Dr Pardeep Saini AssocFCGDent, a Specialist Orthodontist practising in Bristol, reflects on the College’s Leadership Development Masterclass led by Professor Sreenivas Koka FCGDent and Professor Elizabeth Carr FCGDent.
Have you ever booked onto a CPD course convinced it’s exactly what you need but quietly suspect that it would probably just be…OK?
You clear your clinic weeks in advance. You make the journey, your attention is ‘maintained’ by multiple cups of questionable ‘coffee’, you listen politely for six hours and leave having been reminded of things you already knew. It wasn’t a bad day – it just wasn’t memorable.
If you’ve been there, then you’ll understand why I saw the word “leadership” on the programme and assumed this course would be much the same.
On 14th October 2025 I attended the College’s inaugural Leadership Development Masterclass, and everything began exactly as expected: an early commute into London, a welcome break from clinic and the quiet assumption that I’d leave with a few useful reminders. I couldn’t have been more wrong.
It was a day that opened my mind and my heart to a different way of thinking about leadership.
What surprised me most wasn’t the extensive CVs of the speakers. It was the humility with which they shared their failures, their uncertainty and the lessons they’d learnt along the way. This wasn’t leadership as charisma or authority; it was leadership cultivated from curiosity, service and continual learning.
This course has lived with me every day since. I’m still revisiting my notes. I’m still working through the brilliant book references. Concepts from the course still resurface before difficult meetings or when I’m thinking through challenges with my team. I’ve attended many CPD courses over the years; very few continue teaching me long after I’ve left the room.
I was fortunate to hear about lessons taken from a diverse range of sources including the Navy Seals, The Mayo Clinic and M.I.T to name a few. What struck me was how every idea was grounded in evidence. Concepts that could easily have remained abstract were supported by data, research and real experience – a combination that’s surprisingly rare.
Before this course, I tended to think feedback was simply feedback. I now realise that appreciation, coaching and evaluation are all different forms of feedback. Failing to understand the difference and when to use each often leaves team members confused or demoralised – even when our intentions as leaders are good.
Since then, I’ve become much more intentional about conversations with my team. Before giving feedback, I ask myself a simple question: what does this person need from me right now? Recognition? Coaching? Or evaluation? That one change has improved the quality of conversations far more than any leadership skill I’ve previously learnt. This is just one example of the many lessons I learnt at this masterclass. Listing them all would be impossible. Suffice to say the value of the course to me wasn’t the individual learning points but more how it improved the way I think.
I’m fortunate to spend my days as an associate Specialist Orthodontist leading a busy NHS service in primary care. Alongside treating patients, I oversee three orthodontic therapists, a wider clinical support team and have been heavily involved in reception training. It’s a role I love, but one that has occasionally left me feeling less prepared as a leader than I am as a clinician.
As Chair of both the Bristol Orthodontic MCN and, nationally, the Orthodontic Specialists Group at the British Orthodontic Society – leading highly-intelligent and accomplished peers requires a different style of leadership from that used in the clinic, yet I found that the principles from the masterclass apply equally well in both settings.
This masterclass didn’t give me a checklist for becoming a better leader. It gave me something much more valuable: a different way of thinking about people, conversations and responsibility. Those lessons have already changed how I lead today and will undoubtedly shape me as the director of an independent Specialist Orthodontic Practice I hope to build in the future.
I’m deeply grateful to Professor Sreenivas Koka and Professor Elizabeth Carr for sharing their knowledge, ideas and experiences with such honesty and generosity. I’m equally grateful to the College of General Dentistry for organising the masterclass and giving me the opportunity to be part of its inaugural cohort and attend one of the few CPD courses that didn’t require copious cups of coffee to keep me engaged!
We often measure CPD in hours. The best CPD, however, is measured in the decisions it changes long after the certificate has been filed away.
Nearly twelve months on, it’s still teaching me.
The 2026 Leadership Development Masterclass will take place on Thursday 24 September in London. There are limited places available and College members benefit from a reduced fee. To find out more and secure your place, click the button below.