Comparisons and relationships can be drawn between McClelland's motivation types, and the characteristics of other behavioral models

John Adair's Action-Centered Leadership model: Achievement-motivated managers are firmly focused on the Task, often to the detriment of the Individual and the Team. Affiliation-motivation people are Team and Individual centered.

Katherine Benziger's Thinking Styles model: Achievement-motivation is a double-frontal brain mode style; affiliation-motivation is right basal (rear); authority-motivation is arguably left basal (rear).
DISC (Inscape, Thomas International, etc) system: Achievement-motivated people are

'D' profiles - results-driven, decisive, dominant, etc. Affiliation-motivated people are I (proactive) and S (reactive) profiles. Authority-motivated people are S and C profiles.

Hersey/ Blanchard's Situational Leadership® model: Achievement-motivated people tend to favor the styles of the first and second modes ('telling' and 'selling'); affiliation-motivated people tend to favor the third mode ('participating'); and the authority-motivated people tend to favor the style of mode four ('delegating').

McGregor XY Theory: Achievement-motivated people tend towards X-Theory style, due to their high task focus; there are plenty of exceptions however, and training definitely helps the n-ach manager to see the value of employing Theory Y style. n-pow managers are definitely Theory X. n-affil are typically Theory Y and if not can relatively easily be trained to be so.

Herzberg motivators and hygiene factors: n-ach people are more responsive to the Herzberg motivators (especially achievement obviously) than n-affil and n-pow people.