From 30,000 Feet to Ground-Level Impact: What Governor Andy Beshear Reminded Me About Great Leadership

Power100 CEO Greg Cummings shares what a conversation with Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear revealed about the true DNA of great leadership.

Last night, somewhere above the storm clouds between Florida and Kentucky, I was reminded why I’ve devoted my life’s work at Power100 to studying, ranking, and spotlighting leaders who quietly change lives instead of loudly chasing recognition.

I didn’t expect that reminder to come from the Governor of Kentucky, Andy Beshear, on a late flight after a long day of travel.

A Turbulent Flight and a Steady Presence

I first noticed Governor Beshear the way I notice great CEOs in the field—not by what he said, but by what he did.

Before we spoke, I watched him move through the gate area and onto the plane, shaking hands, bending down to play with kids, and genuinely engaging anyone who approached him. There was no camera, no podium, no press release—just a leader who seemed comfortable being accessible and present.

For most of the flight, we exchanged nothing more than basic pleasantries. Then the turbulence hit. The pilot pushed through heavy storms, the landing was rough, and everyone on board felt it. As we settled back into our seats, we started talking—first about how fast the flight seemed, then joking that maybe the pilot was late for dinner and decided to power straight through instead of going around the weather.

From there the conversation moved quickly to home. We talked about Kentucky. I shared how my family ended up in Salyersville after leaving Florida in the wake of a hurricane, and we dug into the Eastern Kentucky culture, infrastructure, potential, and opportunity that most people never see when they drive straight through on the highway.

What stood out to me wasn’t the policy detail. It was the tone. Calm. Measured. Curious. The way he talked about five-, ten-, and fifteen-year infrastructure plans for Kentucky sounded less like a fast-talking politician and more like a steady operator who understands that real leadership is about building something that will outlast your title.

That tone is what led me to write this article.

The Intangibles We Look for at Power100

At Power100, we rank and recognize the best leaders and companies in the home improvement industry across the United States. Every year, we independently review more than 7,600 organizations—not based on who pays to be seen, but on leadership, culture, customer experience, community impact, and long-term performance.

To do that work with integrity, you have to study the entire spectrum of leadership: outstanding leaders, ineffective leaders, and everything in between. You learn to feel the difference between volume and impact, between charisma and character, between someone who wants attention and someone who wants responsibility.

Over time, you start to see what I call the of leadership—the ripple that doesn’t show up on a spreadsheet, but shows up in retention, trust, and how people talk about their work when no one is watching.

Sitting next to Governor Beshear, I felt that same intangible effect I’ve experienced with the #1, #2, #4, and #5 CEOs in the home improvement industry—James Freeman, CEO of PJ Fitzpatrick; Peter Svedin, CEO of Lifetime Home Remodeling; Andy Lindus, CEO of Lindus Construction; and Jeff Gunhus, Co-Founder and CEO of Home Genius Exteriors. Not because they are similar people or share the same beliefs. They are all very different. But they share a common DNA in how they lead. And that’s what matters.

What Governor Beshear Showed Me in One Conversation

Our conversation was brief compared to the hours I’ve spent with CEOs across the country, but it was enough to see the underlying framework of how Governor Beshear thinks.

Three things stood out:

• Long-term thinking in a short-term world.
  As we talked about infrastructure and Eastern Kentucky, he focused on five-, ten-, and fifteen-year horizons—on where the economy and communities will be, not just where they are today. That mindset mirrors what we see in the best business leaders who build for decades, not quarters.
• Calm in turbulence.
  During a turbulent flight and a rough landing, he stayed present, engaged, and grounded. Great leaders don’t pretend turbulence isn’t real—they steady the people around them while keeping their eyes on what comes next.
• Authentic tone over performance.
  His rate of speech, body language, and curiosity did not feel rehearsed. It felt like a leader who knows that real influence isn’t in the sound bite, it’s in the quiet one-to-one conversations that build trust over time.

It’s the same quiet consistency I’ve seen in the great CEOs we spotlight at Power100. Again, this isn’t about politics or agreement on issues. It’s about how someone carries the weight of responsibility when nobody is grading their speech.

The Common DNA of Great Leaders

When I look back at the leaders we’ve ranked at the top of the Power100 platform, I see one unmistakable common thread: it’s never just about the numbers. It’s about the combination of great people and authentic behavior. Period.

Here’s what that looks like across a few of the CEOs we spotlight:

Again, these leaders are not the same. They lead in different arenas, with different pressures, constraints, and stakeholders. This is not about comparing them or suggesting equivalence. It’s about recognizing that the leaders—regardless of role—seem to operate from a similar internal compass.

