Podcast appearances and mentions of richard medcalf

What if your biggest leadership challenge wasn't strategy, but self-doubt? In this episode, Richard Medcalf speaks with Mike Ettling, who recently stepped down as CEO of Unit4 after a transformative six-year tenure. Mike led the company through a complete business model overhaul—from a fragmented, on-premise software provider to a unified, cloud-first organisation. Along the way, he navigated culture shifts, private equity pressures, and the internal doubts that come with playing at the highest level. Now in his new role as a chairman and mentor to CEOs, Mike reflects on what it really takes to lead and multiply impact.In this conversation, you'll learn: Why hiring for hardship and failure stories beats CV credentialsHow to manage self-doubt when you're surrounded by brilliant peopleWhat really breaks a transformation (hint: it's not your product)The overlooked power of cadence, culture, and purpose in a private equity environmentWhy moving from CEO to chairman demands a radical shift in how you add valueA must-listen for any leader navigating complexity—or preparing to let go and lead in a new way. Resources/sources mentioned:Unit 4 (https://www.unit4.com/ )Mike Ettling Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeettling/ Join the Crucible (XquadrantTHE CRUCIBLE (Private Invitation, our exponential programme for elite CEOs dedicated to transforming themselves, their businesses, and the world.Ready for a big leap forward in your own leadership? Elevate your leadership forever with Richard's book "Making time for Strategy: How to be less busy and more successful". Buy your book here: Xquadrant‘Making Time For Strategy' book, by Richard Medcalf - Xquadrant‘Making Time For Strategy' book, by Richard Medcalf - Xquadrantxquadrant.com/timeFor full show notes, head to https://xquadrant.com/mike-ettling

What if your boldest vision is years ahead of its time—so far ahead that the world laughs you out of the room?In this deeply personal and provocative conversation, Richard Medcalf speaks with Benjamin Rubin, serial entrepreneur and founder of both Sirenum and Insectika. Benjamin has a rare gift: creating businesses that challenge entrenched paradigms—from transforming the invisible workforce to reinventing how we feed the world. His journey is one of relentless vision, deep humanity, and surprising leadership insights.In this conversation, you'll learn:How to lead when your vision is misunderstood—and still get your team onboardWhy a deep understanding of the problem beats brilliant solutionsA simple but radical way to create true belonging and loyalty in your teamThe hidden cost of relying on money to motivate people—and what to do insteadHow Benjamin plans to scale impact without losing himself in the process This one's for the visionary leaders who've ever felt alone with a world-changing idea.Resources/sources mentioned:The Impact Multiplier CEO Podcast(https://xquadrant.com/podcast/)Sirenum (SirenumSirenum Staff Management Software for Agencies and Hourly WorkersSirenum Staff Management Software for Agencies and Hourly Workerssirenum.com )Insectika Biotech (https://www.linkedin.com/company/insectika-biotechnologies-israel/)Join the Crucible (https://xquadrant.com/crucible), our exponential programme for elite CEOs dedicated to transforming themselves, their businesses, and the world.Ready for a big leap forward in your own leadership? Elevate your leadership forever with Richard's book "Making time for Strategy: How to be less busy and more successful". Buy your book here: https://xquadrant.com/time/ For full show notes, head to https://xquadrant.com/benjamin-rubinTimestamps:00:00 Intro01:01 Welcome to the Impact Multiplier CEO Podcast01:44 Benjamin Rubin's Early Ventures and Challenges02:25 The Mission and Vision of Insecta03:22 Revolutionizing the Food System with Insect Meal04:33 Challenges and Innovations in the Insect Meal Industry05:36 The Importance of Understanding the Problem06:42 Building and Leading a Visionary Team15:05 Navigating Rejection and Persevering Through Challenges21:16 Building High-Performing Teams with Meaning and Belonging23:51 Questioning the Purpose of Life24:45 Building a Team with Meaning and Belonging25:33 Innovative Bonus Schemes and Interdependence26:44 Finding Deep Meaning in Business28:28 Understanding Employee Aspirations38:05 Balancing Leadership and Personal Life41:47 Final Thoughts and Future Plans

