Embracing Both Technology and People, with Elham Bidar

Summary

Coaching for Leaders, Episode Summary

Episode Title: Embracing Both Technology and People, with Elham Bidar
Host: Dave Stachowiak
Guest: Elham Bidar, Cardiothoracic Surgeon & Leadership Academy Graduate
Date: September 5, 2025

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Episode Overview

This episode features a conversation with Elham Bidar, a cardiothoracic surgeon recently appointed as Head of Department in Maastricht, Netherlands, and a graduate of the Coaching for Leaders Academy. Host Dave Stachowiak explores Elham’s leadership journey, focusing on how he integrates both technological expertise and people-centered leadership, notably using the principle of “unreasonable hospitality” drawn from Will Guidara’s work. The discussion centers on the transition from technical mastery to a more holistic leadership approach emphasizing human connection and continuous personal growth.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Shifting Focus from Technical Mastery to People Leadership

(02:59–04:59)

• Elham's Background: Started as a surgeon heavily focused on procedures and scientific research.
• Leadership Journey: Noticed a major shift in his perspective as he moved into managerial and leadership roles, realizing that the technical side is just one part of effective leadership.
  • Quote: “You think that the technical aspect is the most important part of the job and everything else comes second. But slowly I realized… there are also other aspects which are equally important as the technical aspect.” (03:12, Elham Bidar)
• Self-Discovery in the Academy: The Academy process of self-reflection and intentional vision-building helped Elham identify leadership areas to focus on beyond technical skills.
  • Integration with others from diverse backgrounds highlighted the universality of people challenges across professions.

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2. The Importance of Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration

(04:07–04:59)

• Shared Challenges: By interacting with leaders from various fields, Elham realized that people-related challenges are common, not unique to medicine.
  • Quote: “Working with people has some challenges, which is really kind of prevalent in all fields… not just doctors or specialists, but also in other fields.” (04:11, Elham Bidar)
• Leadership Beyond Specialization: Recognized the opportunity and responsibility to influence and support others, not just to excel technically.

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3. Adopting the Principle of Unreasonable Hospitality

(05:42–07:29)

• Inspiration from Will Guidara: Elham resonated with the concept of “unreasonable hospitality,” originally popularized in the hospitality industry, and saw its power in medicine.
  • Quote: “Service is transactional, but hospitality… is something that you do because you want to do something for someone to make them feel better… going a little bit further than just regular good service.” (06:07, Elham Bidar)
• Application in Healthcare:
  • Jaxtaposed the words “hospital” and “hospitality,” emphasizing care, empathy, and making patients feel truly welcome and safe.
  • Actively encouraged his team to go beyond standard care towards actions that make patients and colleagues feel valued and cared for.
  • Impact: Inspired new behaviors such as being a better listener, being more involved as a leader, and fostering a ripple effect within the team.

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4. Vision-Driven Leadership in Action

(07:29–08:53)

• Moving from Theory to Practice: Took clear vision (such as unreasonable hospitality) and translated it into committed daily actions in the workplace.
  • Quote: “I learned to take on a role which suits me and makes me, in my opinion, a more involved leader… leaders are readers, but leaders are also learners.” (08:08, Elham Bidar)
• Continuous Growth: Emphasized the need for ongoing evolution and adaptation in leadership style as new ideas and opportunities for connection emerge.

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5. The Critical Role of Communication in Healthcare

(09:18–10:11)

• Most Complaints Are About Communication: Elham discovered that nearly all patient complaints in hospitals stem from communication breakdowns rather than technical or procedural failures.
  • Quote: “Most complaints concern communication problems. …like Will Guidara says, it’s about how you make people feel…they will always remember the way you make them feel.” (09:27, Elham Bidar)
• Lesson Learned: Reframed his priorities to put higher emphasis on interpersonal aspects—how patients and colleagues feel—rather than solely on technical outcomes.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “As you say, leaders are readers, but leaders are also learners. …We can learn every day a little bit more, especially when you have this broad understanding of what you want to be.” (08:13, Elham Bidar)
• “Hospitality is one of the main focus areas of each person working in a hospital, I guess.” (05:48, Elham Bidar)
• “The most complaints …come from patients. And they don’t complain about technical aspects…Most complaints concern communication problems.” (09:19, Elham Bidar)
• “Probably they will not always remember the meal you have served them or the speed at which you serve them, but they will always remember the way you make them feel.” (09:42, quoting Will Guidara)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

| Timestamp | Segment Description | |-----------|--------------------------------------------------------| | 02:59 | Realization that technical skills aren’t enough | | 04:07 | Universality of leadership challenges across fields | | 05:42 | Embracing unreasonable hospitality in healthcare | | 07:29 | Building vision and putting it into practice | | 09:18 | Communication as the root of most patient complaints |

