Thought Leader and Influencer Interview with Mitchell Levy, Ph.D, Global Credibility Expert & Executive Coach

At a Glance

Mitchell Levy, Ph.D, Global Credibility Expert & Executive Coach Focus Areas: Ecosystems, Entrepreneurship, Business Continuity, Culture, Design Thinking Thinkers360 In-Depth Profile & Portfolio: Dr. Mitchell Levy, Ph.D Social Media: LinkedIn Book: Executive Abundance: Leading Through Cycles of Scarcity and Success Highlighted Content: Four Steps to Create a Purpose-Driven Organization, CEO Magazine (Article) Vision Pros Live by Jackson Calame with Dr. Mitchell Levy (Podcast) We are Losing Our Humanity and I’m Tired of Watching it Happen (TEDxTenayaPaseo) Thinkers360 Awards & Recognition: Recognized contributor in Leadership, Entrepreneurship, Business Continuity, Culture, and Ecosystems.

 

Thought Leader and Influencer Interview

Thinkers360 thought leader interviews profile prominent members of the Thinkers360 community who embody the power of ideas in their work. In this edition, we speak with Mitchell Levy, Global Credibility Expert, Executive Coach, and creator of the Executive Abundance framework.

Mitchell has spent decades helping executives, entrepreneurs, and organizations build credibility, strengthen leadership, and create lasting impact. Through his work as an executive coach, author, keynote speaker, and researcher, he has interviewed hundreds of thought leaders and developed practical frameworks that empower leaders to align purpose with performance. His latest work explores how organizations can achieve sustainable success by placing humanity, clarity, and credibility at the center of leadership.

In this interview, Mitchell shares why he believes business can become one of the most humane forces in society, reflects on the lessons learned from hundreds of conversations about credibility, discusses the inspiration behind Executive Abundance, and offers his perspective on the future of leadership and the questions that continue to drive his work.

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Thinkers360: What are you curious about right now?

ML: I’m curious about whether business can become one of the most humane forces in society.

For years, I’ve been exploring what happens to leaders under pressure. We ask people to deliver results, navigate uncertainty, care for employees, satisfy investors, and somehow still remain true to themselves. That’s not easy.

What I’m trying to understand is how we change the trajectory of where and how business operates today. How do we create organizations where people don’t have to choose between being successful and being human?

I don’t believe these are competing ideas. I think the best leaders create environments where performance and humanity reinforce one another.

That’s the question I’m spending my life exploring.

 

Thinkers360: What’s a belief you hold that many executives disagree with?

ML: I believe we’ve been measuring success too narrowly.

Results matter. Businesses need to perform. But some of the most important leadership decisions produce returns that are real, substantial, and measurable over time, yet invisible if you only look through the lens of short-term ROI.

Many executives aren’t suffering from a lack of abundance.

They’re suffering from a fear of losing what they’ve already built.

I think leaders have a responsibility to create value for a broader ecosystem that includes family and self, employees, customers, investors, and communities.

I call that Executive Abundance.

It’s not about choosing purpose over performance. It’s about recognizing that sustainable performance often emerges when leaders expand their definition of success.

The irony is that when leaders genuinely care about people, they often build stronger organizations.

             Editor’s Note: See Dr. Mitchell Levy’s profile to work with him directly. 

ML: I didn’t pursue a Ph.D. because I wanted letters before or after my name.

I pursued it because Executive Abundance deserved rigor.

I’d spent decades building companies, publishing books, serving on boards, coaching executives, and interviewing hundreds of thought leaders about credibility. I’d developed frameworks that seemed to resonate deeply with people. But I wanted to understand how those ideas aligned with established leadership theories and what they offered that was new.

I needed to test the framework against rigorous academic standards.

What I didn’t expect was how much the process would transform me.

I had an accountability coach, the president of the university, who challenged me to uphold true doctoral standards. She pushed me to think more deeply, support my conclusions more carefully, and become more disciplined in my scholarship.

Through that process, I gained a greater appreciation for other normative frameworks and a clearer understanding of where Executive Abundance fits within the broader leadership conversation.

The framework became stronger.

And so did I.

 

Thinkers360: What have 500 conversations about credibility taught you about being human?

That realization changed everything for me.

I came to understand that credibility begins with clarity. If we don’t understand who we serve and why our work matters, it’s difficult for others to trust us, support us, and follow us.

Initially, I believed that if people had clarity and acted credibly, consistency and commitment would naturally follow.

I eventually realized they don’t.

• Consistency requires discipline.
• Commitment requires courage.
• Credibility isn’t about perfection. It’s about alignment.

And I’ve come to believe that when we act more credibly toward one another, we become more humane toward one another.

Thinkers360: What does Executive Abundance look like in practice?

ML: It looks surprisingly ordinary.

It’s a leader who makes time for family without apologizing for it.

It’s a CEO who asks, “How will this decision affect our employees and customers?” alongside questions about financial outcomes.

It’s an executive who has the courage to say, “I don’t know,” and invite others into the solution.

It’s creating organizations where people can thrive, not just survive.

In Executive Abundance, family and self come first because the quality of our leadership is deeply influenced by the quality of our relationships and our own well-being.

Executive Abundance isn’t about having more.

It’s about becoming more intentional about the impact we have through the roles we’ve been entrusted to hold.

Success becomes bigger than achievement.

It becomes contribution.

 

Thinkers360: What are you still trying to figure out?

ML: I’m trying to understand how we change the trajectory of business itself.

How do we create organizations where success expands our humanity rather than diminishes it? How do we help leaders build companies where people don’t have to choose between high performance and living their values?

I don’t believe the answer is abandoning capitalism.

I believe the answer is evolving how we lead within it.

Business influences how people spend their time, how they experience purpose, how they care for their families, and how they participate in their communities.

If that’s true, then leadership carries an enormous responsibility.

I’m still trying to figure out how we can help enough leaders embrace that responsibility in practical, measurable, and sustainable ways.

That’s a question I expect I’ll be exploring for the rest of my life.

 

Thinkers360: How do you hope people describe the impact you’ve had twenty years from now?

ML: I hope they say that I helped people redefine success.

That I encouraged leaders to recognize that performance and humanity don’t have to be opposing forces.

That I helped people live their values more fully and lead with greater clarity and credibility.

I hope they say that I asked good questions.

Not because I had all the answers, but because the right question at the right moment can change the trajectory of a person’s life.

And if, through my work, leaders created organizations that positively impacted family and self, employees, customers, investors, communities, and future generations, I would consider that a life well lived.

 

 

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