Graham, Co-CEO and Co-President.
The main tabs are divided to focus on three categories of offerings:
Travel, Meetings & Events
- Group travel programs
- B2B loyalty events
- Global meetings
- Inspire, their proprietary travel technology
Incentive Programs & Rewards
- Incentive solutions
- Loyalty programs
- Award point programs
- Wide ranging personalized reward options
Performance Management & Tracking
- Custom performance tracking websites
- Rule structure consulting
- Marketing support
- And DRIVE, their philosophy for successful programs
Each letter of DRIVE stands for an important element when building an impactful incentive, meeting or event. Data, Rewards, Intelligence, Value and Engagement work together to accelerate results.
“Often, through our data analysis and program metrics, we are able to provide valuable business intelligence companies didn’t know they were missing. This is laid out with DRIVE,” says Graham.
This website launch and announcement of DRIVE comes as Motivation Excellence gets set to celebrate 40 years in the industry in 2025.
All Signs Point to Growing Incentives & Meetings Business in 2025; You Can Still Reap the Benefits at Your Company
Recent industry forecasts and surveys indicate corporate meetings, events and incentives will grow in 2025. According to the Incentive Travel Index 37% of respondents say 2025 levels will surpass 2024; 54% expect the spend-per-person to increase too.
At Motivation Excellence, we continue to see interest in planning something in 2025, even though it’s less than a month away. Meetings, retreats and spurt incentive programs are all easy ways to inject some energy into the calendar year without necessarily needing a long planning period. Flexibility in destinations and venues helps keep options open well into the year.
“Fitch Ratings predicts corporate revenue will continue to grow at a low- to mid-single digit rate in 2025. Using a well-thought-out event or meeting or launching a short-term incentive program could increase that growth.
“We’ve been helping our clients shoot for larger percentage growth next year through our solutions that generate excitement and motivate people to want to exceed their sales goals,” says Joe Reise, Director, Travel Purchasing, Planning and Supplier Relations.
The Benefits of Launching a Short-Term Incentive in 2025
If you’ve never invested in running a B2B or sales team incentive, planning a spurt program is a great way to get the feel for one and see instant results. Short-term incentives can run from a month to a quarter or two, depending on your sales cycle and goals. They can be valuable for:
- Specific products in your inventory
- Launching a new product
- Seasonal products or services
- Promoting steps-to-the-sale initiatives
- Gaining market share
“Short-term incentive programs are especially beneficial when a company wants to focus on generating excitement within its sales ranks; which in turn generates a boost of incremental sales,” says Rhonda Brewer, VP, Sales.
Pairing the incentive rules with a motivational reward is key to producing results. Goals need to be attainable, yet a stretch to reach. Rewards need to be aspirational but within your budget. This is an area in which our experts at Motivation Excellence excel. Many incentive programs pay for themselves and then some, if set up correctly from the start.
Rewards can run from award points to use on nearly anything to individual or group travel experiences to merchandise packages that upgrade a favorite hobby or room in a house. We offer such a huge selection of reward options that everyone will find something they can’t wait to earn!
Go Ahead and Plan that 2025 Meeting; We’re Here to Help
Another option to infuse some energy into 2025 is to look at hosting a meeting or event that energizes the key stakeholders responsible for your company’s success. From an executive retreat for 12 to a global sales meeting for hundreds, we can help you put it on the calendar sooner than you might expect. We recently planned an international sales meeting for more than 500 people, including breakout training sessions, off-site social gatherings and expert speakers, in just four months.
“We are experts with years of experience and a network of amazing global partners. When we work with a client, we become an extension of their team. We can take on as much as they need from us,” says Brewer.
“Flexibility is key in short turn around events, but that doesn’t have to mean you’re settling for anything. My team will source several great options that fit parameters like location, budget, amenities and space considerations, so our clients have really good choices,” Reise adds.
Let’s Connect
Motivation Excellence is happy to provide clients with a wide range of services, including program enrollment, event registration, air ticketing, full event planning, engagement support and performance tracking for all of our incentives, meetings and events solutions. We’re excited to celebrate 40 years in the industry in 2025. Nothing would be better than giving your company a reason to celebrate next year too!