This week on the Build a Vibrant Culture Podcast, Nicole interviews Richard Medcalf, author of Making TIME for Strategy: How to be less busy and more successful. Richard describes himself as "what you get if you were to put a McKinsey consultant, a slightly unorthodox pastor and an entrepreneur into a blender." Richard is the founder of Xquadrant and a trusted advisor to exceptional CEOs and entrepreneurs, and their leadership teams. He has advised business owners and C-level execs for over 25 years, and he founded Xquadrant with the mission of helping elite leaders reinvent their 'success formula' and multiply their impact on their purpose, their people and their profit. His personal 1:1 clients include CEOs of billion dollar companies, a Chairman nominated by EY as Entrepreneur of the Year, an Olympic medallist, and the founders of tech 'unicorns'. Richard also runs the high-end CEO community, Rivendell. Richard is bi-national English/French, lives near Paris, is happily married and is the proud father of two. He's also a licensed lay minister in the Anglican Church, and has an insatiable love for spicy food and the electric guitar.In this episode, Richard talks about: [00:09:17] What strategic time is and how it will help to create success in the future.[00:17:32] How to use the acronym TIME: Tactics, Influence, Mindset, Environment to take action and choose your own adventure.[00:25:58] How to use a commitment inventory to prioritize your time and cut out unnecessary time-wastersI am grateful to Richard for sharing his insights about achieving exponential impact! To access listener free resources, go to https://xquadrant.com/vibrantDownload the first two chapters of his book here: https://xquadrant.com/time/Buy his book here: https://a.co/d/7d5gdY5Want to know more about Richard?Website: https://xquadrant.com/Podcast: https://xquadrant.com/podcast/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardmedcalf/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thexquadrantFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/xquadrant/X: https://x.com/rmedcalfThreads: https://www.threads.net/@thexquadrantDon't forget to like, comment, and subscribe to the Build a Vibrant Culture podcast for more insights on creating thriving workplaces!

As a high achiever, you've probably spent your career optimising for productivity, efficiency, and the bottom line. But there comes a time when that old winning formula no longer cuts it. Maybe you've been promoted, or you're leading a bigger team. Maybe you've been told to bring more energy, charisma, and presence to your leadership so that others want to follow you. Research shows that bringing play, fun, and creativity to work can help to retain colleagues, and inspire more innovative ideas. Before you freeze and say, I'm the most un-fun person I know (shriek emoji), stay with me. I promise, there's no juggling or stand-up comedy required. Today's guests are going to teach you how (and WHY) to bring more energy and fun to your leadership. Richard Medcalf is an author and coach who heads CEO circles with fun and a lightness of touch. Consultant clinical neuropsychologist, Dr Antonia Kirkby explains our brains on play, and why you want to be optimising for connection in meetings. The episode is full of ideas you can try right away. Richard Medcalf Dr Antonia Kirkby on LinkedIn Video of the Restaurant of Mistaken Orders. Forbes article, “Elevating Leadership Through the Science of Fun.” Forbes article, “The Forgotten Art of Having Fun.” HBR article, “Leading with Humour.”  

In this episode of Doing the Opposite: Business Disruptors, Jeff Dewing speaks to Richard Medcalf, Founder and CEO of Xquadrant, which works to help elite leaders scale and create exponentially greater impact, enabling them to make a positive dent in the world without anxiety and frustration. Richard has advised business owners and C-level execs for over 25 years.Richard is all about strategy in business; helping leaders to achieve personally, professionally and for a greater good, ultimately leaving a lasting positive legacy. “If we have the opportunities, the resources, the skills, the ambition, the energy, - let's go and make a difference. You only live life once” Richard says. Richard is a firm believer that we should make the most of any opportunities we are given – not everyone will receive equal opportunity so you should make the most of whatever may arise. He tells the story of how he cared for his disabled sister, and how she became an inspiration and the motivation for him to achieve professionally. Richard discusses the three games of leadership: playing not to lose, playing to win, and playing to play. He highlights the need for leaders to be strategic and magnetic, inspiring their teams and creating a culture of collaboration. Medcalf also emphasises the importance of seeking feedback and continuously improving as a leader. He encourages leaders to do the opposite and challenge the status quo to drive positive change. Jeff and Richard discuss inspiration; how you can inspire your team and how you can become inspired yourself. You need to understand what moves YOU in order to be able to move others. Without being truly inspired yourself, you won't be able to inspire your team. Richard's book ‘Making TIME for Strategy' is out now. You can also listen to Richard's podcast ‘The Impact Multiplier CEO'. Hosted by Jeff DewingWatch the podcast on YouTube Discover Cloudfm GroupWebsite  |  Facebook  |  Twitter  |  LinkedIn

