In small business having engaged, motivated, and loyal employees reflects directly on the success of that business. Employees are typically the business' largest expense item while also its greatest asset. Productivity and customer satisfaction are driven by engaged employees who are interested in what they are doing and who they are working with.

Patrick Lencioni, in his wonderful business fable "The Three Signs of a Miserable Job", counts Irrelevance as one of the three key factors that lead to employee disengagement.

So how do we get our employees (and ourselves), to see relevance in their work? Do they enjoy coming to work each morning excited about what they do?

How do we know what gets them excited and what gets their juices flowing?  We can find out by knowing what's important to them ... what motivates them, what interests they have, and what is their "Why?" Most of us aren't aware of our own attitudes and motivators. We see the world as we are, it's our subconscious at work.

"We see the world though our own eyes. We each see it differently"
Stephen Covey

We don't really know what our motivators are until we experience an activity and get satisfaction from doing it. By finding out our motivators in advance, we are better able to act upon them to make sure we connect with our work and co-workers. Having this insight into your team can have a profound effect on the profitability of your small business.

A model we use in our consulting work was developed by Eduard Spranger a German psychologist, teacher, philosopher, in the 1920s. He defined six basic attitudes, values and motivators that all of us have in varying degrees. These are the following:

•Utilitarian/Economic: Every investment I make will have a greater return in time and resources.
•Aesthetic: I will enjoy and experience the beauty around me and allow it to mold me into all I can be.
•Individualistic: I will achieve the highest position and wield the greatest power or influence
•Theoretical: I will use my cognitive ability to understand, discover, and systematize the truth.
•Social: I will invest myself, time and resources in helping others to achieve their potential.
•Traditional: I will pursue a system for living.

By knowing which of these motivators is dominant for each of your team members, you can make decisions about which jobs to assign to whom and how to package incentives that really do motivate.