Leading Beyond Labels: Rethinking Personality, Performance and Inclusion at Work

Leading Beyond Labels is structured across four parts, each building a compelling case for a new model of inclusive leadership.

Part One traces the history of personality testing from early psychometric research through to the multi-billion-dollar industry it has become today. Knobel draws clear parallels between personality profiling culture and MLM psychology, exploring why human beings are so drawn to labels and what that hunger for certainty reveals about workplace power structures. She also unpacks the slippery concept of "culture fit" and shows how it functions as a mechanism for exclusion rather than cohesion.

Part Two delivers an honest, framework-by-framework analysis of the most widely used personality systems in organisational life, including the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, the Enneagram, DISC, the Team Management Profile System, the Big Five OCEAN model, StrengthsFinder, emotional intelligence testing, and emerging tools such as the Predictive Index, Hogan, and Insights Discovery. Each chapter examines the scientific evidence, the limitations, and the specific ways these tools misrepresent neurodivergent employees. A dedicated chapter addresses the rise of Agile methodology as its own kind of personality cult.

Part Three turns toward solutions. Knobel examines the relationship between neurodivergence, recruitment, and belonging, laying out the documented costs of exclusionary hiring practices. She offers practical, step-by-step guidance for building inclusive recruitment processes, from job advertisement language through to offer letters, without relying on personality screening.

Part Four closes with a vision for the future of leadership. Drawing on the distinction between old and new power models, Knobel challenges leaders to move beyond typing and toward genuine understanding. She provides frameworks for designing neuroinclusive teams, building psychological safety, and leading in ways that value difference rather than demanding conformity.

This book is written for leaders, HR professionals, organisational developers, coaches, and anyone who has ever sat in a personality workshop wondering why the language never quite included them. It is especially relevant for neurodivergent professionals, including those who are autistic, have ADHD, or identify as AuDHD, who have experienced firsthand how behavioural frameworks can pathologise difference rather than support it.

It is also for the leader who wants to do better. Who senses that the tools their organisation relies on are not measuring what they claim to measure. Who is ready to build workplaces where people are seen for who they are, not reduced to a colour, a letter, or a number