#444 Leading Beyond Labels: Redefining Leadership in the Age of Identity - article by Niels Brabandt
Leading Beyond Labels: Redefining Leadership in the Age of Identity
By Niels Brabandt – NB Networks
In an era where titles, roles, and identities often define how people are seen — and too often, how they are valued — leadership has become trapped in the language of labels. From corporate hierarchies to diversity initiatives, the modern workplace has developed a dependency on classification. Yet, as leadership expert Merry Carole Powers argues in conversation with Niels Brabandt, Founder and Owner of NB Networks (Zurich | London), true progress begins only when leaders learn to think — and lead — beyond labels.
The Double-Edged Power of Labels
Powers, a former global brand strategist turned leadership advisor and author of The Great Human Rebrand, acknowledges that labels once served a purpose. They helped structure organisations, define responsibilities, and, in the case of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), opened doors for those long excluded.
“Labels help us organise and understand,” she says. “When they’re used to unlock opportunity, they can be powerful. But once opportunity becomes more democratised, those same labels begin to limit who we think people are.”
Her point is subtle but essential. Identity categories — gender, ethnicity, sexuality — were never meant to become the ceiling of inclusion. Once representation is achieved, leaders must move beyond metrics and checkboxes towards genuine recognition of individuality. “None of us fit neatly into any set of labels,” Powers explains. “We are vastly more than any single definition could ever capture.”
Diversity Without Depth: When Inclusion Becomes a Tick Box
Brabandt observes what many executives privately admit: corporate DEI has, in some cases, devolved into “tick-the-box diversity.” Behind closed doors, hiring targets and diversity quotas can feel like administrative compliance rather than cultural transformation.
Powers agrees but cautions against abandoning DEI altogether. “Use the labels — then peel them back,” she says. “Take the checkbox and turn it into a rabbit hole. Representation is not enough. Real inclusion means recognising what each human being brings that a job description can’t measure.”
The goal, she argues, is to shift from representation to recognition — to see people not as categories but as contributors.
When Job Titles Become Status Symbols
Beyond identity, labels in leadership take another form: titles. From “Vice President of Global Operations” to “Senior Executive of Strategy Excellence,” modern business has developed a language of inflated importance.
“Let’s redefine progress,” says Powers. “Climbing titles doesn’t make you a leader — growth does. Skills and insights lift you naturally to the next level. When people chase titles for validation, they’re masking insecurity with status.”
The cost of this culture is far-reaching. When advancement becomes performative, learning stops — and leadership stagnates. “If that title jumper rises through the ranks without developing others,” Powers warns, “you don’t have one problem. You have many. That’s how dysfunction scales.”
Departments as Divisions — and How to Reconnect Them
Labels also divide within organisations. Departments meant to cooperate often become corporate silos. Sales blames marketing for poor leads; marketing blames sales for poor conversions. “What began as a structure for collaboration,” says Powers, “has become a structure for blame.”
Her own company abandoned the traditional distinction between “sales-qualified” and “marketing-qualified” leads. “We removed the labels. We agreed on shared benchmarks and collective success. Suddenly, cooperation became natural again.”
It’s a lesson many leaders overlook: shared purpose beats segmented performance. When every department optimises for its own metrics, the organisation loses sight of the common goal.
The Great Human Rebrand: From Products to People
Before becoming a leadership strategist, Powers spent over a decade in global branding and advertising — crafting labels for products rather than people. “I learned how to use labels to manipulate,” she recalls. “And then I realised: if we can manipulate with labels, we can also dismantle them — to help people think more clearly, act more authentically, and lead more humanely.”
Her book, The Great Human Rebrand, applies the psychology of brand-building to human development. The premise: if marketing can make cornflakes aspirational, leadership can make authenticity powerful. “It’s about recognising where you’re being defined by others — and reclaiming who you actually are.”
Leading Beyond Labels
The conversation between Brabandt and Powers reveals an uncomfortable truth: the modern workplace is addicted to categorisation. Titles, identities, and departments once brought order. Today, they often bring division.
