“What if organizations invested in leadership branding, not just product branding?”
Dr. Eric Boyd
-Founder, Leadership Branding Institute -Creator of CLAIMS, an Advocacy-based Leadership Development System
-ICF Certified Leadership Coach
“Dr. Eric Boyd helped me through a plethora of career roadblocks including finding and identifying my superpowers.”
——Leora Kahn , Sr. Marketing Manager
“Having Dr. Boyd help distill my leadership style and define the path forward has been helpful in determining what I want the next phase of my career to look like.”
——- KC Libman, Sr. Product Manager
Meet Dr. Eric Boyd:
Founder of the Leadership Branding Institute
Dr. Eric Boyd, PhD, is a leadership scholar, executive coach, and founder of the Leadership Branding Institute (LBI). LBI helps leaders solve a common but misunderstood challenge: many capable leaders are performing at a high level, yet their leadership is not consistently recognized, trusted, or advocated for in the moments that shape advancement and opportunity.
Throughout his career, Dr. Boyd noticed a consistent pattern. Leaders were not stalling because they lacked talent, effort, or results. They were stalling because their leadership was not clearly experienced by decision-makers in key moments, or verified through evidence that traveled beyond the room. Traditional leadership and executive presence models often assumed that visibility alone was enough. Dr. Boyd’s research and experience suggested otherwise: leaders advance when their leadership is supported by advocacy grounded in Presence and Proof.
As a first-generation college graduate who gained early access to leadership rooms through golf, Dr. Boyd saw firsthand how opportunity is shaped by access, sponsorship, and advocacy, not just capability. His work with FairWays to Leadership®, helping students from diverse backgrounds gain access to leadership pathways, further reinforced this insight: when leaders are supported by advocacy and evidence, doors open that might otherwise remain closed.
Why Choose Dr. Boyd and LBI?
Expertise in Leadership Advocacy
With a PhD in Marketing and decades of research on branding, identity, and leadership evaluation, Dr. Boyd brings a rare combination of scholarship and real-world insight. His work focuses on a common but misunderstood challenge: capable leaders who perform at a high level, yet are not consistently recognized, trusted, or advocated for in career advancement decisions. LBI helps leaders understand why strong performance alone does not always translate into opportunity, and equips them with an advocacy-based leadership development system to strengthen both Presence in the room and Proof beyond it. The result is leadership that is easier to evaluate, easier to verify, and more likely to be valued by decision-makers, while also enabling leaders to create Presence and Proof opportunities that help others advance too
A Proven Approach to Creating Access
Leaders across industries use Dr. Boyd’s advocacy-based leadership development system to ensure their leadership is recognized, trusted, and supported in advancement decisions. LBI’s Presence + Proof model helps leaders show up effectively in the room and build evidence of impact that travels beyond it. Rather than relying on visibility alone, this approach equips leaders to advocate for their own leadership brand with clarity and credibility, while also creating opportunities for others to build Presence, accumulate Proof, and earn advocacy that expands access to leadership at higher levels of responsibility..
A Personal Story That Drives the Mission
Dr. Boyd’s commitment to leadership branding is rooted in lived experience. As a first-generation college graduate who gained early access to leadership rooms through golf, he saw firsthand how opportunity is shaped not only by talent, but by whether leadership is recognized, trusted, and advocated for. His work with FairWays to Leadership®, helping students from diverse backgrounds access leadership pathways, further reinforced this insight: capability alone is not always enough, but advocacy creates access. That experience drives LBI’s mission today: to help capable leaders strengthen Presence in the room and build Proof beyond it, so they can advocate for their own leadership brand with clarity and credibility, and become the kind of leaders who create those same opportunities for others.
What Drives Dr. Boyd?
Dr. Boyd is driven by a simple but powerful belief: strong leaders do not always advance because they are the most capable. They advance because their leadership is understood, valued, and influential in the moments that matter.
