I had lunch with a client, George Erdman, the president of EREN Corp., and one of his associates recently. George is an interesting guy who always has about a million ideas going on at one time.

 

Among other things, the company helps document processes for a variety of businesses. To do this, George and his team have to understand the people they are working with and what motivates them to do their jobs. So, being a group of engineers ... and if you know any engineers, you know they are always finding solutions to problems that no one else ever thought of ... they created a visual tool to represent the things that motivate people.

They use it to help teams understand how to work better together. George also uses it when he's mentoring business owners because if you understand what someone's primary motivators are, you can help them reach their goals.

George calls this tool his "Motivator Pie." It's shaped like a pie and the sections of the pie can be moved easily to make one section larger and another smaller. It's a cool visual representation of the four basic motivating factors:

Recognition
People who are motivated by "Recognition" are interested in respect, admiration, regard, esteem, notoriety and celebrity.

Influence
Those whose primary motivator is "Influence" find power, control, competition, independence and order to be most important.

Internal
If you are motivated by "Internal" factors, then morals, duty, intellect, creativity, philanthropy, and honor are important to you.

Profit
"Profit" motivated people strive for success with money, possessions, acquisitions, wealth, income and growth.

When using the Motivator Pie, you can easily visualize how important profit, influence, recognition and internal (personal) factors are to you and how they influence reaching your goals. You can adjust the size of each section according to how important it is to you.

After setting the Motivator Pie's sections to reflect your motivators, you are asked to give some thought to the following questions:

• Are my goals consistent with what motivates me?

• Is there a big difference in my motivations in different
situations?

• What motivates the people I work (or live) with?

• Can or do my motivators cause conflict with my associates (family)?


Which of these factors are most motivating to you? Can you put a percentage next to each motivator (with the total equaling 100 percent, of course)? What's most important to your employees/boss/family members?

How does this affect your relationships?

 

The Motivator Pie

 

As you can see in the prototype above, the Motivator Pie is 4 inches round, consisting of 5 laminated "color-coded wheels of information" riveted together. Each motivating factor protrudes like a handle so you can easily adjust the four factors to their respective sizes. It's a great way to show others (and yourself) what factors are important to you.

Get your own Motivator Pie for just $9.95 each plus shipping here:

Or call 1-800-203-8660

Please allow 4-6 weeks for shipping.