MCode vs The Fascinate Test
Standing out and captivating others is important, but it’s only one piece of the puzzle. To build high-performance cultures and deeply engaged teams, organizations must go beyond external perceptions and uncover the intrinsic motivations that drive fulfillment, productivity, and long-term success.
The “why” behind performance
The Fascinate Test highlights how individuals are perceived and how they can influence others, but it doesn’t uncover the deeper drivers of engagement and productivity. MCode goes beyond external traits, revealing the intrinsic motivations that energize individuals and fuel their best work. These insights allow organizations to align roles, tasks, and responsibilities with what matters most to each person, creating a foundation for fulfillment and high performance.
- MCode explains why certain tasks are energizing or draining, helping leaders create job alignment that maximizes productivity.
- Organizations that use MCode hire people who aren’t just skilled but are also deeply motivated by the work they do.
Engage employees deeply
While the Fascinate assessment can help individuals improve communication and personal branding, it doesn’t provide the tools to address disengagement or dissatisfaction in the workplace. MCode empowers leaders to understand what makes their employees tick, allowing them to design meaningful roles and offer personalized growth opportunities. This results in higher engagement, greater job satisfaction, and stronger team loyalty.
- Employees who feel their work aligns with their core motivations are happier, more engaged, and more productive.
- MCode provides leaders with actionable insights to tailor assignments, recognition, and development plans to what drives each individual.
Build high-performing teams
Sally Hogshead’s Fascinate Test focuses on helping individuals stand out and captivate others, but MCode equips teams to work cohesively by uncovering the Motivations behind each member’s contributions. By using MCode, leaders can strategically assign roles that play to team members’ strengths, reduce conflict, and improve collaboration. This alignment builds stronger teams and reduces voluntary attrition by ensuring all employees feel valued and fulfilled.
- MCode identifies the motivational dynamics of a team, helping leaders address gaps and maximize strengths.
- When employees feel understood and their roles align with their motivations, they are more likely to stay, perform, and thrive.
Motivation vs. Perception
The Motivation Code assessment ranks an individual’s 32 Motivations and maps them across 8 Motivational Dimensions — Achiever, Driver, Influencer, Learner, Optimizer, Orchestrator, Relator, and Visionary. An individual’s most prominent Motivations and Dimensions reveal what energizes them.
From 7 Fascination Advantages — Innovation, Passion, Power, Prestige, Trust, Mystique, and Alert — The Fascinate Test identifies an individual’s primary and secondary advantages, which reveal which of 49 different personality archetypes they best align with. This reveals how they fascinate others.
Internal vs. External
MCode uncovers intrinsic motivations and what drives individuals to perform, thrive, and find fulfillment. It identifies the “why” behind behavior, focusing on internal drivers like satisfaction, energy, and interest. The Fascinate Test reveals how others perceive an individual, offering insights into external traits and communication styles that make someone memorable and influential.
Performance vs. Influence
MCode emphasizes aligning intrinsic motivations with roles to enhance performance, productivity, and satisfaction, making it ideal for personal growth, employee engagement, and team building. The Fascinate Test helps individuals refine how they captivate others, improving communication, influence, and personal branding, particularly in client-facing, leadership, and marketing roles.
MCode vs How To Fascinate
The MCode Assessment and The Fascinate Test reflect two distinct approaches to assessing individual at their best. MCode is all about intrinsic motivation, offering insights into what drives engagement, productivity, performance, and fulfillment. The Fascinate Test is all about external perception, helping individuals and teams refine their personal and corporate brands to stand out and influence others.
MCode
The Fascinate Test
Assessment concept
Focuses on uncovering intrinsic motivations — what energizes and drives individuals to perform at their best. The concept is that understanding a person’s motivations enables alignment with roles and tasks that light them up.
Focuses on personal branding and external perception. The concept is that understanding what makes a person uniquely fascinating creates differentiation and enhances influence and communication.
Assessment framework
A stacked ranking of 32 core Motivations mapped to 8 Motivational Dimensions. An individual’s most prominent Dimension is their MCode.
49 personality archetypes powered by 7 Fascination Advantages, with a primary and secondary pairing determining your archetype.