5 Tips for Turning a Thought Shower into a Brainstorm
The benefits of a good brainstorming session are numerous! Whether you do it solo, or in a group, taking time to generate a wide range of ideas leads to diverse solutions and creative innovations. The best part about this exercise is its flexibility – you can do it at any time or in any place. There are some basic “rules” to follow though for maximum results.
It’s About Quantity, not Quality
Workflowy reminds us that brainstorming is about generating lots of ideas, not critiquing them as they fly into play. Brainstorming is about creativity and being open to anything. Evaluating those ideas comes later.
Positivity Rules the Play
Being critical of ideas in a brainstorming session defeats the purpose. Being positive relates to the idea givers as well as the receivers. Remember, there are no dumb ideas in this setting. At Motivation Excellence, to encourage collaboration, we suggest having a “plussing” environment where someone can add on to another’s idea if it moves it in a positive direction.
Get Comfortable
Balancing on a high wire is not the place to brainstorm! Not only is that scenario very uncomfortable, you clearly can’t relax and let your mind wander off task. Comfort is key and that can be different for each person. That could be why, as work efficiency company Mural points out, there is evidence showing virtual brainstorming jams can actually be more effective than meeting in person. The important point is that in a group session, there is shared space of some kind, that includes a Zoom or Teams meeting, and that everyone feels at their most comfortable.
- Play with lighting
- Wear comfortable clothing
- Pace, lay down or sit cross-legged – whatever opens up your pathways
- Try different kinds of music, or absolute silence
- Have a favorite beverage and snack at the ready
Have Some Structure
While the end result of brainstorming might feel and look like a chaotic jumble of half thoughts, to get there it’s good to have some boundaries. Mural suggests having a defined topic, an agenda and a leader to help guide the process.
Allow Yourself a Break
This is especially important when gnawing over finding a solution to a problem solo. Start with all of the above strategies, for sure, but remember that sometimes the best ideas come after they’ve had some time to sit in your subconscious. Job search company The Muse, suggests some long-term brainstorming tactics like:
- Breaking for some physical or creative activity
- Exposing yourself to a topic totally different than what you’re brainstorming on
- Taking notes as they hit you
No one comes up with the absolute right answer to an issue immediately, every time. Allowing yourself the luxury of brainstorming can turn a few idea droplets into a flood of possibilities. The next step, evaluation, is like splashing in the puddles to find the top contenders. Hopefully the end result is one or two viable solutions ready to shine in the sunlight. Good luck!
Avoiding Workplace Harassment Is Everyone’s Responsibility
Everyone in the workplace contributes to the culture of the environment. This is especially true when it comes to harassment and bullying. While unpleasant behavior from a coworker might not rise to the level of being illegal, it can definitely strongly affect the mood at work, which can lead to lower productivity, depressed morale and even losing talented people. When it comes to nipping harassing behavior before it grows, we all have a role to play.
Is It Me?
Most of us would likely shake our heads fervently if someone asked us if we were the problem. But, obviously, in a harassment or bullying situation, someone IS the instigator, even if they feel like they’re just “having fun” or the other person is just “being sensitive.” It’s important to note that intent doesn’t always matter. You might think you’re making a funny joke or that hugging shows you care or provides comfort to another person. If your behavior, however good-intentioned it may be, causes discomfort to a colleague, you’ll want to change course.
Here are things to avoid:
- Making untoward comments or jokes about someone’s appearance, religion, nationality, gender or disability
- These are protected characteristics that are legally safeguarded in many work environments
- Touching someone, even if it feels like a minor gesture, without knowing if the other person is OK with it
- Using aggressive language, making threats or trying to control someone’s actions
- Repeatedly asking someone out for a date after they’ve said no
Be sure to respect others’ requests to stop certain behaviors. Also, focus on how your actions make another person feel, rather than putting all the weight on your own intentions.
No, It’s You
LRN specializes in building ethical business cultures. In a blog post about harassment in the workplace, they wrote that more than a quarter of office workers in the US and the UK have reported experiencing bullying or harassment at some point in their careers. Zippia, a job placement company, found between 54% and 81% of women report experiencing sexual harassment at work, but many don’t escalate it to a manager.