This week it was my pleasure to welcome Richard Medcalf to the show for a discussion about his book, Making Time for Strategy: How to Be Less Busy and More Successful. Richard describes himself as "what you get if you were to put a McKinsey consultant, a slightly unorthodox pastor and an entrepreneur into a blender". He is the founder of Xquadrant, which helps elite leaders reinvent their 'success formula' and multiply their impact. His personal clients include CEOs of billion-dollar corporations, successful serial entrepreneurs, and the founders of tech 'unicorns'.  Richard has advised the C-Suite for over 25 years. After a Masters at Oxford University, where he came top in his year, he joined a premier strategy consultancy and later became the youngest-ever Partner. He then spent 11 years at tech giant Cisco in an elite team reporting to the CEO. In this episode, we uncover the power of strategic leadership, time allocation, and the impact of energizing activities on productivity. Richard shares real client success stories and practical tactics to move beyond mere task management and into deep strategic thinking. In addition, Richard and I explore the pitfalls of being overwhelmed by daily tasks, the transformative power of taking time for rest and reflection, and the shift from task orientation to strategic planning. Richard offers listeners practical insights and actionable tactics to guide you towards more effective time management and lasting success. ________________________________________ Connect with Richard: Website Book Free Assessment & Resources LinkedIn Twitter ________________________________________ Connect with Erik: Sign Up For Our Newsletter LinkedIn  Facebook  Instagram and Threads ________________________________________ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this podcast episode, Dr. Jonathan H. Westover talks with Richard Medcalf about his book, Making TIME For Strategy. Richard Medcalf (https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardmedcalf/) describes himself as "what you get if you were to put a McKinsey consultant, a slightly unorthodox pastor and an entrepreneur into a blender". He is the founder of Xquadrant and a trusted advisor to exceptional CEOs and entrepreneurs, and their leadership teams. Check out all of the podcasts in the HCI Podcast Network! Check out the ⁠HCI Academy⁠: Courses, Micro-Credentials, and Certificates to Upskill and Reskill for the Future of Work! Check out the LinkedIn ⁠Alchemizing Human Capital⁠ Newsletter. Check out Dr. Westover's book, ⁠The Future Leader⁠. Check out Dr. Westover's book, ⁠'Bluer than Indigo' Leadership⁠. Check out Dr. Westover's book, ⁠The Alchemy of Truly Remarkable Leadership⁠. Check out the latest issue of the ⁠Human Capital Leadership magazine⁠. Each HCI Podcast episode (Program, ID No. 627454) has been approved for 0.50 HR (General) recertification credit hours toward aPHR™, aPHRi™, PHR®, PHRca®, SPHR®, GPHR®, PHRi™ and SPHRi™ recertification through HR Certification Institute® (HRCI®). Each HCI Podcast episode (Program ID: 24-DP529) has been approved for 0.50 HR (General) SHRM Professional Development Credits (PDCs) for SHRM-CP and SHRM-SCPHR recertification through SHRM, as part of the knowledge and competency programs related to the SHRM Body of Applied Skills and Knowledge™ (the SHRM BASK™). Human Capital Innovations has been pre-approved by the ATD Certification Institute to offer educational programs that can be used towards initial eligibility and recertification of the Certified Professional in Talent Development (CPTD) and Associate Professional in Talent Development (APTD) credentials. Each HCI Podcast episode qualifies for a maximum of 0.50 points.

In this "Throwback Thursday" HCI Podcast episode, Dr. Jonathan H. Westover talks with Richard Medcalf about marrying the disciplines of strategy and leadership in the service of our clients. Richard Medcalf (https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardmedcalf/) describes himself as "what you get if you were to put a McKinsey consultant, a slightly unorthodox pastor and an entrepreneur into a blender". Richard is an executive coach & leadership consultant to exceptional founders & CEOs and their leadership teams. His clients are elite performers who've already achieved incredible things, and still have the ambition to 10x their impact and influence and achieve something that seems impossible right now. After a Masters Degree at Oxford University, where he came top in his year, Richard started his career in a premier strategy consultancy where he rose to become the youngest-ever Partner. He then spent 11 years at tech giant Cisco, firstly elevating Cisco's relevance in the C-suite of its Fortune 100 customers before being selected for an elite team to catalyse strategic partnerships & new business models. Richard has advised Founders and C-level execs for 20 years, from Fortune 100 companies to high-growth tech firms. Keen to marry the disciplines of strategy and leadership in service of his clients, he qualified as a senior leadership consultant and executive coach before founding Xquadrant in 2017. Richard is bi-national English/French, lives near Paris, and is happily married and the proud father of two.  Further explore the topics discussed in this episode with the new HCIConsulting Chatbot: ⁠https://poe.com/HCIConsulting⁠. Check out the ⁠HCI Academy⁠: Courses, Micro-Credentials, and Certificates to Upskill and Reskill for the Future of Work! Check out the LinkedIn ⁠Alchemizing Human Capital⁠ Newsletter. Check out Dr. Westover's book, ⁠The Future Leader⁠. Check out Dr. Westover's book, ⁠'Bluer than Indigo' Leadership⁠. Check out Dr. Westover's book, ⁠The Alchemy of Truly Remarkable Leadership⁠. Check out the latest issue of the ⁠Human Capital Leadership magazine⁠. Each HCI Podcast episode (Program, ID No. 627454) has been approved for 0.50 HR (General) recertification credit hours toward aPHR™, aPHRi™, PHR®, PHRca®, SPHR®, GPHR®, PHRi™ and SPHRi™ recertification through HR Certification Institute® (HRCI®). Each HCI Podcast episode (Program ID: 24-DP529) has been approved for 0.50 HR (General) SHRM Professional Development Credits (PDCs) for SHRM-CP and SHRM-SCPHR recertification through SHRM, as part of the knowledge and competency programs related to the SHRM Body of Applied Skills and Knowledge™ (the SHRM BASK™). Human Capital Innovations has been pre-approved by the ATD Certification Institute to offer educational programs that can be used towards initial eligibility and recertification of the Certified Professional in Talent Development (CPTD) and Associate Professional in Talent Development (APTD) credentials. Each HCI Podcast episode qualifies for a maximum of 0.50 points.