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Episode Tone

The conversation is earnest, warm, and practical. Both host and guest speak directly, blending reflective storytelling with actionable takeaways. Elham’s humility and openness to learning are clear, and Dave’s questions encourage actionable, people-centered leadership insights.

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Summary Takeaway

This episode is a rich exploration of how leaders, especially in highly technical fields like medicine, can and must blend technical mastery with intentional people leadership. “Unreasonable hospitality” emerges as a powerful metaphor and practical tool for creating meaningful change, not only improving patient experience but also shaping team culture. Elham’s journey embodies the core idea that leadership is an ongoing process of learning, reflection, and making others feel genuinely valued—a lesson relevant for leaders in any discipline.

Transcript

[A]

Hello, Dave Stahoviak here, host of the Coaching for Leaders podcast. Top coach Marshall Goldsmith says that the higher you go up in an organization, the more your problems become behavioral. That's the inflection point almost every leader hits in their career at some point. We've all had a lot of training in our disciplines, but most of us haven't had as much intentional skill development on elevating the people aspects of work. Today I'm bringing you a conversation with one of our academy graduates who's made the people focus such a critical aspect of his leadership. Here's our chat. I'm here today with Elham Bedar. He is one of our Academy graduates and is sharing a bit of his story about the experience in the Academy with us. Elham, so good to have you with us.

[B]

Thanks for having me.

[A]

Dave, I was wondering if we could start a bit by perhaps you sharing a bit about your role professionally and what keeps you busy in your work.

[B]

Well, I'm a cardiothoracic surgeon and I work in Maastricht as a city in the south of the Netherlands in Europe. And yeah, I've recently became the head of the department of cardiothoracic surgery and my work involves operating patients with cardiovascular disease, but also a scientific part where I collaborate with university and we perform scientific research on cardiovascular disease.

[A]

Do you recall how you came across the podcast originally?

[B]

Yeah, I was working towards leadership role and I really was a big fan of your podcast. I listened to the, actually I think almost all of the first 300 episodes.

[A]

Oh, wow.

[B]

Yeah, that's right. And I, I really liked the topics and I was very surprised that the amount of scientific data on teamwork and collaboration, which was really fascinating and well, and a certain point I heard about the Academy and I just applied and I was happy to be allowed to join it.

[A]

One of the things that we do when the Academy starts, as you know, Elham is really going through a very intentional process of self discovery, of collaboration with our cohort, of assessment of thinking and reflection in order to surface a vision for the next two to three years of what leadership looks like for each of us and our organizations. What was that process like for you of going through and taking the time to decide what should emerge in your role and in your career?

[B]

In my case as a surgeon, it's a fairly technical job. It's a lot of procedures and scientific work and these type of things. And you tend as a, as a surgeon in training or as a cardiothoracic surgeon, it's, it's kind of you think that the technical aspect is the most important part of the job and everything else comes second. But slowly I realized that that's that there are also other aspects which are equally important as the, the technical aspect. And you get to understand those aspects more and more while you're in kind of a managerial roles or even as a leader. So that process, especially within the. This is while listening to your podcast and the other podcasts and reading books, but also within the academy, was really nice and helpful.

[A]

What was helpful to you as that became more clear on the aspects of the role that were not just the clinical, the technical parts?

[B]

Well, I think I found it first of all very interesting that while working with people, people, leaders from other fields, I learned that working with people is. Has some challenges, which is really kind of prevalent in all fields or all other fields. So it's not just a doctors or specialists, but also another field. So that was very interesting. And I think that what I learned, especially with the commitments that we discussed, was that you can do much more as a leader than only being a specialist on your field. And you can influence people, you can help a lot of people. So those aspects were really kind of obvious and I enjoyed the process of learning about that.

