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About Trenton Technology

Trenton is a designer and manufacturer of industrial rackmount computer systems, single board computers and backplanes for critical embedded computing applications such as telephony,medical imaging, gaming, military installations,instrumentation, and process control which require performance, precision and reliability.

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The 5 Top Ways to Motivate Engineers

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What are the top 5 ways to motivate Engineers?


We have several different kinds of engineers at Trenton. Some design single board computers and backplanes, some are test engineers and support engineers. Engineers all seem to be motivated by the same types of things. Are you in any of these groups?

1. Free food - Any time there is a free lunch presentation on quality control, the newest piece of test equipment, or some other "exciting" topic, engineers come out of the woodwork and are suspiciously on time.

2. Free SWAG- shirts, pens, stress balls you name it. Engineers love toys, gadgets and company logo shirts. One less thing to think about in the morning is what I think the logic is here, I would imagine.

3. Hula hoops/games- you remember those don't you? We had a hula-hoop challenge here at Trenton and everyone seemed to channel their inner youth and competitiveness to win the title of "Trenton Champion Hula Hooper".

4. Unlimited amounts of Mountain Dew and Dr. Pepper- I was never quite sure why these two sodas were the beverages of choice for engineers, but it seems to be that way. Other than the super amount of caffeine, I don't understand. If someone knows, please email me and clue me in.

5. A challenge- nothing seems to motivate an engineer more than a puzzle to be solved or problem to be fixed. Engineers are hardwired to examine and apply logic and be the one to solve the riddle.


How many of these apply to you? Email me at tvalentine@trentontechnology.com or http://www.twitter.com/trentontech and let me know.


Comments

Set them an online quiz about their skill at something, which marks them out of 100 and gives them feedback. They will all have a go and then tell you how they disagree with the model answers. Good way to get them thinking about or talking about a new subject such as mentoring other engineers. 
Richard Naish
Posted @ Tuesday, November 03, 2009 3:23 PM by Richard Naish
Motivation.... is goal oriented behavior.  
 
 
 
Goals are generally personal but effectively managed, can be ascribed to a group think. Lumping engineers (or most groups) into a behavioral/motivational bucket misses the underlying issue and opportunity.  
 
 
 
Point 5 (A Challenge) is an example of how to get teams (not just engineers) focused, aligned and energized. For the most part, goals are personal, tho a skilled leader can help team members realize how team behavior will achieve goals not recognizable by individuals alone.  
 
 
 
Free soda (or coffee) is likely more about energy to magnify a group or individual motivation (good or bad), but for most, is likely not a goal around which behavior can be oriented.
Posted @ Wednesday, November 11, 2009 6:42 PM by Barry Borden
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