In this "Throwback Thursday" HCI Podcast episode, Dr. Jonathan H. Westover talks with Richard Medcalf about marrying the disciplines of strategy and leadership in the service of our clients. Richard Medcalf (https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardmedcalf/) describes himself as "what you get if you were to put a McKinsey consultant, a slightly unorthodox pastor and an entrepreneur into a blender". Richard is an executive coach & leadership consultant to exceptional founders & CEOs and their leadership teams. His clients are elite performers who've already achieved incredible things, and still have the ambition to 10x their impact and influence and achieve something that seems impossible right now. After a Masters Degree at Oxford University, where he came top in his year, Richard started his career in a premier strategy consultancy where he rose to become the youngest-ever Partner. He then spent 11 years at tech giant Cisco, firstly elevating Cisco's relevance in the C-suite of its Fortune 100 customers before being selected for an elite team to catalyse strategic partnerships & new business models. Richard has advised Founders and C-level execs for 20 years, from Fortune 100 companies to high-growth tech firms. Keen to marry the disciplines of strategy and leadership in service of his clients, he qualified as a senior leadership consultant and executive coach before founding Xquadrant in 2017. Richard is bi-national English/French, lives near Paris, and is happily married and the proud father of two.  Further explore the topics discussed in this episode with the new HCIConsulting Chatbot: ⁠https://poe.com/HCIConsulting⁠. Check out the ⁠HCI Academy⁠: Courses, Micro-Credentials, and Certificates to Upskill and Reskill for the Future of Work! Check out the LinkedIn ⁠Alchemizing Human Capital⁠ Newsletter. Check out Dr. Westover's book, ⁠The Future Leader⁠. Check out Dr. Westover's book, ⁠'Bluer than Indigo' Leadership⁠. Check out Dr. Westover's book, ⁠The Alchemy of Truly Remarkable Leadership⁠. Check out the latest issue of the ⁠Human Capital Leadership magazine⁠. Each HCI Podcast episode (Program, ID No. 627454) has been approved for 0.50 HR (General) recertification credit hours toward aPHR™, aPHRi™, PHR®, PHRca®, SPHR®, GPHR®, PHRi™ and SPHRi™ recertification through HR Certification Institute® (HRCI®). Each HCI Podcast episode (Program ID: 24-DP529) has been approved for 0.50 HR (General) SHRM Professional Development Credits (PDCs) for SHRM-CP and SHRM-SCPHR recertification through SHRM, as part of the knowledge and competency programs related to the SHRM Body of Applied Skills and Knowledge™ (the SHRM BASK™). Human Capital Innovations has been pre-approved by the ATD Certification Institute to offer educational programs that can be used towards initial eligibility and recertification of the Certified Professional in Talent Development (CPTD) and Associate Professional in Talent Development (APTD) credentials. Each HCI Podcast episode qualifies for a maximum of 0.50 points. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why it was selected for "CBNation Architects": In this episode of the I AM CEO Podcast, host Gresham Harkless interviews Richard Medcalf, the founder of Xquadrant, a coaching company that provides strategic guidance to CEOs and entrepreneurs. Richard is also the author of the book "Making Time for Strategy," which offers practical tools to help leaders achieve breakthrough results. Richard describes himself as a blend of a McKinsey consultant, a slightly unorthodox pastor, and an entrepreneur. In his CEO story, he shares that his focus has been on coaching CEOs and executives to become more strategic. He emphasizes the importance of getting rid of operational tasks and creating space for strategic thinking. This realization led him to write his book, which explores counterintuitive truths that can transform leadership impact. The key business service provided by Xquadrant is coaching, and Richard highlights the importance of T.I.M.E. tactics in his book. This includes focusing on time workflow, renegotiating with those around you, examining mindset, and creating an environment that fosters breakthroughs. Richard's secret sauce lies in the clarity of thinking and driving that clarity into action to achieve desired results. His CEO hack is about finding the balance between structure and creativity, emphasizing the value of having a framework while allowing space for innovative thinking. One of Richard's CEO nuggets is strategic laziness, which involves identifying key activities that can have a significant impact on overall success. According to him, being a CEO means taking total ownership of the project and driving it forward. Listeners can find more information about Richard Medcalf and Xquadrant on their websites at xquadrant.com and makingtimeforstrategy.com. They can also connect with Richard on LinkedIn. Overall, this episode offers insights from Richard Medcalf, an author, and coach who helps his clients achieve strategic results through his company, Xquadrant. Listeners can gain valuable knowledge on strategic thinking, leadership impact, and practical tools to make time for strategy and achieve breakthrough results.   Check out our CEO Hack Buzz Newsletter--our premium newsletter with hacks and nuggets to level up your organization. Sign up HERE.  I AM CEO Handbook Volume 3 is HERE and it's FREE. Get your copy here: http://cbnation.co/iamceo3. Get the 100+ things that you can learn from 1600 business podcasts we recorded. Hear Gresh's story, learn the 16 business pillars from the podcast, find out about CBNation Architects and why you might be one and so much more. Did we mention it was FREE? Download it today!   Previous Episode: https://iamceo.co/2022/12/19/iam1589-author-and-coach-helps-his-clients-achieve-strategic-results/