Assessment origins
Based on the System for Motivated Abilities (SIMA), developed by Art Miller in the 1950s to study the intrinsic motivations of high-performing individuals. Initially used as a qualitative, interview-based method with high-stakes clients like NASA. 2000s technology brought the assessment online, improving scalability, consistency, and objectivity. By integrating decades of research on human motivation and high performance, MCode became a comprehensive tool for optimizing performance and fulfillment. In the 2020s, the assessment was unified under the Motivation Code brand, expanding its capabilities with enhanced reports, team assessments, and coaching certifications.
Created by Sally Hogshead, based on research into how personality traits act as triggers to capture attention and influence perception. Launched in 2010 alongside her book FASCINATE with a free “F-Score Test.” In 2011, it was refined to include seven Fascination Advantages and 49 personality archetypes. Rebranded as the Fascination Advantage System in 2012, it expanded to include group assessments, courses, and training. By 2014, with the release of How the World Sees You, the test evolved to help individuals craft their “personal anthem,” a tagline summarizing their most captivating qualities, solidifying its focus on personal branding, captivating communication, and influence.
Assessment science
Grounded in over 60 years of empirical science, integrating research from behavioral psychology, narrative psychology, and human motivation. It draws on decades of studies into high performance and the qualitative analysis of millions of achievement and fulfillment stories. By identifying core intrinsic drivers and motivational patterns, it uncovers what energizes individuals and explains why they act as they do, emphasizing the motivations behind high performance and personal satisfaction.
Rooted in branding, communications, and neuromarketing research. Its framework combines proprietary Kelton Global research, featuring quantitative data from over one million professionals, with Sally Hogshead’s two decades of exploration into how brands and people communicate. The science highlights how specific personality traits act as triggers for fascination—a neurological response of intense focus—revealing how individuals captivate attention and influence perception.
Assessment experience
Share four personal achievement stories and respond to prompts about those experiences by ranking your level of satisfaction on a 1-10 scale. Results are available in a $19 Lite Report or a $79 Premium Report, offering insights into how you are wired for success and what motivates you to show up at your best and perform at your best and stand out.
Complete a 28-question self-assessment survey based on branding principles. You are provided with prompts and asked to rank how much the statements feel like “not me” or “totally me.” The $79 Personal Report reveals how the world sees you, highlighting your highest, most differentiating value and providing guidance on how to impress and influence effectively.
Assessment consistency
Results are fairly consistent because they are based on real, lived experiences and the emotions tied to them. While results may vary slightly if different stories are used, an individual’s core motivations remain consistent over time.
Consistency can vary due to its reliance on self-reported answers. Responses may change depending on mood, current circumstances, or how individuals wish to be perceived at the time of taking the test.
Assessment results
Results uncover a person’s core motivations and abilities, revealing what fuels their thoughts, decisions, and actions — the “why” behind what they do. The assessment highlights what drives satisfaction and fulfillment, what energizes and drains them, and what they need to succeed in any environment. Premium reports provide tools to help individuals apply their MCode insights to stand out, enhance productivity, and experience both work and life at their best.
Results include a “Fascination Advantage” profile that identifies primary and secondary advantages, highlighting top strengths and unique personality traits that captivate and influence others. Focused on external perception and personal branding, the report helps individuals become more fascinating, persuasive, and valuable in their communication, unlocking what makes them authentically captivating to the people who matter most.
Assessment application
Focuses on motivation and energy, revealing how they influence productivity, performance, fulfillment, and job satisfaction. It is used for personal growth, as well as hiring and job fit, employee engagement, talent development, employee retention, team building, and leadership development.
Emphasizes personality and communication, exploring how they shape your ability to stand out, influence, and impress. As a branding and communications system, it is used for personal branding, corporate branding, communication training, relationship building, and leadership development.
Assessment benefits
Discover what drives you. MCode reveals the “why” behind your actions, helping you uncover what motivates your thoughts, decisions, and behaviors. It puts motivation to work by showing you what energizes and drains you, how you are naturally wired for success, the unique value you contribute to any team, and how you show up in the world when you’re at your best.