How do you know if you’re being harassed? Consider these questions:
- Does going to work make you feel uncomfortable, especially knowing you’ll be working with a particular person or group?
- Have you said things like, “I don’t like it when you hug me,” or “Please stop making those jokes around me,” yet the behavior is downplayed or continues?
- Have you reported specific behavior to management, but nothing happens?
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) enforces harassment laws. Isolated incidents, simple teasing and offhand comments do not rise to the level of legal action unless they are very serious or occur frequently. However, the EEOC recommends telling a manager even after one occurrence if it made you feel uncomfortable.
Inspired eLearning suggests the following steps to take if you’re experiencing harassment:
- Talk to the perpetrator and try to resolve it through clear communication
- If the harassment continues, report it to a supervisor or HR representative
- If it still isn’t resolved, you can reach out to the EEOC to report it
What Did I Just See?
Harassing or bullying behavior can include and affect people outside the victim and the offender. If you witness worrying behavior, you can absolutely take steps to help correct it. The Office of Congressional Workplace Rights encourages bystanders to take responsible actions.
- Document it, including the date, the people involved and specifics about what you heard or saw
- If you feel comfortable talking to the victim, tell them you witnessed it and are willing to describe what you saw
- Talk to a manager about your concerns
Bystanders can also talk to the perpetrator, giving them an outside perspective on what they witnessed. Sometimes this is enough to stop future poor behavior. Third parties can also diffuse a situation as it’s happening by stepping in actively to say, “This is not cool,” or subtly by pulling either party away with a request for immediate help on something. A bystander’s presence alone can sometimes mitigate the situation without needing to say a word.
A Team Effort
Harassing behavior is always unwarranted, unwanted, and can be unlawful. It affects not only the victim, but the company culture. Managers need to be mindful of encouraging an open-door policy and following up on reported incidents. Colleagues should feel like they can take a positive role in resolving bad behavior. Victims need to have a clear course of action to report harassment, either through a manager or HR department. Finally, we all must self-reflect to make sure we aren’t causing undue stress on our colleagues through our words or actions.
Know Your Learning Style for Best Results in Life
We really never stop learning. There’s always a trendy gadget to understand or a change in work policy to incorporate or new slang in use…so truly, whether you consider yourself a lifelong learner or not, we are all forced to learn big and little things throughout life. Knowing how you learn best is critical to digesting new information and putting it to good use. Knowing how your colleagues, employees and clients prefer to learn will give you a nice roadmap to follow when you’re the one teaching the lesson.
Know How You Prefer to Learn
There are four widely recognized styles of learning:
- Auditory
- Visual
- Verbal
- Kinesthetic
Each one lends itself to preferred methods of taking in new information.
Learning Style | Preferred Method of Intake |
Auditory | Traditional lecture type presentation |
Visual | Needs to see it in graphs, diagrams, photos, etc. |
Verbal (reading/writing) | Likes taking notes and reading on own |
Kinesthetic | Wants to be hands-on, immersed in subject |
It’s important to know where on this spectrum you thrive. You can have a combination of preferred learning styles too. It’s OK to mix and match to find the right fit. For instance, when learning a language, you might prefer to hear others speak while reading along. For car maintenance, you might need to literally get your hands dirty while watching a DIY YouTube video.
To see where you fall, take a VARK (Visual, Auditory, Reading/Writing, Kinesthetic) assessment.
Know How Others Prefer to Learn
It’s just as important to know how others like to learn, if you’re the teacher. Insperity offers a way to figure out someone else’s learning style from listening to their questions.
Learning Style | Questions Others Will Ask |
Auditory | Can you tell me…? |
Visual | Can you demonstrate that for me? |
Verbal (reading/writing) | Is there a manual on this? |
Kinesthetic | Can I try it myself? |
Once you’ve pinpointed your teammates’ learning styles, providing an environment where each can succeed as they absorb new information is important. Cornerstone on Demand defines workplace learning styles slightly differently than VARK and suggests the environment best suited to each type.