In this week's pod, we were joined by Richard Medcalf to discuss making time for strategy.Richard Medcalf describes himself as "what you get if you were to put a McKinsey consultant, a slightly unorthodox pastor and an entrepreneur into a blender".He is the founder of Xquadrant and a trusted advisor to exceptional CEOs and entrepreneurs, and their leadership teams.The main topics we discussed on the podcast were as follows: Find your rocket fuel! Having a sense of purpose will help to drive you during your career Make investments to create a better future We live in a world of infinity – emails / books / communications. Try to beat with productivity Think about TIME: Tactics Influence Mindset Environment Check your personal values and mindset. What do you do that creates value for your stakeholders? Aim to create “strategic time”. Start with achievable and small blocks and see the benefit of the ability to focus on a particular project Making Time for Strategy: How to be less busy and more successful – Richard Medcalf: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Making-TIME-Strategy-less-successful/dp/1915036747/ XQuadrant - Discover your strategy score: https://xquadrant.aidaform.com/makingtime Here are links to some of the topics we discussed:Join us next time when we're joined by Rupert Taylor to discuss Swimming against the tide - next-generation PMO.For more information, blogs or to support our charities visit www.projectchatterpodcast.comIf you'd like to sponsor the podcast get in touch via our website.You can also leave us a voice message via our anchor page and let us know if there's something or someone specific that you would like on the podcast.Proudly sponsored by: InEight - https://ineight.com/Stay safe, be disruptive and have fun doing it!#ProjectManagement #PMO #ProjectControls #Leadership --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/project-chatter-podcast/message

Richard Medcalf reveals how to free up time for the strategic activities that will advance your career. — YOU'LL LEARN — 1) Why productivity won't solve busy-ness. 2) The crucial question that makes you more strategic. 3) The powerful reframe that slashes busywork. Subscribe or visit AwesomeAtYourJob.com/ep867 for clickable versions of the links below. — ABOUT RICHARD — Richard Medcalf describes himself as "what you get if you were to put a McKinsey consultant, a slightly unorthodox pastor and an entrepreneur into a blender". He is the founder of Xquadrant, which helps elite leaders reinvent their 'success formula' and multiply their impact. His personal clients include CEOs of billion-dollar corporations, successful serial entrepreneurs, and the founders of tech 'unicorns'. Richard has advised the C-Suite for over 25 years. After a Masters at Oxford University, where he came top in his year, he joined a premier strategy consultancy and later became the youngest-ever Partner. He then spent 11 years at tech giant Cisco in an elite team reporting to the CEO. Richard is bi-national English/French, lives near Paris, and is happily married and the proud father of two. He has an insatiable love for spicy food and the electric guitar. • Book: Making TIME for Strategy: How to be less busy and more successful • Strategy Score Test: XQuadrant.com/awesomeatyourjob • LinkedIn: Richard Medcalf — RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THE SHOW — • Book: The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan • Book: Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect by Will Guidara • Past episode: 080: Finding and Doing the One Thing with Jay Papasan • Past episode: 544: How to Build Exceptional Influence in a Noisy Digital Age with Richard Medcalf See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode, Richard Medcalf, founder of Xquadrant, introduces a new season of The Impact Multiplier CEO Podcast: Business as a Force for Good.

