As a coach, you love the challenge of helping your clients navigate challenges, set goals, and achieve personal breakthroughs so they can live their life at its best. But let’s face it — some clients can be downright challenging.
Some coaching clients struggle to engage fully in the process or make excuses and procrastinate. Others can’t seem to get in the right mindset, or they start off strong but just can’t stick with it. And some can’t even decide if they’re going to hire you.
Watching this play out again and again is incredibly frustrating. It wastes time and prevents you from delivering the kind of life-changing results you know you can bring to the table.
But what if you knew the WHY behind their behavior and could tap into that powerful drive at any time? Going one step further, what if you could use those insights to tailor your sales pitch, every communication, coaching sessions, and even the assignments you give — based on that person’s innate motivational drivers?
Well you can. And you can start doing it today.
Discovering What Motivates Your Client
MCode is a powerful, narrative-based assessment that helps you identify and understand your clients’ strongest motivational patterns by revisiting their personal achievement stories — activities and moments in their lives where they felt the most joy, success, and personal satisfaction.
But to be clear, MCode isn’t just another personality assessment. It’s a comprehensive framework backed by more than 60 years of behavioral science that explains human motivations — enabling you, as a coach, to tailor your approach in a way that resonates best with each and every team member or client.
It’s the difference between a generic, ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach and a highly-personalized strategy that results in real, lasting transformation.
And when you understand your client’s MCode, you’re even better equipped to guide them in ways that align with their intrinsic motivations. This alignment not only makes your sessions more impactful, but also fosters deeper client-coach connections.
Where did MCode come from?
The test of a reliable assessment is that it’s grounded in time-tested science. MCode is based on over six decades of rigorous research in motivational science, and one of its standout findings is the consistency of human motivations.
For more than 60 years, the behavioral scientists behind MCode have been studying what drives people by mapping their achievement stories to their motivations. Based on the foundational research of System for Identifying Motivational Abilities (SIMA©), they built an online assessment that outputs an individual’s unique motivational map, called a Motivation Code, or MCode, for short.
Over the last few decades, they’ve collected more than a million achievement stories from individuals all around the world. And those stories have revealed 32 underlying motivations that make up a unique ‘code’ that drives our behavior, informs our decisions, and propels us to seek out work that is deeply gratifying and fulfilling.
How does MCode work?
The MCode assessment walks you or your client through a fully-guided, three-step reflection and discovery process that takes about 30 minutes to complete.
Step 1: Share your stories
Everything MCode reveals about you is based on your stories. You start by sharing stories about a few of the most important, meaningful, and satisfying achievements from any part of your life.
Step 2: Answer questions
Next, the MCode assessment asks a series of questions about your stories and experiences. You’ll answer questions about how you felt, what you did, what you enjoyed, and why the stories matter, by ranking your answers on a scale of 1-10.
Step 3: Discover your MCode!
With your responses complete, the platform will generate a detailed, highly-personalized report all about you, your unique motivational profile, and how your motivations shape who you are and what you do.
The personalized MCode report includes a list of your Top Five Motivations, a ranked list of all 32 Motivations, sorted from most satisfying to least, and your Top Dimensions of Motivation — eight families, or groups of related Motivations that provide an easier way to understand and talk about your Motivations. Plus another 20 pages of detailed insights about how your motivations drive your actions, what energizes and drains you, where you excel and struggle, and what to seek out or watch out for.
But more importantly, the report shares how to apply these insights to your life and leverage your unique motivational pattern to be more productive, collaborate more effectively, be a better leader, and deepen your sense of meaning and purpose in your work.
How MCode Elevates Your Coaching
The truth is, every coaching client has the potential to be your best coaching client. When you understand how a client is motivated, you’ll also know what makes them tick, what drives them to act, what lights them up, and what spurs them to pursue — and accomplish — their goals.
Motivational science explains why clients, even when using their strengths, fully immerse themselves in some activities, but struggle to care about others. And when used in coaching, it enables you to connect with your clients on a deeper level and amplify your impact and influence and their results.
The MCode framework gives you new tools so you can:
- Tailor your sales process to perfectly fit each prospective client so they feel comfortable and confident saying yes.
- Personalize your coaching for every client so it aligns with what drives them and how they derive meaning and satisfaction.
- Customize your client experience to ensure your coaching sticks, and your clients engage more fully in the process, achieve their goals, and refer you to everyone they know.
Coaching Tip
Because coaching typically begins with listening to your client’s story, we recommend you offer the MCode assessment to your clients right up-front. The foundational stories they’ll share as part of the assessment will provide deep insights into your client’s background and intrinsic motivations. Then, you might look to integrate other methodologies and/or assessments at a later point.
1. Tailor Your Sales Process
The MCode framework equips you with insights you can use to make your sales process as individualized as the coaching you offer. Even before they’ve engaged you as a coach and taken the MCode for themselves, you can make an educated guess as to the MCode Dimension of a prospective client and then craft your pitch and presentation in a way that resonates deeply with them.
For instance, if a potential client is an Achiever, emphasize how your coaching will help them stand out and excel. Or for a Relator, you might focus on how coaching will enhance their connections and interpersonal skills. This tailored approach not only makes the client feel understood and valued but also significantly increases their comfort and confidence in saying ‘yes’ to your services.
