Know Your Kolbe, Know Your Strengths
Your Kolbe MO says a lot about you. When you’re given a new project to tackle or a new idea to bring to fruition, what do you do? A ton of research to figure out the best way to do it? Do you sketch it out and build systems and processes? Or do you dive right in and just start winging it as you go?
The way you answer that question is indicative of your Kolbe MO. And the best part as you’ll learn with Kolbe, there’s no wrong way.

Kolbe is NOT a Glorified Personality Test
Personality tests measure how you feel about things. A Kolbe Assessment is an online test that measures how you do things. So unlike personality tests that give you results based on your feelings and emotions, Kolbe’s results are far more useful. It will show you what you should (and should not) do. It will confirm your suspicions as to what you’re really good at and give you insights as to why you hate doing some tasks. That is because your Kolbe index measures the instinctive way you do things.
The result of your assessment is called your method of operation – or your Kolbe MO. It is the only validated assessment that measures a person’s conative strengths, which define the way you take action and your approach to productivity. Understanding your MO as your strength and leveraging it to do more in every aspect of your daily life – including running your coaching business – will lead to significant insights and personal growth.
Knowing your Kolbe MO will open up a world of possibilities and a path for growing your business and working with your clients that makes sense to and for you. How? Your Kolbe results will give you permission to lean into your inherent strengths and forgo the rest.
Your Kolbe Assessment
The assessment itself is easy. It is a 20-minute, multiple-choice quiz that you take online at your convenience. Your results are shared with you and Michael Dickey, our very own Certified Kolbe™ Consultant. Then you have a 90 minute call with Michael where he interprets your results – giving you insight into how your MO is your strength and how to lean into it to make you a better coach and business owner.
The main thing to know about your results is this: Your Kolbe MO won’t change who you are or tell you that the way you take action is wrong. Your result explains who you are already and helps you identify your inherent strengths. And this insight has the power to change how you see yourself and the work you do in profound ways. And that’s mostly because Kolbe isn’t trying to improve you.
It’s highlighting and explaining who you already are.

Michael Dickey, Certified Kolbe Consultant
Michael’s Kolbe Index: 5-3-7-5
Michael’s Kolbe MO: Initiating Quick Start
What Michael Thought About His Kolbe Results:
“My Kolbe results totally validated my frustration when I was told to do something in a way that was different than how I naturally take action. Giving myself the freedom to be myself and problem solve in my natural way is the best gift I’ve ever given myself.”
Financial Coaches are Loving their Kolbe Interpretation
HUGE shoutout to Michael Dickey who facilitated my Kolbe B interpretation last week!!! It was incredibly EXCITING to get that I am a “systems analyst!” No wonder I want everyone to have a system that rocks their world to manage their money!!
Even through I have the skills to coach clients long term, it’s not my passion and going through the Kolbe B interpretation validated the way I have been craving to work with my clients. I cannot wait to make some big changes to my service offerings in 2021!!! Thanks again, Michael!
– Review by Amy Scott of Amy Scott Financial Coaching
Kolbe in Action: A Case Study
The Problem
In late 2020, the Financial Coach Academy team embarked on a massive overhaul of our signature financial coach training course. This effort involved every single member of our team and was a true all-hands-on-deck effort. We had to work together with a ton of moving parts to restructure the course, record videos, design new materials, promote the new course, and make the changes in a non-linear, deadline intense fashion. It’s the type of nightmare scenario that can lead to arguments, disagreement, and hurt feelings on most teams.
How Kolbe Helped
Every member of the Financial Coach Academy team has taken the assessment and received a Kolbe A Interpretation with Michael. And every member is aware of every other member’s MO. (They are referenced often in team meetings.) When tensions would rise on this project, we were able to identify the source of tension as a person’s MO – not the person. We could speak to one another and empathize over the way we each wanted to naturally take action to complete our part of the project.
The Results (Thanks, Kolbe!)
This personal insight into how we each thought best to move this project forward saved us from misunderstandings and miscommunication. We emerged from the project with a sense of accomplishment and greater understanding of how our individual strengths contributed to getting it all done.
Financial Coaches are Loving their Kolbe Interpretation
Loved doing this! I’m the Strategic planner! All about the planning, the systems, getting the facts! But don’t count on me to take big risks unless I know what the plan is
I’ll be buckling down on mini goals, planning my approach for referral partners, and turning off those distractions and interruptions so I can effectively time block. There is so much more I’m still absorbing!
-Julianne Miller
Financial Coaches are Loving their Kolbe Interpretation
If you had asked me two weeks ago how I approached doing things, I think I would have explained in a round about way exactly how the Kolbe said I approach things naturally. It was uncanny! I realized that I’ve been putting a ton of pressure on myself to go against my instincts because I thought I shouldn’t do things the way that I am just naturally inclined to do them. It was really nice to hear my instincts are just as good as any others, to just own them and so what feels right to me.
-Heather Albrecht
A Kolbe Interpretation: What You Get
A Kolbe interpretation is an investment in your business. The insights and takeaways from your report and interpretation session with Michael will help you organize and take action in your business in ways that will make you more efficient and possibly even more profitable.
When you sign up for a Kolbe you get:
- To take the online quiz
- Kolbe A index (what identifies your MO)
- Kolbe B index (it will help you identify what you should and should not do. Hello, outsourcing!)
- A report comparing your Kolbe A and Kolbe B Indices
- A 90 min interpretation session with Michael to discuss it all
- A budget action guide that tells you how you best take action when it comes to managing your money (Psst, we can do the same for your clients!)
- A Coaching Report which includes strategies you can quickly reference to help you know how to best help your clients lean into their conative strengths when it comes to budgeting and money
Investment: $350