Discover how to fascinate others and how others see you and centers around your personal brand and external perception. It puts personality to work by helping you discover how to captivate and influence others, improve communication skills, and strengthen your personal brand. It helps you stand out in competitive environments where differentiation is key.
Assessment challenges
Individuals may feel pressure to select stories that cast them in the best light rather than authentically reflecting their most fulfilling experiences. Some people may struggle to decide which stories to share, which can make the assessment process more time-consuming or introspective than anticipated.
Individuals might answer questions based on how they want to be perceived rather than how they are actually perceived, leading to results that reflect aspirational traits rather than genuine strengths. People can game the system by adjusting answers to align with the image they want to project.
MCode
Fascinate
Assessment concept
Focuses on uncovering intrinsic motivations — what energizes and drives individuals to perform at their best. The concept is that understanding a person’s motivations enables alignment with roles and tasks that light them up.
Focuses on personal branding and external perception. The concept is that understanding what makes a person uniquely fascinating creates differentiation and enhances influence and communication.
Assessment framework
A stacked ranking of 32 core Motivations mapped to 8 Motivational Dimensions. An individual’s most prominent Dimension is their MCode.
49 personality archetypes powered by 7 Fascination Advantages. A primary and secondary Advantage pairing determines your archetype.
Assessment origins
Based on the System for Motivated Abilities (SIMA), developed by Art Miller in the 1950s to study the intrinsic motivations of high-performing individuals. Initially used as a qualitative, interview-based method with high-stakes clients like NASA. 2000s technology brought the assessment online, improving scalability, consistency, and objectivity. By integrating decades of research on human motivation and high performance, MCode became a tool for optimizing performance and fulfillment. In the 2020s, the assessment was unified under the Motivation Code brand, expanding its capabilities with enhanced reports, team assessments, and coaching certifications.
Created by Sally Hogshead, based on research into how personality traits act as triggers to capture attention and influence perception. Launched in 2010 alongside her book FASCINATE with a free “F-Score Test.” In 2011, it was refined to include seven Fascination Advantages and 49 personality archetypes. Rebranded as the Fascination Advantage System in 2012, it expanded to include group assessments, courses, and training. By 2014, with the release of How the World Sees You, the test evolved to help individuals craft their “personal anthem,” a tagline summarizing their most captivating qualities, solidifying its focus on personal branding, captivating communication, and influence.
Assessment science
Grounded in over 60 years of empirical science, integrating research from behavioral psychology, narrative psychology, and human motivation. It draws on decades of studies into high performance and the qualitative analysis of millions of achievement and fulfillment stories. By identifying core intrinsic drivers and motivational patterns, it uncovers what energizes individuals and explains why they act as they do, emphasizing the motivations behind high performance and personal satisfaction.
Rooted in branding, communications, and neuromarketing research. Its framework combines proprietary Kelton Global research, featuring quantitative data from over one million professionals, with Sally Hogshead’s two decades of exploration into how brands and people communicate. The science highlights how specific personality traits act as triggers for fascination—a neurological response of intense focus—revealing how individuals captivate attention and influence perception.
Assessment experience
Share four personal achievement stories and respond to prompts about those experiences by ranking your level of satisfaction on a 1-10 scale. Results are available in a $19 Lite Report or a $79 Premium Report, offering insights into how you are wired for success and what motivates you to show up at your best and perform at your best and stand out.
Complete a 28-question self-assessment survey based on branding principles. You are provided with prompts and asked to rank how much the statements feel like “not me” or “totally me.” The $79 Personal Report reveals how the world sees you, highlighting your highest, most differentiating value and providing guidance on how to impress and influence effectively.
Assessment consistency
Results are fairly consistent because they are based on real, lived experiences and the emotions tied to them. While results may vary slightly if different stories are used, an individual’s core motivations remain consistent over time.
Consistency can vary due to its reliance on self-reported answers. Responses may change depending on mood, current circumstances, or how individuals wish to be perceived at the time of taking the test.