To lead beyond labels is not to discard structure but to transcend it. It means using categories as tools, not cages — and measuring progress not by hierarchy or headcount, but by human growth.
As Powers puts it, “Labels can guide us, but they should never define us.”
About the Author
Niels Brabandt is the Founder and Owner of NB Networks, based in Zurich and London. He is an international keynote speaker, trainer, and consultant specialising in leadership, recruiting, and sustainable organisational development. For more information: www.NB-Networks.biz
Niels Brabandt
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More on this topic in this week's videocast and podcast with Niels Brabandt: Videocast / Apple Podcasts / Spotify
For the videocast’s and podcast’s transcript, read below this article.
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Podcast Transcript
Niels Brabandt
When it comes to leadership, you often think that labels are something that we need. Is it your job title, is it your department title, is it your title, is it yourself that gets labels? And we have someone who's an expert in actually leading without labels. Hello and welcome.
Mary Carol Powers.
Merry Carole Powers
Good morning. Thank you so much for having me.
Niels Brabandt
Thank you very much for taking the time. I get straight into it. Labels are there for a very, very long time. How do you want to achieve that? Suddenly people think either beyond labels, with less labels, or even without labels. Let's start with the, for example, DEI labels.
People identify as X, Y or Z. And then, of course, immediately people will draw conclusions from that. What is your take on that? How can we work better without labels?
Merry Carole Powers
Thank you. I think first thing is to say, like, there's a place for labels and they help us organise, they help us understand. And when it is as simple as, like, the category in the organisation, that's cool. So when we look, take that to DEI labels. I don't want to villainize the fact that I identify as a white female. Let's just say that's okay. Those very labels are the things that locked people out of opportunity.
So it's appropriate that it be the keys to let us back into opportunity. But once that opportunity is a little more democratised, what can we do beyond those labels to help people find more of themselves? Because the truth is, none of us fit into any set of labels. We're all vastly more than any one label could define as us. And so to your point, that's where labels start to hold us back. That's where it's like, oh, well, we just sort of believe women aren't good at leadership and we just believe this about nationality and we believe this about ethnicity and all of these things. We sort of just check the box like, okay, we got people in the door. Cool. And when the truth is, our identity is the very surface of who we are, if you click under that, there's our individuality.
Those are the things that would identify us or would define us regardless of our labels. For example, I would be a writer. I was born with that ability. I started getting paid in sixth grade to do this.
Niels Brabandt
Nice.
Merry Carole Powers
I could have been any race, any ethnicity, I could have born in any country. I would still have that. So what, what can we do is look at the more enduring things that live. I'll call our human essence that we can use to really understand how to help people and how to bring people together and if we all have them, right? So we're all the same in different ways is like a fun way to say.
Niels Brabandt
Yeah, I think it's a very, very, very good term. Because, let's face it, no matter if we're in Europe or if we are in the us, many corporations are organised with these labels. Just saying. And of course, no one talks about this publicly, but of course someone says, hey, look, you have too many people of that kind, so could you please hire two people off that kind? And we also need like two gay people and two lesbian people. And do you know anyone who is transgender? So it's basically tick the box, die diversity.
How can we give? Because often people say, yeah, it's a bit of a nuisance. However, it, it gives me some sort of direction when they now say, we get rid of these labels. How can we do that without running the risk immediately to fall back into patterns where they suddenly just either hire people who are close to themselves, hire people who they just know, or hire people who are similar to them. When we get rid of these labels, how can we prevent the risk of just falling back behind in progress?
Merry Carole Powers
So I think what we do is we use the labels, then we peel them back. I like to say take the checkbox and turn it into a rabbit hole. Right. So, okay, don't, don't go back to all one colour, all one age, all one anything. The data is there to prove that's just a bad business. Ready? So, you know, you want to shoot yourself in the foot, I can't stop you, but I wouldn't encourage you to do that.
So once and see that, this is where I think the opportunity lives for dei right now. It's really been shoved into a corner, it's really been beaten back. And what we're seeing is people are. Companies are sort of starting to come back, is this quiet rebrand. But what is basically being doing is like being hidden as a talent play or as an awareness play and. Or we're going to call it belonging now and not dei. But again, that's just another label.