2. Personalize Your Coaching Approach
Personalization is at the heart of effective coaching, and the MCode framework provides a powerful foundation for this. By aligning your coaching strategies with your client’s strongest Motivations, you create a deeply resonant and satisfying coaching experience.
This might mean focusing on goal-setting and achievement for a Driver, or fostering knowledge and discovery for a Learner. When clients see that their coaching sessions are tailored to what drives them and brings them satisfaction, they’re more likely to engage deeply, apply what they learn, and truly benefit from the coaching process.
3. Customize the Client Experience
The MCode framework not only aids in understanding your clients but also in customizing their entire coaching experience. This customization ensures that every interaction, be it through homework, feedback, or session structure, is designed to maximize engagement and effectiveness.
For a Visionary, this could mean integrating creative brainstorming and future planning into sessions. For an Optimizer, it might involve systematic approaches to problem-solving. When clients feel that their coaching journey is specifically tailored to their needs and motivations, they are more likely to fully engage, achieve their goals, and become enthusiastic referrers of your services.
How MCode Coaching Compares to Other Approaches
Understanding the distinctions between MCode coaching and other approaches can help to illustrate the depth and precision the MCode framework brings to the coaching process. Let’s explore these differences in detail.
1. More Specific Insights
Traditional Coaching: Often relies on generic or broadly-defined personality assessments, leading to recommendations that might fit a large segment of the population but miss out on the individual nuances.
MCode Coaching: Uses a deep understanding of the client’s unique intrinsic Motivations, derived from their personal stories of achievement, offering a unique and precise insight into their core drivers.
2. Deep Personalization
Traditional Coaching: Often relies on ‘one-size-fits-all’ frameworks, with tools and methodologies designed for the general population.
MCode Coaching: Offers a deeply personalized coaching journey, tailoring strategies and recommendations based on the unique MCode of the client, ensuring true resonance and alignment with their core motivations.
Example: In a goal-setting session, while traditional coaching might guide a client towards extrinsic goals based on broad categories, MCode coaching ensures goals are deeply aligned with the client’s deepest intrinsic Motivations, increasing the likelihood of achievement and satisfaction.
3. Stronger Connections
Traditional Coaching: Establishes a client-coach connection based on discussions, sessions, and broad insights.
MCode Coaching: Fosters a deeper connection by tapping into the very essence of what drives the client, creating a bond based on genuine understanding and empathy.
Example: When a client is facing personal challenges, other approaches might offer broad, generic coping strategies. Meanwhile, an MCode coach, recognizing the client is a Learner, might instead suggest they dive deep into understanding their challenge, turning the situation into a learning opportunity.
MCode Addresses Common Coaching Problems
Surface-Level Insights: Traditional coaching can sometimes offer generalized advice based on broad categorizations, which might not resonate with every individual. MCode goes deep to the heart of what drives a person, ensuring insights and guidance are always rooted in their core Motivations.
Lack of Tailored Strategies: Without a precise understanding of what truly drives a client, traditional coaching might resort to trial and error, or miss the mark entirely in proposing strategies that align with the client’s intrinsic motivations. MCode ensures that every recommendation is personalized and resonates deeply with the client.
MCode Enhances Other Coaching Tools
MCode is not meant to replace traditional coaching or the tools you already use in your coaching practice, but to enhance them. Whether you use personality assessments, strengths or skill inventories, or other methodologies, MCode can be integrated seamlessly, amplifying the effectiveness of your coaching sessions.
For instance, you may be familiar with CliftonStrengths and already use it in your practice. If so, you already know that it does a great job of articulating what an individual naturally does best (their talents and strengths), while MCode focuses on why they do it (their inner Motivations).
Both tools can be complementary in personal and professional development, with CliftonStrengths helping to leverage one’s natural abilities, and MCode providing insight into what drives and fulfills them at a deeper level.
In this way, the MCode Framework elevates the coaching process, ensuring every session is rooted in a deep understanding of the client’s Motivations.
Real-World Application
Meet Taylor, an experienced coach skilled in the top methodologies, who occasionally faced challenges in connecting deeply with certain clients. One such client was Sam, a dynamic sales manager known for their exceptional communication and leadership skills as identified by CliftonStrengths. However, Sam was struggling to translate these strengths into meaningful career advancement.
After incorporating the MCode assessment into their coaching sessions, Taylor discovered that Sam’s top Motivations were Develop, Persuade, and Be Unique. This insight was crucial. While Sam was naturally talented in communication, their true drive lay in developing others, influencing decisions, and standing out in unique ways.
Taylor then restructured their coaching strategy, focusing on opportunities for Sam to mentor junior team members, lead persuasive presentations, and undertake projects that highlighted their unique approach. This personalized coaching not only invigorated Sam’s career but also deepened the client-coach relationship.
For Taylor, it was a powerful example that combining the ‘what’ and the ‘why’ of a client’s strengths and motivations dramatically enhances the impact of their coaching.
Tap Into Your Client’s Motivation Code for Powerful, Life-Changing Results
Understanding a client’s MCode can help you deliver a more transformative coaching experience where every strategy, from sales pitches to tailored exercises, is designed to resonate with the client’s core drivers.
Armed with this new tool and the insights it provides, you can then create a completely personalized coaching blueprint based on each client’s unique MCode, which will not only increase the impact of your sessions, but also build a deeper connection with every client, and pave the way for more profound transformations in their lives.
To learn more about MCode, visit: MotivationCode.com