Throughout his career, Dr. Boyd observed a consistent pattern. Highly capable leaders often stalled not due to a lack of talent or effort, but because their leadership lacked advocacy. For leaders without automatic access to the right rooms, networks, or advocates, opportunity depended too heavily on timing rather than merit.
As a first-generation college graduate who gained access to leadership spaces through unexpected pathways such as golf, Dr. Boyd experienced this gap firsthand. He knows what it feels like to be capable, committed, and contributing, yet not fully seen in ways that shape what comes next.
This lived experience fuels his work at the Leadership Branding Institute. Through research-backed leadership branding, Dr. Boyd helps leaders ensure their leadership is appreciated, trusted, and valued across their organization and beyond. His mission is to help leaders and organizations move past reliance on proximity and chance, and toward advancement decisions grounded in clarity, confidence, and influence
What Are Clients Saying About the Claim Your Leadership Coaching Series?
Craft Your Leadership Brand Statement
Tamara Welch – “During our coaching session, Dr. Eric Boyd demonstrated exceptional skill in helping me develop my leadership brand statement. Through thoughtful and probing questions, he guided me to explore my values and principles from new perspectives. His approach enabled me to uncover and articulate my authentic leadership abilities in ways I hadn't previously considered. His coaching proved invaluable in crafting a leadership brand that truly reflects who I am as a leader.”
Leverage Your Leadership Brand Stories
Jacqueline Cheff – “Eric's coaching approach centers on insightful, thoughtful questions that guide you in discovering the next steps for achieving career growth and fulfillment. He helps you identify your core goals and then works with you to shape a clear path toward accomplishing them. Thankful for the opportunity to be working with him!”
Articulate Your Leadership Brand Purpose
Alysia Jones – “Dr. Boyd challenged me to own the values that make up my leadership brand. I highly appreciated his calming-supportive approach to putting a commitment on paper. I have more role clarity and able to verbalize who I am as a leader more clearly.”
Implement Your Leadership Brand Strategy
Natalie Stewart – “Eric provided clarity for me as I've been dealing with a very confusing, chaotic career situation of balancing three jobs. He helped me simplify my thinking and identify my "North Star" goals that I can track tangible progress toward vs. feeling completely overwhelmed and lost.”
Maximize Your Leadership Brand
Enea Rrapokushi – “Thanks to Dr. Boyd’s coaching, I have a better understanding of what traits to emphasize in my leadership style, and what areas to sharpen. I highly recommend Dr. Boyd as a leadership coach.”
Two Essential Steps in Developing Your Leadership Through Leadership Branding
Step 1: Build Your Leadership Brand Strategy
Leadership branding begins with strategy. Before leaders can communicate their value to the audiences that matter, they need clarity about who they are as leaders, the stories and evidence that support that identity, and how their leadership brand should be positioned for a specific purpose. In the CLAIM Framework, this strategic foundation is built through Craft, Leverage, and Articulate. Leaders define their leadership identity, identify the experiences that give it credibility, and determine how their brand should fit and stand out to achieve their purpose. This is not self-promotion. It is strategic leadership brand development that makes a leader easier for decision-makers and stakeholders to understand, trust, and support. When leadership brand strategy is clear, implementation becomes more effective because leaders can create the right Presence with key audiences and generate the Proof that carries their influence forward.
Step 2: Implement Your Leadership Branding
Once a leader has built a clear leadership brand strategy, the next step is implementation. In the CLAIM Framework, implementation is how leaders translate their leadership brand positioning into influence with the audiences that matter most. This happens through Implement, Mobilize, and Scale. Leaders identify the relevant audiences for their purpose, the moments where those audiences will experience their Presence, and the forms of Proof that will matter to those audiences afterward. Implementation is not just about being seen. It is about ensuring that a leader’s brand positioning is communicated and reinforced vertically, horizontally, and externally in ways that build trust, credibility, and support. When leadership brand implementation is intentional, Presence becomes more meaningful, Proof becomes more transferable, and leadership influence becomes more likely to extend beyond a single interaction.