So how do we take it and turn it from representation into recognition and take it from, you know, getting people in the door to developing human beings? So let's keep the labels or let's keep our eyes open. Let's just say that and make sure we don't all look the same, sound the same, act the same.
Niels Brabandt
Yeah.
Merry Carole Powers
And then once in the door, let's look at each person how what do they have going for them that maybe didn't matter on a job description, but that can make all the difference as a leader? Yeah, I think dig deeper would be my answer.
Niels Brabandt
Absolutely. And I mean, you worked for Deloitte, so you work with all the large corporations on these matters. But let's move away from the DEI labels. When we, for example, say job titles, people are, let's say ops test with job titles. At one corporation where I had a consultancy gig, I asked what is actually the job of the. And then I was quoting Venia, vice President of Global Operations, expenditure and expansion. And they said, yeah, well, he has a lot of plate spinning.
Where I said, yeah, probably because that looks like 15 jobs for one person. And they. They couldn't really define anything else except overseeing people who do these kind of tasks. So it wasn't really defined what the job was. And of course people were making fun of that kind of. Who is the SVP of this and SVP of coffee making. People are often still obsessed with job titles because they say, I only can become a senior vice president when I was a vice president at an earlier stage in my career.
So I'm sticking to these job titles because they give me progress when I change jobs somewhere else. How can I move away from these?
Merry Carole Powers
Well, first thing I'd say is let's redefine progress. Because that level jumping, right, it's what you learn on the level. And when you learn and grow on, let's call it the junior vice president level, that level is going to lift you up itself. You don't have to go digging and jumping and fighting tooth and nail to get there, because the skills you picked up, the insights you picked up will be recognised. One, people aren't really caring about progress. They just want to wield lab, that title, that label as like a power wield, as like a. Look at me, I have this. And so.
And so if we're going to peel back the labels and come from empathy, what is it that makes you feel like you're not good enough as you are? How do we take that shortcoming and turn it into a true strength versus a pretend strength, which is your label, right, which is your title. And you really want to do that because if that person's going up the ranks, if that like title jumper is hopping the ranks, they're not learning how to develop the people with them, they're not learning how to inspire the people they're leading. And if they're not doing that, then we have a whole. That's not a one person problem, that's an exponential many people problem.
Niels Brabandt
Yeah.
Merry Carole Powers
So, you know, first of all, let's Stop rewarding that behaviour, to answer your question. Second of all, let's like, rather than just shove it away, let's realise we live in. What I read recently on Substack was called the nonsense economy. Meaning these jobs that are absolute nonsense.
Niels Brabandt
Yeah.
Merry Carole Powers
That just people are talking and talking around one another and having meetings about meetings, but nobody's doing anything.
Niels Brabandt
Yeah, yeah.
Merry Carole Powers
Right. So let's figure out how to unpack that and then let's also see if you can help that person find more in themselves. You know, the more we do that, the more we all get better because that person then will lead and help others.
Niels Brabandt
Excellent. And when we now go from job titles even to department, let's say department labels, we know. And of course, especially in corporations, you probably know these kind of meetings. You move into a certain consultancy gig or in, in into any kind of work gig and you basically need three months to only decipher the abbreviations people use only for departments.
And oh yeah, the DVtop. And don't mix it up with the DVPOA, which is a completely different thing. So people sit there and think, what are we actually doing here? So these department labels, these departmental labels are so deeply ingrained into culture, into organisations, into communication patterns. How can we get, I don't want to say rid of them, but how can we move beyond them to anything that people still say that makes sense or that gives any kind of sense to me, at least personally? Because let's face it, some departments already have a reputation. When someone says, you're going to have a call with hr, most people say that's not going to be the best day of the week. Well, it.
So how can we move away from department labels?
Merry Carole Powers
I love this question. So again, I'll go back to like late department labels to help us understand the structure of a company. That's great. Know which door to walk through.
Niels Brabandt
Yeah.