If you find yourself caught in the day-to-day demands wondering how do I find time for strategy that allows me to invest in myself, be more effective, or invest in building my business, you don't need a new productivity trick. The first step is to begin a deeper leadership journey and address four core factors – Tactics, Influence, Mindset, and Environment (T.I.M.E.). In this episode, Richard Medcalf gives you a roadmap to becoming a more strategic leader and offers a complete set of strategies to help you elevate your focus. Learn how to clarify your most important strategic activities, build a plan to quickly free up time for strategy, win over your key stakeholders, address the beliefs that are keeping you in busy work, and create a culture of focus across your entire team. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, I had a fantastic conversation with Richard Medcalf, the author of the book "Making Time for Strategy". He's a unique blend of a McKinsey consultant, an unorthodox pastor, and an entrepreneur, and he's the founder of X Quadrant. Richard is also a trusted advisor to exceptional CEOs and entrepreneurs, and their leadership teams. During our chat, we talked about his book, where we covered a lot of interesting topics. We started by exploring the idea of firefighting, and how it can prevent us from making time for strategy. We also delved into the phrasing we use when trying to free ourselves from obligations and the difference between obligations and commitments. It's a paradoxical situation that many of us can find ourselves in, and we had an enlightening discussion on how to navigate it. Richard's book is packed with essential insights and strategies that can help you make time for what's truly important in your life, whether that's personal or professional. We only scratched the surface during our conversation, but I encourage you to read the book for more in-depth advice. Overall, it was a great conversation, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I could have talked to Richard for hours, but we distilled the essential elements from the book for our listeners. However, don't just take my word for it; listen to the episode! Links Worth Exploring Connect with Richard: Website | Twitter | LinkedIn Buy Richard's book Making Time for Strategy Visit XQuadrant.com for more resources Related Conversation: The Bullet Journal Method with Ryder Carroll Related Blog Post: Yes Before No Thanks to all of the sponsors of this episode. You can find all of the sponsors you heard me mention on this episode on our Podcast Sponsors page. Want to support the podcast? Beyond checking out our sponsors, you can subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts. Click on any of the links below to make that happen. Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Stitcher You can also click on this link to paste the podcast feed into your podcast app of choice. Thanks again for listening to A Productive Conversation. See you later. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, I had a fantastic conversation with Richard Medcalf, the author of the book "Making Time for Strategy". He's a unique blend of a McKinsey consultant, an unorthodox pastor, and an entrepreneur, and he's the founder of X Quadrant. Richard is also a trusted advisor to exceptional CEOs and entrepreneurs, and their leadership teams.During our chat, we talked about his book, where we covered a lot of interesting topics. We started by exploring the idea of firefighting, and how it can prevent us from making time for strategy. We also delved into the phrasing we use when trying to free ourselves from obligations and the difference between obligations and commitments. It's a paradoxical situation that many of us can find ourselves in, and we had an enlightening discussion on how to navigate it.Richard's book is packed with essential insights and strategies that can help you make time for what's truly important in your life, whether that's personal or professional. We only scratched the surface during our conversation, but I encourage you to read the book for more in-depth advice.Overall, it was a great conversation, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I could have talked to Richard for hours, but we distilled the essential elements from the book for our listeners. However, don't just take my word for it; listen to the episode!Links Worth Exploring Connect with Richard: Website | Twitter | LinkedIn Buy Richard's book Making Time for Strategy Visit XQuadrant.com for more resources Related Conversation: The Bullet Journal Method with Ryder Carroll Related Blog Post: Yes Before No Thanks to all of the sponsors of this episode. You can find all of the sponsors you heard me mention on this episode on our Podcast Sponsors page.Want to support the podcast? Beyond checking out our sponsors, you can subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts. Click on any of the links below to make that happen.Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | StitcherYou can also click on this link to paste the podcast feed into your podcast app of choice.Thanks again for listening to A Productive Conversation. See you later.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on the Evolving Leader podcast, co-hosts Jean Gomes and Scott Allender talk to Richard Medcalf. Richard is the founder and CEO of Xquadrant, a consultancy that he set up in 2017 with a mission to help top leaders reinvent their success formula and multiply the impact that they have on their purpose, people and their profit. Richard also runs Rivendell, an international peer community of entrepreneurs and CEOs. His book ‘Making TIME for Strategy' was published in November 2022. 0.00 Introduction4.27 Can you start by telling us how you've come to be who you are?6.42 Who is your book aimed at and what is the problem you're solving for?8.40 In your book you talk about how you see rising demand, constant overload and seemingly no hope except possibly more of the same. Can you give us a sense of what you are seeing in this regard and how have those demands have changed over recent years?12.20 You talk about the power of strategic time as being the number one predictor of success as a leader, but the reality of immediate demands means that for many leaders this is out of their grasp. How do can they rethink this?16.38 Could you walk us through your solutions and specifically the TIME acronym that you use and how that works?21.28 In your experience working with leaders, how challenging is it for them to be honest about the time wasters vs the things that really add value? 23.26 So, the tactical move doesn't operate in isolation for the leader. Does it solve the problem or do they need to be thinking wider than this?25.23 Can you give us an example of a particularly challenging type of conversation that leaders need to have that they may be avoiding or finding difficult to have?28.08 From your perspective what are the specific mindset blocks that are of particular importance when making this work?32.50 When you talk to leaders about having to shift their mindset, the block is often a feeling of helplessness or powerlessness. How do you help people cope with what's going on inside them to deal with that shift in their thinking?34.58 Turning to the final part of the acronym, what's the environmental challenge? 36.20 You point out that incremental progress is no way to beat infinity. Can you talk about the bold moves necessary to make real impact?43.03 We've been talking about this from an individual perspective, but how does a team facing these challenges incorporate these?  47.20 Richard, I want you to inspire us. What can I do when I get some time to myself to start my journey along some of these ideas, and I'd like us to think about someone at the start of their career as well as the more mature leaders? The Evolving Leader is researched, written and presented by Jean Gomes and Scott Allender with production by Phil Kerby. It is an Outside production.REGISTER NOW forHOW TO BUILD YOUR MINDSET with Jean Gomes26 April 2023, 17:00 (GMT +1)

