What if an online assessment (that you can take in as little as 30 minutes) could clarify a deep understanding of your core motivational drives, helping you see how disparate past accomplishments relate to one another and can help predict where and how to best direct your energies in future? Likewise, what if this same assessment was the critical, but often overlooked, link in building productive and engaged work teams as well as improving interpersonal relationships?
Sounds too good to be true, right? Let me introduce you to the Motivation Code Assessment (MCODE for short) – which forms the basis of my consulting practice. This assessment, in its current online format, has been 60+ years in the making. Since the 1950s, researchers have been studying motivated behavior, and quickly observed that each person has a specific motivational design that drives their best work and is evident in every facet of their lives.
This motivational design transcends one’s resume. In any given workplace, multiple employees, with similar degrees and job titles, naturally gravitate to secondary roles – possibly as mentors, troubleshooters, or dealmakers. Maybe you have observed the person whom friends or coworkers consistently seek out as “the voice of reason” when situations get tense. Or when faced with escalating problems, you instinctively recognize which leader or friend reacts cautiously vs. the one which will charge forward to “slay the dragon.”
Fulfilling these instinctive secondary roles emanates from individuals’ motivational design. When a team draws on the collective motivated abilities of its members, the team’s efforts are far more productive, and the workers will be more engaged. The same holds true in families and volunteer efforts.
Of course, since our motivational patterns lead to instinctive reactions, there are times they can serve as both a blessing or a curse – depending on when and how one deploys them. Years ago, a colleague was helping a nonprofit organization conduct an executive search for a CFO. The organization needed a turnaround specialist, yet a candidate they were considering was motivated to “Develop” and “Establish.” My colleague warned the organization that this candidate might not be a good fit at this time. It hired him anyway and a year later, the organization was engaged in a capital campaign.
As parents, we see these budding motivational designs in our children and there is an art and science in helping them cultivate them well. One time I volunteered in helping children put on an Easter play. One 11 year-old girl was extraordinarily helpful in reading through the script and lining up the props so that they were accessible at the right time. When I met her mother, I spoke very effusively about how helpful her daughter was. The mother responded, “I know, she’s bossy.” I’m sure there were times, where this young girl’s “Take Charge” motivation was annoying, but she certainly helped our play run smoothly.
How does the MCODE assessment provide such insightful information, others miss? It is the only assessment tool that integrates information gleaned from clients’ stories of meaningful accomplishments with proven psychometric categories. Thus, establishing a new standard for motivational analysis. Moreover, in the last decade researchers have taken what used to be an individually administered assessment into an online format. It now offers a simpler and scalable approach to healthy self-discovery, allowing individuals and organizations of all sizes to utilize its predictive power.
I’m looking forward to talking with you further as to how MCODE can offer insight to you – personally and professionally.