PAGD Keystone Explorer Summer 2020

2 www.pagd.org | president’s message We have all served in a leadership position in some capacity at some point in our lives. As you know, there are always challenges to being a leader, but the challenges inevitably help us to grow and shape us as people and providers. Whether you are the leader of an organization, your office, your church, or so forth, this has been quite the time to lead. With so many uncertainties in our lives and offices, it has left many of us longing for the control that we just do not have at this time. Being the PAGD President during a pandemic has at times given me the same feeling that I remember having as I stood in front of my first extraction patient in dental school. As I stood on the right side of that number 29 decayed down to the gumline, after reviewing my patient’s medical history and finding out among many other things that she was deaf and blind, I thought to myself, “I am not qualified for this.” Our ability to communicate and control aspects of a situation is quite often how we navigate through many things in life and in dentistry. Being that I could not speak or sign to my patient to explain anything to her and clearly never extracted a tooth before, I felt helpless. But at the end of that appointment, as I looked at what was left of number 29 on the tray table, I realized that if you are passionate, determined, and certainly patient, you can get through anything. That has been the story of the start of my eventful presidency. I do not feel qualified for this as the position comes with no rulebook, and undoubtedly, there is no rulebook for how to lead during a pandemic. (I promise I would have read it if there was.) I remember sharing with Rick Knowlton when presented with the opportunity to become the president that I did not feel qualified for the position. He told me, “You care enough to figure it out, and that is all that matters.” So here I am, exhausted after more meetings than I can count, frustrated like all of you by the vague guidance we Pennsylvania dentists have been given, and often feeling helpless with the little control that I have, but still committed nonetheless to figuring it out one step at a time and hopefully making Rick proud in Heaven. I appreciate the patience and grace that all of our members have given me, Steve, and the Board as we make our way through this challenging time in dentistry. I constantly wish I had control over so much more than I do. I can assure you that I always have the best interest of our members and fellow dentists in mind when leading this organization. Speaking of the control I find myself wishing I had, at the beginning of every year, our team chooses one word that we want to focus our attention on improving about ourselves or our lives during the year ahead. Ironically, my word for this year was “control.” This principle of choosing one word stems from a book called, One Word that Will Change Your Life, by Jon Gordon. My reason for choosing this word was to encourage myself to control the things which I am able and to give up the desire for control when matters are out of Quite the Time to Lead Leigh Jacopetti-Kondraski, DMD “Our ability to communicate and control aspects of a situation is quite often how we navigate through many things in life and in dentistry.”