Richard Medcalf consults with C-level executives about leadership and strategy. The company he founded is Xquadrant. In this interview, he discusses how he learned about GTD, and his tools and practices. He also introduces thought-provoking principles and questions for leaders. He created a GTD-specific version of his Checklist for Challenging Times. You can listen to the entire conversation from June 2020 at GTD Connect®. -- This audio is one of many available at GTD Connect, a learning space and community hub for all things GTD. Join GTD practitioners from around the world in learning, sharing, and developing the skills for stress-free productivity. Sign up for a free guest pass Learn about membership options Knowing how to get the right things done is a key to success. It's easy to get distracted and overwhelmed. Stay focused and increase productivity with GTD Connect—a subscription-based online learning center from the David Allen Company. GTD Connect gives you access to a wealth of multimedia content designed to help you stay on track and deepen your awareness of principles you can also learn in GTD courses, coaching, and by reading the Getting Things Done book. You'll also get the support and encouragement of a thriving global community of people you won't find anywhere else. If you already know you'd like to join, click here to choose from monthly or annual options. If you'd like to try GTD Connect free for 14 days, read on for what's included and how to get your free trial. During your 14-day free trial, you will have access to: Recorded webinars with David Allen & the certified coaches and trainers on a wide range of productivity topics GTD Getting Started & Refresher Series to reinforce the fundamentals you may have learned in a GTD course, coaching, or book Extensive audio, video, and document library Slice of GTD Life series to see how others are making GTD stick David Allen's exclusive interviews with people in his network all over the world Lively members-only discussion forums sharing ideas, tips, and tricks Note: GTD Connect is designed to reinforce your learning, and we also recommend that you take a course, get individual coaching, or read the Getting Things Done book. Ready to start your free trial?

"Questions are people telling you what your value is to them" Richard Medcalf speaks with Jason Feifer, the editor in chief of Entrepreneur magazine. Jason is also a podcast host, book author, keynote speaker, startup advisor, and nonstop optimism machine. His goal is to help you become more resilient and adaptable in a world of constant change, and has recently released a new book, Build For Tomorrow.

"There are few things that build trust like consistency." In this episode, Richard Medcalf speaks with Dan Miller, the New York Times best-selling author of 48 Days To The Work You Love. Over 140,000 people have subscribed to his weekly newsletter, and his 48 Days Podcast consistently ranks in the top 1% of all podcasts. Dan's mission is to foster the process of imagining, dreaming and introspection, to help people find their calling and true path, and to translate that into meaningful, purposeful and profitable daily work.