Learning Style | Best Environment |
Student (visual and verbal) | Learns best seeing presentations and writing notes |
The Independent | Prefers learning alone than in a group setting |
The Conversationalist | Likes background noise and talking through things |
Hands-on Learner | Wants a calm environment and be allowed trial and error time |
Cornerstone adds that when looking at diversity in the workplace, learning style is absolutely part of the equation.
Using a Variety of Methods
At the end of the day, we all prefer to learn in ways unique to our personality and level of self-awareness. Be conscious of that when you’re presenting to a client or selling to a customer. Interactions on your company website will benefit from accommodating a variety of information intake methods: page text, videos, webinars, blogs, summary graphics, full-blown case studies and podcasts.
And if you are someone who prides themselves on tackling new topics, languages, sports or hobbies, know how best to set yourself up for success right from the beginning. Just because you’re out of school, doesn’t mean you don’t have a lot more to learn!
Effective Delegation Brings Liberation to Your Workday
Are you ready to cross some items off your to-do list? Jot this at the top: “Learn how to delegate.” Then keep reading, and by the end you’ll be ready to draw a line straight through it!
The Many Benefits of Delegation
Delegation does not mean pushing your work onto someone else. It doesn’t mean you’re lazy or uninvested in a project. It does mean you’re ready to empower your team, build trust with them and be better at your own time management. There are likely tasks you must do; but just as likely, there are many jobs you can entrust to others in your organization.
Delegation offers benefits to both parties.
For you:
- Eases stress
- Frees time for other needs
- Shows trust
- Boosts engagement
- Increases productivity
For them:
- Provides skill development
- Raises confidence
- Increases teamwork
- Builds leadership
- Gives a sense of achievement
In addition, delegation can boost overall morale, improve efficiency and enable innovation. Everyone can benefit from proper allocation of tasks.
How to Delegate
Figuring out when to assign projects, big or small, is the first step to delegation success. The University of Sussex outlines nine things to think about, including:
- Defining the parameters of the job
- Clearly stating the desired results
- Agreeing on timeline and metrics of progress
- Providing feedback and open communication
What to Delegate
According to the Leadership Team article on LinkedIn, the Eisenhower Matrix is an excellent way to determine which jobs to move from your plate to another’s. Very simply, it’s suggested you group and delegate tasks that are either urgent but not important, or important but not urgent.
Urgent tasks require immediate attention. Surely you can tackle it, but if there’s someone else on your team with the skill set and flexibility, it could make more sense to ask them to take it on. Too many urgent tasks can lead to elevated stress and burn-out, so spreading them around keeps everyone fresh.
Important tasks help achieve long-term goals. These projects might require thoughtful planning and end up taking a good deal of time over a long period. As a leader, you may feel this belongs squarely in your jurisdiction, or you may know a team member who excels at this type of project management. With regularly scheduled updates, you can keep up on the progress without getting mired in the details.
The aforementioned Eisenhower Matrix link is filled with tips and strategies to keep your to-do list short and sweet.
To Whom to Delegate
This can be the very crux of eventual success. Once you’ve determined that you can move a to-do off your list, figuring out who can take it on is important. Vital Learning encourages leaders to look at a few factors when deciding to whom to give a job.
- Capabilities
- Enthusiasm
- Level of attention to details
Workload should always be a consideration too. When in doubt, given a standard level of skills, you can always ask for a volunteer. Overall, it’s important to make sure no one is being underutilized or overburdened in order to get all the benefits of delegation to fall into place.
So, now… are you ready to cross “Learn to delegate” off your list? We hope so, and good luck!
Recognizing Stellar Teamwork at Work; Our Internal Program at Motivation Excellence
At Motivation Excellence our core values are Respect, Integrity, Trust and Exceeding Expectations, or RITE2. As a leader in the incentive industry, we like to live what we recommend to others. Showing the people who matter most to your business that they matter to you is critical to increased engagement, loyalty and longevity, whether you’re talking about employees or partners outside your business. When people are more engaged with your company, they work harder to help you reach your goals.
We have an internal recognition program based on RITE2 that allows colleagues to recognize each other for exemplifying one of our core values. Everyone gets an award point balance they can use each month to reward one or more teammates. For really special recognition, they can ask a manager for a bigger award point reward. Enter Debbie and Josee.