[A]

One of the things that really captured a lot of our attention as you began working with us is you zeroing in on the work of Will Guidera and his book Unreasonable Hospitality. He's of course, been on the show before, and you really embraced his work and identified that as one of your focus areas in the academy. And I think oftentimes we think about hospitality in the context of entertainment, of food and beverage. We don't think about it often in the context of medicine and surgery. And yet you zeroed in on it and decided on that as one of your focus areas. What led you to. To make that decision?

[B]

Yeah, that was something very interesting because hospitality. We are working in hospitals and hospitality is one of the main focus areas of each person working in a hospital, I guess, because what I really liked about Will Guidera's idea is one of the things was that, for example, service is transactional and you get something for something that's paid for, for example, that's service. But hospitality is especially unreasonable. Hospitality is something that you do because you want to do something for someone to make them feel better, to make, to. To help them, or just going a little bit further than just regular good service. And yeah, that's, I think that's a very strong idea. And the fact, the mechanism that he describes with which you can influence your team by this unreasonable hospitality and then see your team or your colleagues do the same for patients or people for whom they work. I think that's that this, this mechanism also is very something significant in our work. So, yeah, I really enjoyed it. And once we got started on that, it developed new areas and new directions, for example, taking time to listen instead of talking more or being more involved leader. So all these new directions appear once you have this philosophy. So yeah, that's for me was a very interesting direction to work on.

[A]

We so often get caught up in the day to day, the tactics, the technology, each one of our own technical aspects of our work. And we don't often stop to elevate and to really think of the big picture, the big principle, like you did with unreasonable hospitality and the other focus areas in the vision, as you did that and got really clear on what the vision looked like and what unreasonable hospitality would look like and took that on as a commitment. What happened over time?

[B]

Well, I think that I learned to take on a role which suits me and makes me, in my opinion, a more involved leader. And I think that's something very important to realize and work on. I mean, as you say, leaders are readers, but leaders are also learners. And I think we can learn every day a little bit more, especially when you have this type of broad understanding of what you want to be, what type of leader you want to be. So in this journey, it was very interesting to develop new ideas, new ways of being a leader and in lines of unreasonable hospitality. And it's kind of a need to keep evolving that aspect.

[A]

So much of leadership and of course life is learning and being a continuous learner. And you absolutely embody that, of course, in your clinical work, but also in your work with people too. And as you have gone through this process of taking the theoretical putting into practice of working consistently toward your vision, I'm curious, what, if anything, have you changed your mind on?

[B]

Yeah, I think this is also related to the fact that the most complaints within any hospital, within any department, come from patients. And they don't complain about technical aspects or a complication of a procedure or anything like that. Most complaints concern communication problems. And I think this is related to that. I think being. I've changed. Well, I've kind of understood more the importance of how, like Will Gudara says, it's about how you make people feel. And probably they will not always remember the meal you have served them or the speed at which you serve them, but they will always remember the way you make them feel. And I think the importance of that is. The significance of that, I think has become more clear to me.

[A]

Elham, thank you so much for sharing your story and your work with us. And thank you for all the work you and your team are doing to keep people healthy.

[B]

Thank you very much, Dave.

[A]

A lot of our Academy members are just like Elham. They've gotten deep into the books and podcasts about leadership and are ready, like he's now done, to put it into practice. It's one of the reasons we don't have a heavy focus on theory in our academy. Not because theory isn't important, but because virtually all our members are already reading the books and listening to episodes about leadership on this podcast and others to help them be knowledgeable about what to do next. The Academy is about putting that knowledge into practice. That's why we zero in on the actual situations our members are dealing with rather than using case studies. And why so much of our attention goes into putting new daily actions in the workplace with a bit of accountability to help us all elevate our leadership. If putting theory into practice is important for you right now, I hope you'll consider the Coaching for Leaders Academy to help you get there. Applications are open open now through Friday, September 12th. Just go to coaching4leaders.com academy I think about Elham's commitment to unreasonable hospitality in his work and the strong culture of attention to people that he has grown with his team. If that kind of shift may help your team and you, we'd love to support you in that next step. Coaching4leaders.com Academy is where to go before the end of the day, Friday, September 12th and and thanks as always for the privilege to help you elevate your leadership here on the podcast and of course, inside our Academy. Have a great rest of your day.