3,593
Professionals assessed
Individual assessment journeys contributing to the first global Identity Intelligence dataset.
Identity Intelligence Research
Volume 1 • Q2 2026
What 3,593 professionals reveal about personal branding, identity and story.
Identity may be deeply personal. The search to understand it is universal.
The first Identity Intelligence Report brings together assessment insights from LinkedIn professionals across more than 60 countries to reveal the patterns shaping how people understand themselves, express their potential and build their professional reputation.
A complete digital research publication from My Brand Academy.
The research at a glance
Thousands of individual stories. One emerging picture of professional identity.
Every assessment captures one person’s experience of how they show up, how they are understood and where their personal brand may be holding unrealised potential.
Viewed together, those individual stories begin to reveal wider patterns in confidence, visibility, differentiation, trust and professional identity.
60+
Countries represented
A geographically diverse dataset revealing both shared human patterns and meaningful regional differences.
6
Personal Brand Archetypes
Six recurring patterns describing how people may currently be perceived, trusted and remembered professionally.
Q2 2026
First research volume
The opening publication in an ongoing programme of Identity Intelligence research and interpretation.
Research approach
Observed patterns, interpreted with care.
The findings in this report are based on aggregated responses to the Personal Brand Archetype Assessment. They reveal recurring tendencies within the dataset rather than fixed truths about individuals, professions or countries.
The six Personal Brand Archetypes
Six recurring patterns. Six different ways value can be experienced.
The Personal Brand Archetypes describe recurring patterns in how professionals may currently be perceived, trusted and remembered.
They are not personality types or permanent labels. They provide a starting point for understanding the signals someone may be sending, the strengths already visible and the opportunities that may still be difficult for other people to recognise.
Your archetype is not the whole of who you are. It is the recurring pattern through which your value may currently be experienced.
01
Credibility
The Trusted Expert
Known for depth, reliability and sound judgement. People look to the Trusted Expert for confidence, clarity and informed guidance.
02
Direction
The Strategic Leader
Seen as focused, intentional and able to connect the bigger picture to meaningful action. People trust the direction they create.
03
Potential
The Emerging Leader
Recognised for capability, ambition and growing influence. Others may already see leadership potential before it has been fully claimed.
04
Relationships
The Connector
Relational, generous and collaborative. People remember the way the Connector brings ideas, opportunities and people together.
05
Meaning
The Purpose-Driven Leader
Guided by values, contribution and a clear sense of what matters. People experience conviction when purpose is translated into action.
06
Originality
The Creator
Imaginative, expressive and instinctively able to see new possibilities. People remember ideas, originality and creative range.
Different archetypes create different opportunities, tensions and identity gaps.
The research begins by asking which patterns appear most often.
Report Finding 01
Most professionals don't lack potential.
They lack clarity.
Across 3,593 assessments, one pattern emerged more clearly than any other.
Over four in five respondents fell into just two archetypes. The data suggests that most professionals are not struggling because they lack ability. They are struggling because they have not yet developed the clarity to communicate their value consistently.
What the data tells us
The largest group of respondents were identified as Emerging Leaders (51.4%), followed by Overthinkers (30.5%). Together, these two archetypes represented more than 80% of all assessments.
Although these archetypes present differently, they often share the same underlying challenge: people possess valuable experience and capability, but struggle to express it with sufficient clarity and consistency for others to recognise.
Rather than a confidence problem, the findings point towards an interpretation problem. The opportunity is not simply to become more visible, but to better understand the patterns that shape how personal value is experienced by others.
The biggest insight
We expected confidence. The data suggested clarity.
If you’d asked me before launching the assessment what the biggest challenge would be, I might have said confidence.
The data suggests something different.
It suggests clarity.Across all completed assessments, more than eight in every ten people fall into just two archetypes.
On the surface, those appear to be very different people.
One
is eager to grow.
The other
often hesitates before taking action.
But beneath both sits the same question.
Who am I, really?Not…
- How do I get promoted?
- How do I get more followers?
- How do I write better content?
But…
- What makes me different?
- What should I be known for?
- How do I explain the experiences that have shaped me?
- Where am I going next?
Those aren’t branding questions.
They’re identity questions.Confidence wasn't the pattern. Clarity was.
Across thousands of completed assessments, respondents consistently returned to the same deeper questions. Not how to gain more followers, secure a promotion or write better content, but how to understand what makes them distinctive and how to communicate it with confidence. report outline.docx
These are not simply branding questions. They are identity questions. They point towards a need for greater self-understanding before greater visibility. report outline.docx
"You can't communicate what you don't understand."
REGIONAL OBSERVATIONS
Europe
While this is only the first quarter of data, a number of interesting patterns are already emerging.
The United Kingdom showed one of the strongest proportions of Overthinkers, suggesting many professionals are balancing experience with uncertainty about what's next.
The Netherlands showed one of the strongest proportions of Purpose Seekers, perhaps reflecting an increasing focus on meaningful work and long-term fulfilment.
Although the patterns look different, they point towards the same underlying question.
Different countries.
Similar questions.
REGIONAL OBSERVATIONS
North America
North America presented a different profile again, reinforcing that while personal brand challenges vary by region, the underlying need remains remarkably consistent.
The United States showed a stronger proportion of Emerging Leaders, suggesting many professionals are actively seeking greater visibility, credibility and career progression.