How LBI Develops Leadership Brand Strategy and Implementation Through Presence + Proof
At the Leadership Branding Institute, we help leaders ensure their leadership is not only visible, but strategically positioned and effectively implemented so it is trusted, verified, and advocated for when advancement and influence decisions are made.
Using the CLAIM Framework, our leadership brand development system, we guide leaders through two essential phases: strategy and implementation.
First, leaders build a leadership brand strategy through Craft, Leverage, and Articulate. In this phase, leaders clarify their leadership identity, identify the stories and evidence that support that identity, and define how their leadership brand should be positioned for a specific purpose by determining how it should fit and stand out with the audiences that matter most.
Second, leaders move to implementation through Implement, Mobilize, and Scale. In this phase, leaders translate their leadership brand positioning into influence by identifying the key audiences connected to their purpose, the moments where those audiences will experience their Presence, and the proof that will matter to those audiences afterward. This ensures that leadership is communicated and reinforced vertically, horizontally, and externally in ways that build credibility and expand opportunity.
Through this strategy and implementation process, leaders learn how to create meaningful Presence in the room and Proof beyond it so their leadership is:
recognized with confidence in decision-making moments
verified through credible evidence over time
advocated for by the people who influence what comes next
Just as importantly, LBI helps leaders become the kind of leaders who strengthen leadership capacity around them. By identifying audiences, creating meaningful moments, and helping others generate proof of their leadership impact, leaders create opportunities for team members to build credibility and earn sponsorship that allows their leadership to travel beyond the room.
Our work helps leaders both develop and implement their own leadership brand and create the conditions that allow the leadership brands of others to grow with clarity, credibility, and impact.
Dr. Eric Boyd
Founder, Leadership Branding Institute
Offerings
Individual Coaching
Personalized coaching for high-performing leaders whose next opportunity is being limited not by capability, but by whether their leadership brand is clearly positioned and effectively implemented with the audiences who matter most.
Through one-on-one sessions grounded in the CLAIM Framework, leaders develop both a clear leadership brand strategy and a practical implementation plan. First, we focus on strategy through Craft, Leverage, and Articulate, where you clarify your leadership identity, identify the experiences that support it, and determine how your leadership brand should be positioned to fit and stand out for your current purpose.
Next, we move to implementation through Implement, Mobilize, and Scale, where you identify the key audiences connected to that purpose, the moments where those audiences will experience your Presence, and the proof that will matter to them afterward. This ensures that decision-makers can recognize, evaluate, and trust your leadership with greater confidence.
Just as importantly, you learn how to create the conditions that allow others to develop their leadership brands. By identifying audiences, creating meaningful moments of Presence, and helping others generate Proof of their leadership impact, you create opportunities for emerging leaders to earn trust, credibility, and advocacy.
The result is leadership branding that not only advances your career, but also expands leadership capacity in the people you lead.
Group Workshops
Interactive, research-backed workshops designed to help leaders build and implement their leadership brand using the CLAIM Framework.
In these workshops, leaders develop both a clear leadership brand strategy and a practical approach to implementation. First, participants focus on strategy through Craft, Leverage, and Articulate, where they clarify their leadership identity, identify the experiences that support it, and determine how their leadership brand should be positioned to fit and stand out for their current purpose.
Next, leaders learn how to translate that positioning into influence through Implement, Mobilize, and Scale. Participants identify the key audiences connected to their purpose, the moments where those audiences will experience their Presence, and the proof that will matter to those audiences afterward. This helps leaders ensure their leadership brand is communicated vertically, horizontally, and externally in ways that build trust and credibility.
Participants also learn how to create the conditions that help others develop strong leadership brands. By identifying audiences, creating meaningful moments of Presence, and helping others generate Proof of their leadership impact, leaders learn how to expand leadership capacity across their teams and organizations.
These workshops support emerging leaders, newly promoted leaders, and experienced leaders who want to strengthen advancement readiness while multiplying leadership capability across teams and levels.
Corporate Coaching & Workshops
Customized programs that help organizations strengthen how leadership potential is identified, developed, and advanced by building both leadership brand strategy and implementation through the CLAIM Framework.