Merry Carole Powers
When you're going to your job. Right. But department labels have become these like little clicks. Departments have become these little clicks. Right. And I'll get into a specific example that we talk a lot, a lot about in my company, which is. So in the world of sales and marketing, there is SQLs and MQLs, right?
These sales qualified leads and these marketing qualified leads. Each of these departments are chasing a different set of metrics that define success for them. And those two sets of metrics don't create success for the bigger picture, which is we all need to close the deal. That's what's going to save our jobs. That's what's going to give us the money to develop our people, like all of those things. Right. So what was created as a way to cooperate is actually a way to divide.
Or that's what's happening. It's like, oh, marketing's not doing their part. These leads aren't quality. Oh, sales isn't doing their part. They don't know how to close a deal. And meanwhile, like, so everybody's like blaming everybody else. Nobody's working together.
And the whole point of these two kinds of leads was to make for a graceful handoff.
Niels Brabandt
Yeah.
Merry Carole Powers
And all it's making for is a not graceful kind of, you know, slap in the face. So often divisiveness is disguised as cooperation. And we just keep doing the same thing over and over because that's what we know to do till we're told a better way. So you know what we, we just took, we took the qualified leads out of what we do. Doesn't exist.
It doesn't exist. We're not doing leads. We're going to meet these three benchmarks for anything to be considered success. But we're all working towards this as an example.
Niels Brabandt
Excellent. And now you've written a book about all this, the Great Human Rebrand. Can you tell us more about your book, please?
Merry Carole Powers
Yes, thank you. The book is based on. So for the early decade and a half of my relationship, or my relationship of my career, I worked in global branding and advertising and just the huge brands that we all know, the big beer brands, the big computer brands, all of them, food brand. And what I found along the way was the power of a label, what we could do with the label of a product, you know, all kinds of money in it. We'd make it look slick. We put a big story around it. We'd make it stand for something people wanted to be a part of.
And then we put out these messages that, you know what I mean, drew them to it. We, you could, you could influence and manipulate people to spend money, to show up, to click this, follow that, like whatever the call of the day was. And I was, I started looking around and I was like, wow, advertising's not the only people using this. I see it in politics, I see it in religion, I see it in the culture, you know, a family culture. You know, you either adhere, you're either part of this label or you're not.
That's either good or it's bad. And then it's just stirring up the way people act and think around that. So in learning to use labels and build them, I also Realised I had kind of a little personal wake up in my life that a lot of people comes through like a sadness. I had a death. And I was like, whoa, look at what we're doing to help products. Why aren't we using these great skills to help people? People are monumentally more important.
And that became a big life shift for me. And so it's like, if I know how to use a label to manipulate, I also know how to dismantle a label to help people think more clearly, succeed more individually. And so the book was born on all of that. Takes everything you learn to make a cornflake, the most basic thing in the world, the most boring thing in the world, the biggest parody product you could ever have, that happens to be a billionaire. Take those same skills and reapply them from products to people so that people can succeed. So this particular book is how to step out of your labels. First of all, see where you're being manipulated by your labels.
Second of all, see what's under them, how to peel back that label and really find your individuality. And then once you have a better sense of that, how to monetize that. How to succeed is who you are, not who the world is telling you you should be.
Niels Brabandt
Excellent. I think these are almost the perfect final words. When someone is now listening to this or watching this on YouTube and. And they say, hm, I'd like to get in touch. How can they get more of you, more content of you or just get in touch with you personally?
Merry Carole Powers
Yeah. So you can reach out to me personally through my website. It's Mary Carol.com or it's the Great Human Rebrand.com. both of those take you to the same place. You can grab the book on Amazon and the book has a lot, as much as you can in a book. A lot of specific workshopping pieces, exercises to help you better understand. Because the.
These are very big concepts to help you better understand and apply them to yourself. So those are two great ways.
Niels Brabandt
Brilliant. These are the perfect final words. So you see, labels are there and give us orientation. However, working with labels, beyond labels or without labels can be beneficial. And we have the expert here, Mary Carol Powers. Thank you very much for your time.
Merry Carole Powers
Thank you so much for having me.