Canada demonstrated a more balanced distribution across archetypes, indicating a wider mix of professional challenges rather than one dominant pattern.
Different markets reveal different signals.
The human need changes very little.
Identity comes before strategy.
Regional observations
Asia
India closely reflected the overall global pattern, with Emerging Leaders and Overthinkers making up the overwhelming majority of results.
Although these observations are early, they reinforce something important.
Identity may be deeply personal.
But the search for it is universal.
REGIONAL OBSERVATIONS
Africa
Our early African data revealed a rapidly growing audience engaging with questions around visibility, credibility and professional identity across multiple countries.
While individual country patterns varied, respondents consistently reflected the same desire to better understand how they are experienced by other people and how to communicate their value more clearly.
Although this remains an early dataset, it reinforces that Identity Intelligence is not shaped by geography alone. The questions people ask about themselves are remarkably similar wherever they live.
Different opportunities.
The same search for meaning.
Identity is universal.Beyond the result
The archetype is only the beginning.
One of the biggest misconceptions about assessments is the belief that a single label tells the whole story.
It doesn’t.
Your primary archetype simply describes the dominant pattern we currently observe. It’s the headline, not the full article.
Every person who completes the assessment also receives a much deeper identity profile, exploring the unique combination of strengths, behaviours, motivations, communication patterns, opportunities and development areas that sit beneath their primary archetype.
The same archetype can contain very different people.
Two people can both be classified as Emerging Leaders.
Yet one may naturally inspire through creativity, another through strategic thinking.
One may be highly visible and confident, while another possesses the same potential but still struggles with self-belief.
The archetype
Explains where you are.
The deeper profile
Helps explain why.
That nuance is where meaningful personal growth begins.
A deeper identity profile
Identity is layered.
Our research increasingly suggests that identity cannot be understood through a single label.
Instead, it exists across multiple layers.Your dominant archetype
The most visible recurring pattern in how you may currently be experienced.
Your behavioural patterns
The patterns that shape how you naturally show up.
Your experiences and stories
The experiences, beliefs and stories that have formed your identity over time.
This is why two people with the same archetype often communicate differently, make different decisions and build very different careers.
Understanding those layers is what transforms information into insight.From experience to direction
Your story is your strategy.
One of the biggest lessons from analysing thousands of assessments is that people already have everything they need.
They simply haven’t connected the dots.
Every success.
Every setback.
Every opportunity.
Every difficult decision.
Every relationship.
Every chapter of your life has contributed something to who you are today.
The challenge isn’t creating a better story.
It’s making sense of the one you’ve already lived.That’s why we’ve always believed…
Your Story Is Your Strategy.Not because your past defines your future.
But because understanding your story gives you the clarity to shape it intentionally.A global conversation
Identity has no borders.
Although every participant discovered the assessment through LinkedIn, the responses already span professionals from across Europe, Africa, North America and Asia.
Different countries.
Different cultures.
Different industries.
Yet the questions remain remarkably similar.
- Who am I?
- What makes me distinctive?
- What strengths do other people already see in me?
- How do I build a career that feels authentic?
The percentages
vary.
The stories
don’t.
Identity appears to be one of the few truly global conversations.
Rethinking personal branding
Perhaps we’ve been asking the wrong question.
For years we’ve talked about building personal brands.
Maybe personal branding has never been the starting point.
Maybe it’s the outcome.You can’t communicate what you don’t understand.
You can’t build a reputation around something you can’t articulate.
And you can’t build an authentic personal brand until you’ve first understood the person behind it.
That’s why we believe personal branding begins long before someone writes a LinkedIn post, launches a business or updates their profile.
It begins with understanding yourself.The next chapter
Looking ahead.
This report marks the end of the first quarter since launching the Personal Brand Archetype Assessment.
Over the coming months, we’ll continue to publish insights from this growing global dataset, exploring what it teaches us about identity, story, self-awareness and personal branding.
Our ambition isn’t simply to build one of the world’s leading personal brand assessments.
It’s to help shape a deeper conversation around Identity Intelligence.Because before you can become known for who you are…
You first have to understand who you are.Volume 1 · Q2 2026
Thank you.
To everyone who has already completed the Personal Brand Archetype Assessment, thank you.
Every assessment helps another individual better understand themselves, while also contributing to a growing body of insight into how people around the world are making sense of their identity and story.
Join the next edition
Discover how the world currently experiences you.
If you haven’t yet taken the assessment, we’d love you to be part of the next edition of The Identity Intelligence Report.
Take the Free Personal Brand Archetype Assessment Free personalised result. Under three minutes. No credit card required.
Marc Maley
Founder, My Brand Academy
Creator of Identity Intelligence
The story behind the system
I spent my career helping build some of the world’s biggest stories. Now I help people make sense of their own.
For more than two decades, I have worked across entertainment, brands and leadership, helping shape stories for globally recognised franchises, organisations and people.
Again and again, I saw the same pattern.
The people with the greatest potential were not always the people who were most clearly understood.
They had experience, ability and ambition. What they often lacked was a way to interpret their story and express it with clarity.
That insight became the foundation of My Brand Academy and Identity Intelligence.
Your Story Is Your Strategy.
Identity Intelligence brings together storytelling, personal branding, professional experience and research to help people understand who they are, so they can intentionally build who they become.
Connect with Marc on LinkedIn