These programs help organizations move beyond informal perceptions of leadership by giving leaders a structured way to define and activate their leadership brand. First, leaders develop a leadership brand strategy through Craft, Leverage, and Articulate, where they clarify their leadership identity, identify the experiences that support it, and determine how their leadership brand should be positioned to fit and stand out for the purposes that matter within the organization.
Leaders then translate that strategy into action through Implement, Mobilize, and Scale. In this phase, leaders identify the key audiences connected to leadership advancement and impact, the moments where those audiences will experience their Presence, and the proof that demonstrates leadership credibility over time. This approach helps organizations make leadership more visible and evaluable by connecting leadership positioning to clear audiences, meaningful moments, and credible evidence.
Through this strategy and implementation model, companies reduce subjectivity in promotion and succession decisions, strengthen internal mobility, and increase confidence in leadership readiness. The result is a stronger leadership bench, better succession outcomes, and a culture where leadership potential is consistently recognized, trusted, and developed at every level.
Clients Benefits
Individual Benefits
Leadership Brand Strategy and Implementation That Gets You Recognized
Develop a clear leadership brand strategy and learn how to implement it so your leadership is not only visible, but understood, trusted, and advocated for across teams and levels, especially by the people who influence advancement decisions.
Stronger Presence in Key Moments
Identify the moments where the audiences that matter most experience your leadership directly, and show up in those situations with greater clarity, confidence, and credibility.
Proof That Travels Beyond the Moment
Generate meaningful evidence of your leadership impact so decision-makers can recognize and evaluate your leadership even when you are not present to speak for yourself.
Clear Positioning and Credible Signals for Advancement
Clarify how your leadership brand should fit and stand out for your current purpose, and translate that positioning into audiences, moments, and proof that help others advocate for your readiness and next opportunity with confidence.
Team Benefits
A Shared Framework for Leadership Brand Strategy and Implementation
Give teams a common language for developing and implementing leadership brands through the CLAIM Framework. Team members learn how to clarify their leadership identity, position their leadership brand to fit and stand out for their purpose, and translate that positioning into audiences, moments, and proof that make leadership contributions easier to understand and evaluate.
Stronger Recognition Across Functions and Levels
Help teams ensure leadership contributions are recognized beyond the immediate group by identifying the audiences that matter across functions and levels, and by creating moments where leadership presence can be experienced and evaluated.
Aligned Leadership Narratives
Reduce mixed signals by helping team members clarify and communicate their leadership brand positioning in ways that are consistent, credible, and aligned with the team’s broader goals and impact.
Clearer Leadership Advocacy for Team Members
Equip team members to support one another’s leadership development by identifying meaningful audiences, creating moments where leadership can be demonstrated, and helping colleagues generate proof of their leadership impact that travels beyond the team.
Organizational Benefits
A Clearer Leadership Pipeline
Strengthen the leadership pipeline by helping leaders develop and implement clear leadership brands. Through the CLAIM Framework, leaders clarify their identity, position their leadership brand to fit and stand out for organizational needs, and translate that positioning into audiences, moments, and proof that make leadership potential easier to recognize, evaluate, and advance.
Reduced Subjectivity in Leadership Decisions
Improve promotion and succession decisions by connecting leadership positioning with credible evidence of impact. By focusing on relevant audiences, meaningful moments of presence, and observable proof of leadership effectiveness, organizations can move beyond impressions and proximity toward more consistent and confident leadership evaluations.
Leadership That Scales Across the Enterprise
Enable leaders to extend their influence beyond their immediate teams. By helping leaders identify the audiences that matter across functions, levels, and business units and generate proof of their leadership impact, organizations encourage leadership influence that travels across the enterprise rather than remaining siloed.
A Stronger Culture of Leadership Development and Opportunity
Create an environment where leadership growth is intentional and visible. When leaders understand how to position and implement their leadership brands and help others do the same, organizations build cultures where leadership potential is consistently recognized, supported, and developed across the organization.