Leadership Central Kentucky Class Kicks Off 2026-27 Program Year

​How would you define “leader”?
​
Think about it.
​
A lot of descriptive words may have come to mind. Words like resilient, empowering, decisive,
inspirational. Dr. Virgil Grant, the 2026 Leadership Central Kentucky Orientation facilitator
defined leader as this: someone who simply has influence over others. That short simple
sentence challenges the line of thinking that says “not everyone can be a leader”. Now, sure,
are there individuals who are more naturally gifted to be high capacity leaders? Of course. But
based on that definition, everybody has the potential to be a leader, because everybody has
influence over somebody. And what opened my mind even further was what Dr. Grant said next:
“leadership does not start with the person you have influence over. No, it starts with yourself.”

​Recently, I had the privilege of attending the 2026 LCK Orientation held at Historic Boone
Tavern in Berea, Kentucky. Twenty eight leaders from all over the CKY region gathered for the
two day retreat to kick off the 2026-2027 class. Class leaders and orientation guides touched on
regionalism, networking, and of course, leadership. With “leadership” being the first name of this
program, a heavy emphasis was brought to that exact topic… but in a way no one really
expected.

​You see, as Dr. Grant stated, leadership starts with yourself. NOT with the person or team you
are leading. Which seems so backwards, doesn’t it? Our gut reaction when placed in a position
is to what? Immediately start to impose our influence onto the people we are leading. However,
healthy leadership starts with self-leadership. And this might sound crazy, but self leadership
starts with self-discovery.

​Dr. Grant provided over twenty years of leadership coaching experience to us, offering valuable
wisdom across the two days we were together with him. The bulk of the two days were spent
working through different assessments and tools that gave us insight into who we are. Insights
like the 5 voices assessment, the heart analysis tool, and the conflict resolution inventory to just
name a few. I heard many seasoned community leaders across the room say things like “wow, I
never knew that about myself”, or “that makes sense why I lead like that”. With a couple
decades of experience under his belt, you would think that Dr. Grant would teach us some
valuable skill or earth shattering process or system that would propel us to change the world.
But no. It was so much simpler than that. If I could synthesize his orientation in just a couple
words it would be this: leadership starts with you.

The orientation really provided the perfect environment to develop my newfound relationships
with my other classmates. We each wrote a poem about ourselves, written with our upbringing
and childhood in mind. Some of the poems were so well written it had all of us desperately
trying to read between the lines, searching and looking for more we could find out about our
classmate. The creative expression didn’t end there… we even watercolored! We were given
instructions to paint ourselves and the things we are passionate about, then to share with
several different classmates. It was quite obvious who were the logical thinkers and who were
the creative ones!

​I believe each of us left that retreat feeling a little bit exposed. Almost like if someone had swung
a bright, white, spotlight on you and you were unprepared for it. We saw parts of ourselves that
we spent years overlooking. Things that we may not have wanted to see. Or things that needed
to be pulled out of us and brought to the forefront of our minds. I’ve sat under Dr. Grant’s
teaching before, but I still always learn something new about myself. An unhealthy tendency or
a toxic trait. And good stuff too! Like a character strength or a natural gifting. To learn these
things about ourselves is necessary for self leadership, which in turn allows you to lead others
effectively. To know yourself is to lead yourself. And as Dr. Grant says, “when I lead myself well,
I lead others great.”

​Thank you to my classmates, the LCK class leaders, Historic Boone Tavern, and Dr. Virgil Grant for an impactful two days. Leadership is influence. We all have it. To make the most of it? It starts with you.

Written By: Gentry Deck, Eastside Community Church