Exceptionals
How To Turn Identity Into Your Greatest Leadership Advantage
By Ingrid Tappin
A leadership book that shows why identity is not a barrier, but the blueprint for exceptional leadership. Introducing Identity Intelligence™, the skill of leading from who you are, not who the world expects you to be.
Your pre-order includes a personal invitation to the book launch:29 March 2026
Equals - Amsterdam
Limited seats available
Excerpt from Chapter 1: The Shift Leadership Missed
This book was written from the inside out
Ingrid Tappin has spent the past decade working with leaders who succeed on paper but feel constrained by expectations they never chose. As the founder of Diverse Leaders in Tech and a trusted voice on identity, leadership and systems change, her work sits at the intersection of lived experience and professional practice.Exceptionals introduces Identity Intelligence™ as the missing leadership skill for a world shaped by complexity, difference and AI.
what this book gives you
The language and clarity to turn what you’ve always instinctively known into leadership power.
Origin Story
Understand what shaped you and why it matters.You’ll uncover how early experiences of difference, adaptation or exclusion formed your leadership instincts, and why those patterns still guide how you show up today.
Identity Advantage
Name what makes you powerful, not problematic.You’ll learn how to identify and articulate your Identity Advantage, the leadership intelligence born from your lived experience, without overexplaining or shrinking it.
Leadership Range
Lead with flexibility instead of self-correction.This book will help you build range across different leadership modes, so you know when to challenge, translate, adapt or hold line, without burning out or performing.
Growth Map
Know where you're invited to grow next.You’ll gain clarity on your next growth step: deepening self-leadership, shaping the spaces you lead in, or redesigning systems that no longer fit you.
Be part of the first edition of Exceptionals
Pre-order Exceptionals and receive a personal invitation to the in-person book launch event
29 March 2026 at Equals, Amsterdam
What early readers say
These reflections come from early readers who recognized their own leadership stories in these pages.
★★★★★
Exceptionals is a radical new playbook for the future of leadership in the AI era.
Constantijn van Oranje
Techleap
★★★★★
Reading Exceptionals felt like recognition – and relief. Someone finally named what so many of us have lived.
Berber Rienks
Deloitte
★★★★★
Wow! These chapters had me gripped in a chokehold. So much reflects my own story. This is not going to be a good book; it's going to be a great book.
Corinne Aaron
General Motors
★★★★★
This is incredibly important and timely work. I appreciate now having the language to understand and articulate my experience with identity.
Jullian Vorce
One Handshake