Assessment results
Results uncover a person’s core motivations and abilities, revealing what fuels their thoughts, decisions, and actions — the “why” behind what they do. It highlights what drives satisfaction and fulfillment, what energizes and drains them, and what they need to succeed in any environment. Premium reports provide tools to help individuals apply their MCode insights to stand out, enhance productivity, and experience both work and life at their best.
Results include a “Fascination Advantage” profile that identifies primary and secondary advantages, highlighting top strengths and unique personality traits that captivate and influence others. Focused on external perception and personal branding, the report helps individuals become more fascinating, persuasive, and valuable in their communication, unlocking what makes them authentically captivating to the people who matter most.
Assessment application
Focuses on motivation and energy, revealing how they influence productivity, performance, fulfillment, and job satisfaction. It is used for personal growth, as well as hiring and job fit, employee engagement, talent development, employee retention, team building, and leadership development.
Emphasizes personality and communication, exploring how they shape your ability to stand out, influence, and impress. As a branding and communications system, it is used for personal branding, corporate branding, communication training, relationship building, and leadership development.
Assessment benefits
Discover what drives you. MCode reveals the “why” behind your actions, helping you uncover what motivates your thoughts, decisions, and behaviors. It puts motivation to work by showing you what energizes and drains you, how you are naturally wired for success, the unique value you contribute to any team, and how you show up in the world when you’re at your best.
Discover how to fascinate others. Fascinate reveals how others see you and centers around your personal brand and external perception. It puts personality to work by helping you discover how to captivate and influence others, improve communication skills, and strengthen your personal brand. It helps you stand out in competitive environments where differentiation is key.
Assessment challenges
Individuals may feel pressure to select stories that cast them in the best light rather than authentically reflecting their most fulfilling experiences. Some people may struggle to decide which stories to share, which can make the assessment process more time-consuming or introspective than anticipated.
Individuals might answer questions based on how they want to be perceived rather than how they are actually perceived, leading to results that reflect aspirational traits rather than genuine strengths. People can game the system by adjusting answers to align with the image they want to project.
MCode + The Fascinate Test
When organizations combine the power of the MCode assessment and The Fascinate Test, they gain a comprehensive understanding of their people — both what drives them from within and how they captivate others. Together, these tools can create a workplace culture that fosters deep self-awareness, aligns intrinsic motivations with roles, and equips individuals to communicate and influence effectively, resulting in a more engaged, high-performing workforce.
Benefits of using MCode and The Fascinate Test together include:
Strategic application of strengths:
The MCode assessment reveals the types of roles and tasks an individual will naturally excel at and truly enjoy doing. The Fascinate Test complements this by demonstrating how to position and communicate assignments and expertise to maximize influence, collaboration, and impact. Together, these tools ensure individuals work effectively and amplify their contributions within the team and organization.
Personalized leadership development:
MCode equips leaders with the tools to understand what motivates their team members, allowing them to assign tasks and roles that align with those drivers. The Fascinate Test adds a layer of insight by showing leaders how their team members’ unique strengths can be communicated to others. This combination helps leaders foster an environment where employees feel both understood and empowered.
Enhanced branding and communication:
MCode identifies the Motivations that fuel performance and fulfillment, while The Fascinate Test highlights personality traits that make individuals stand out. Together, they enhance personal and professional brands, ensuring a person’s communication style aligns with their core Motivations and what they value most.
Better collaboration and teamwork:
MCode uncovers a person’s natural competitive advantages by identifying the motivated abilities that enable them to contribute the most value to a team or organization. The Fascinate Test shows them how to articulate their contributions, abilities, and value in a way that resonates with leaders, colleagues, and clients.
Improved workplace dynamics:
Using both assessments shows people why they make decisions and act as they do, and how others perceive their decisions and actions. Both perspectives help teams understand each other’s intrinsic drivers and external strengths, improve collaboration, reduce conflict, and build stronger relationships.
The MCode assessment powers job satisfaction and high-performing teams
Headhunters, executive coaches, recruiters, and leaders have been using this workplace assessment for decades, with companies like The Disney Institute, Merk, IBM, Aetna, The Mayo Clinic, New York Life, and Motorola, to identify job fit, increase engagement, develop talent and build team cohesion.
Discover the MCode difference!