The Compass They Share

Across these leaders, I see a consistent pattern:

• People before profit or position.
  James Freeman talks about preparing people, not controlling them, and building a leadership ecosystem where culture and trust are the operating system. Peter Svedin frames leadership as “building something that lasts,” where investing in people is the foundation of growth. Andy Lindus insists that profit should be natural, never the reason for making a decision. Jeff Gunhus credits Home Genius Exteriors’ success to the culture they’ve built and their commitment to their team. Governor Andy Beshear speaks in terms of “Team Kentucky,” treating every citizen as part of the same team and emphasizing compassion, dignity, and respect.
• Authenticity over performance.
  None of these leaders are building their reputations on slogans alone. They are consistent in private and public, in the boardroom and on a plane after midnight. Authentic behavior—how they show up when there is nothing to gain in the moment—is the common denominator.
• Long-term vision over short-term wins.
  Whether it’s infrastructure for a state, national expansion for a remodeling company, or building a culture that can sustain growth across nine markets, these leaders think beyond the current cycle. They design systems and environments where people can thrive years from now, not just hit this month’s numbers.

That is the DNA we look for at Power100. And that is the same energy I felt sitting next to Governor Beshear.

Why This Moment Mattered to Me

I’ve sat across from hundreds of leaders one-to-one—interviews, site visits, conferences, factory floors, customer homes. Our evaluation model forces us to ask the same questions over and over:

• Who are you when the cameras are off?
• How do your people talk about you when you’re not in the room?
• Where will your decisions leave your team and your customers five, ten, fifteen years from now?

You’d think you could answer those through metrics alone, but you can’t. You need to feel the intangible. You need to watch how a CEO talks to the person setting up the stage. You need to see how a governor interacts with strangers in an airport, after a long day, before a turbulent flight.

On that flight, I wasn’t evaluating Andy Beshear for a ranking. I was just traveling home. Yet the same sensors that help us do our job at Power100 started firing: the calm in his voice, the patience in his answers, the way he talked about opportunity in places most people overlook.

That’s when it clicked. Great leadership has a frequency. Once you’ve been around it enough times—with people like James Freeman, Peter Svedin, Andy Lindus, Jeff Gunhus, and so many more—you recognize it when you feel it.

An Open Invitation to a Bigger Conversation

Power100 exists for one reason: to redefine the industry standard by spotlighting leaders who put people, culture, and authentic behavior at the center of everything they do. That’s the mission behind our rankings, our media work, and our national leadership podcast, PowerChat, where I sit down with the country’s best home improvement CEOs, their partners, manufacturers, and clients.

Governor Beshear, if this article makes its way to you, I want to extend a personal invitation. I would be honored to have you as a guest on PowerChat—not to talk politics, but to talk leadership.

I’d love to explore:

• How your upbringing and experiences shaped the DNA of your leadership.
• How you balance empathy with accountability when you’re responsible for an entire state.
• How you think about long-term infrastructure and opportunity for regions like Eastern Kentucky that are too often underestimated.
• How you maintain authenticity and humanity in a role that constantly pulls you toward performance.

Our audience is made up of business leaders, home improvement CEOs, and teams across the country who are hungry for real, practical insight—not sound bites. You fit right into the kind of conversations we’re already having with leaders like James Freeman, Peter Svedin, Andy Lindus, Jeff Gunhus, and many others who are quietly building something that will stand the test of time.

The Leadership Standard We Want to Amplify

As I think back on that flight, I’m reminded that leadership is not a title, a ranking, or a spotlight. It’s a series of choices made when nobody is keeping score.

The best leaders I’ve encountered—whether they’re running a state, a nine-figure exterior remodeling company, a multi-market operation, or a regional construction firm—share the same core commitment:

• Surround yourself with great people.
• Lead with authentic behavior.
• Build for the long term.

It’s not about being similar. It’s about being responsible. That’s the commonality that ties together Governor Andy Beshear, James Freeman, Peter Svedin, Andy Lindus, Jeff Gunhus, and so many others we’ve had the privilege to meet through Power100.

My hope is that as we continue to tell these stories—on Power100, through our rankings, and on PowerChat—we help more leaders at every level raise their own standard. Not by chasing the spotlight, but by becoming the kind of person whose leadership impact is felt even at 30,000 feet, in the middle of a storm, when no one expects an article to come out of a simple conversation on a plane.