Not a linear path, but a bold reinvention that best captures Preeti Kumari’s journey as a global leadership expert, team coach, and change facilitator. With experience across five countries and sectors, she has transformed personal pivots into purposeful leadership. Preeti is the founder of KANVI, a conscious leadership practice that blends ancient wisdom with modern systems thinking. Her work enables leaders to shift from burnoutdriven performance to sustainable, humancentred impact through presence, emotional intelligence, and systemic awareness. A LinkedIn Top Voice in Executive Coaching and Team Management, researcher, and co-lead of The Liminal Edge leadership lab developed during the MIT’s U Lab 2x programme. She actively mentors aspiring coaches, emerging leaders and women reentering the workforce. Notable contributions include designing a management development programme for senior leaders at a top Indian NBFC, integrating coaching principles in “Leaders as Coaches”. With credentials including ICF-PCC and ACTC, she integrates mindfulness, emotional intelligence, Theory U, and systemic awareness in coaching CXOs, founders, and women leaders globally. Through KANVI, she champions regenerative leadership, rooted in presence, purpose, and deep connection. Speaking with TradeFlock, she shares her journey and what truly sustains leadership today.
What mindset shifts did you face moving from educator to entrepreneur? How did you manage burnout?
I’ve never stopped being an educator—it’s the foundation of who I am. Teaching instilled in me curiosity, discipline, and a commitment to growth. Entrepreneurship wasn’t a shift away but an expansion. The biggest mindset change? Letting go of needing to “know it all”. In academia, I was the expert; as an entrepreneur, I had to embrace not knowing, co-create, and trust. I moved from performance to presence. Teaching relied on structure; entrepreneurship asked for grace amid ambiguity. I didn’t burn out—I went into overdrive. My passion outpaced my body’s rhythm, creating silent imbalance. Learning to pause, breathe, and honour energy over urgency brought clarity. That recalibration didn’t just help me recover—it helped shape the entrepreneur I wanted to be: grounded, present, and intentional. KANVI was born not from burnout, but from stillness—where I now help leaders view burnout as a call for alignment, not a sign of failure.
What gaps exist in coaching, and how do you bridge them?
Leadership coaching in India is growing but often lacks depth. Many programmes emphasise performance and prescriptive models, missing the systemic shifts leaders truly need. For women, the journey is layered—shaped by cultural norms, dual roles, and leadership frameworks never built with them in mind. Most coaching offers tools, not spaces for integration and wholeness. Feminine leadership isn’t soft—it’s spacious, catalytic, and transformative. Team coaching is also undervalued, despite leadership being deeply relational. Real change lies in how teams communicate and build trust. My approach blends individual and team coaching with leadership labs grounded in systems thinking, Theory U, and storytelling.
What advice would you give aspiring women entrepreneurs?
Honour your entire story, not just the parts that fit a conventional narrative. That career break? A masterclass in empathy. That detour? A lens no textbook provides. Your lived experience is your credibility; don’t edit it out. Let your “why” be louder than fear. Purpose carries you when applause fades. For me, it was this quiet truth: “I don’t want to die before doing what I came here to do.”
What were your greatest challenges building Kanvi, and how did they shape your personal growth?
When I began building KANVI, I held a clear vision but also carried the silent pressure to get everything right. I often measured myself against established brands, forgetting they too started small and uncertain. One of my first lessons was embracing progress over perfection and trusting the unfolding process. A deeper shift was decoupling my identity from the brand. Initially, KANVI felt like an extension of me, my pace, values, and story. But as it grew, I saw it had its own energy. Letting go of control and stepping into co-creation allowed it to evolve beyond me. As a systems thinker and certified team coach, I see leadership as relational. KANVI is no different, shaped by the people I journey with and the wisdom we co-create. Born from a name inspired by my daughters and ancient wisdom, KANVI continues to grow. We’re still becoming, and that’s the true beauty.
"Build community. Make your work your music. That’s legacy.
How do you make emotional intelligence, art, and mindfulness feel human in leadership coaching?
Frameworks offer structure, but real transformation unfolds in pauses, reflections and emotions. I integrate emotional intelligence, art and game-based reflection, mindfulness, and constellation work, not as tools, but as invitations to show up fully, beyond performance. Emotional intelligence starts with permission: to feel, name, and sit with discomfort. Visuals often reveal what logic can’t, whether through drawing, metaphors, LEGO play, or constellations. One leader said, “I didn’t know I felt this until I saw it on paper.” Mindfulness runs quietly through it all. In the silence, the breath, the noticing, transformation emerges. Not from doing more, but from slowing down and seeing and listening clearly.
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