Debbie, a 27-year veteran of our office, had a serious medical condition that required her to take several months off. Debbie is one of our jill-of-all-trades team members. Among many other things, she has a hand in quoting our creative services, purchasing supplies, working with print vendors and organizing mailings out of our on-site warehouse. She’s one of those people who you don’t realize all she does until she’s not there.
When Debbie left, Josee, our travel mailing coordinator, didn’t ask what she could do to help fill the void. She just did it. Knowing the ins and outs of the warehouse and how mailings work already, Josee stepped up to make sure all mailings, including those outside the travel department, stayed on schedule, had the proper packaging and personally assembled and shipped every one to an exacting standard. She coordinated with both internal teams and external vendors to keep the flow of work right on schedule. And then, Debbie says, she did even more.
“When time was available Josee again took it upon herself to give the warehouse a good cleaning. All the materials in stock have been organized and labeled for easy access in the future. She donated items we no longer were using so we could help others in the community,” wrote Debbie in her Exceeding Expectations award nomination.
In response, company leadership recently lifted up Josee as an example to celebrate our Exceeding Expectations core value. For Josee, she was surprised, but honored.
“She’s my friend. I’m just glad she’s healthy again. I didn’t want her to worry about anything at work. She absolutely would’ve done that for me. We all do that here. We show up to get the work done,” said Josee.
Josee plans to use her reward to make an upcoming mother-son adventure to Italy even more special. Sharing the appreciation with family makes it that much more meaningful and memorable!
Get to Know ME with Melissa Nazareno
It’s time to get to know Melissa Nazareno, our Accounting Manager. As you can read below, she sees the fun in numbers and systems, which makes her a perfect fit for her role! Read on to learn about her passions for space exploration, delegation and solving challenges. Thanks, Melissa, for participating in our Get to Know ME segment this month!
What’s your current title and how long have you been in the incentive industry?
My current title is Accounting Manager, and I’ve been in the incentive industry for 1 year with Motivation Excellence.
What do you like about your job?
I love my job because it allows me to solve business challenges and optimize operations by transforming digital and financial infrastructures. Motivation Excellence has built a supportive culture that allows for growth. I can geek out on numbers, play with systems, and have strategic impact. My job is fun, and I’m excited for our future.
What’s something you want to share about the people you work with at Motivation Excellence?
I’m surrounded by fun-loving people who have built careers around making others happy and driving positive change. Our team strives to deliver exceptional incentive experiences and innovative technology for our clients. Coming from an audit role where clients weren’t always thrilled to see me, I greatly appreciate this industry.
What’s a specific moment in your history that always stands out as a defining moment, and why?
I’ve had a collection of moments which led to a pivotal understanding: time is precious. With whom and how I spend it is sacred. I’m big on process improvement and continually work to streamline my life with this in mind.
What’s an unknown or odd talent you have?
I’m amazing at talking to engineers and translating what they said to non-engineers. Specifically odd, but very handy in solving cross-functional challenges and troubleshooting. I’ve worked in systems implementations and my spouse is an engineer, so I’ve had a ton of practice!
What motivates you to accomplish things in your life (work or personal)?
The pursuit of truth and the quest for knowledge propels me. I love learning and trying new things to find out more about myself. Life is a sandbox, and I seek out adventure.
What do you enjoy doing outside of work?
Being an executive assistant to three little ones means mastering the art of multitasking. While I love spending time with them, I also cherish my daily runs, accompanied by a podcast at 2x speed – it’s meditative.
One thing that always makes you laugh is?
Non-sequiturs and deadpan humor.
What’s a bucket list item you can’t wait to cross off?
I’d love to watch a rocket launch – or even better, travel to space.
This month, our theme for social media is “Effective Delegation.” What are your tips on delegation?
I’m passionate about this topic. Simply being the best at something doesn’t mean you should always do it. I believe in passing on the value you can create to others, empowering them by matching the right tasks to the right people. The goal is to help someone progress from being task-focused to taking ownership. One of the most overlooked aspects of effective delegation is recruiting and maintaining a pipeline of talented people for value creation. I love lifting others up and watching them grow.