Hear what good leaders should really be thinking about  Richard Medcalf describes himself as "what you get if you were to put a McKinsey consultant, a slightly unorthodox pastor and an entrepreneur into a blender.” In this podcast, you'll hear from an amazing thinker who has tackled strategic challenges in companies all over the world. In his new book, Making Time for Strategy, Richard speaks about the difficulties he has encountered working with high-powered leaders. Far too often, they find themselves focused on the wrong things---from how to respond to emails to how to get tasks completed on time. Instead, Richard preaches that a leader's mindset should be focused on the future, where the organization is going, and how everyone in that organization needs to be aligned around a core strategy to get it there. Listen and learn! Watch and listen to our conversation here Richard outlines four important ways you can refocus your time and energy to get where you want to go and find pleasure in the journey of getting there (TIME): Tactics Influence Mindset Environment About Richard Medcalf Richard founded xquadrant in 2017 with the mission of helping elite leaders reinvent their success formula and multiply their impact on their purpose, their people and their profit. He is bi-national (English and French), lives near Paris, and is also a licensed lay minister in the Anglican Church. You can connect with him on LinkedIn, Twitter and the xquadrant website. Ready to be a better leader? We recommend these for great learning: Blog: How To Be A Highly Effective Leader During Turbulent Times: The Five Things You Need To Know Podcast: Sara Canaday—Can You See The Gaps That Are Holding You Back From Being A Great Leader? Podcast: Kris Baird—Yes, You Can Teach A Leader How To Lead Additional resources for you My two award-winning books: Rethink: Smashing The Myths of Women in Businessand On the Brink: A Fresh Lens to Take Your Business to New Heights Our website: Simon Associates Management Consultants   Read the transcript of our podcast here Andi Simon: Welcome to On the Brink With Andi Simon. Hi, I'm Andi Simon. I'm your host and your guide. And my job is to help you get off the brink. I want you to see, feel and think in new ways, so that you can change. And if you come here and listen, you know that each time I bring you somebody new, it's because they've done something that really is transformative in some fashion. They're tackling a problem that my listeners, my audiences, my viewers are all tackling as well. And I'm so really honored today to have Richard Medcalf here from Paris. And it's a wonderful opportunity for us to share his new book, Making Time for Strategy, but also to share Richard. Let me give you a little bit of Richard's personality. He sends me an email, and he wants to be on my podcast. Why? "The first thing is because I'm a fan," he said. "I will thank you for the time and energy you invest in putting this out into the world." I have not had many of those emails, even though I have lots of emails from our listeners. But that was really a sweet opener. The second: he said he was sure that my audience, our audience, will find value in the topic, because many of our listeners will be running teams or businesses and hitting the ceiling of complexity, as daily operational demands suck all their time, leaving no space for strategic thinking. Now I'm a Blue Ocean Strategist. I work with lots and lots of companies who are seeking to create markets, not simply compete in them, which is Blue Ocean thinking. And they often get so tied up in making the plan, they forget they have to do something with it. And conversely, though, if they don't think about the plan, all their actions can take them nowhere, a very good point we're going to focus on. And Richard thinks I'm a good speaker, which we will see today, because I think he's a good speaker. He describes himself as what you get if you were to put a McKinsey consultant, a slightly unorthodox pastor, and an entrepreneur into a blender. So you have an idea of what we're going to talk about today. He's the founder of xquadrant, and a trusted adviser to exceptional CEOs and entrepreneurs and their leadership teams. I think you're going to enjoy him because he has advised all kinds of folks in all large and small companies. We're going to let you hear his story from his own perspective. It's much better than reading it. But he's binational. He's both English and French and lives near Paris, happily married and the proud father of two. He's also a licensed lay minister in the Anglican Church, and has an insatiable love for spicy food and the electric guitar. Is that enough for us to think of this mash up today? Richard Medcalf is joining me now. So happy to have you on today. Richard Medcalf: Yeah, thank you, Andi. Pleasure to be here. And thank you for the great intro. Andi Simon: Tell our listeners and our viewers who is Richard Medcalf, because your background is rich with experiences that have led you now into your own business. I liked what you discovered as you were wandering through. You have been very successful, whether it was Cisco or elsewhere, and who are you so that they can now understand why you're so focused on making time for strategy. Richard Medcalf: Yeah, thanks, Andi. Well, obviously strap yourself in if you've got a spare six hours, because talking about myself is my favorite topic. So here we go. I'll try to keep it brief. I better keep it brief. But so yeah, so I grew up in the UK. Started at Oxford University, went into strategy consulting, started at that point to move over to Paris. Five years later, I'm still here. I'm married to a French woman and have bilingual kids and everything else. So life doesn't always take you in ways that you expect. When I was at Bynum, in my strategy consulting company, I became the youngest ever partner. I'd been there about 10 years, and decided it was time to become a smaller fish in a bigger pond, rather than a big fish in a small pond. And Cisco was knocking at my door, and I thought it'd be interesting, you know, a huge tech company. Joining them, I did various roles. The last role was a small team set up by the CEO of Cisco and its chairman in order to kind of catalyze strategic relationships between Cisco and its key customers. I like to describe it as fulfilling rash commitments made by the chief exec when he was talking to big customers. And that was all great. And I enjoyed that. And it was quite prestigious in its own way and all the rest of it. But I got to a moment when I said, you know, Richard, what do you want as a legacy? What do you want to tell your great grandchildren in the future when you're 90 and they're on your knee, and they're asking you about your professional life, what you did in your job? And I realized that although I really enjoy and I still enjoy creating financial results for my clients, and back in the day, I was doing that a lot. I realized I didn't want to just talk about how I helped AT or whoever it was, increase the EBITDA margin by 1%. So I started to think, well, what do I really want? What are the real stories that I want to tell, you know, of my life and my professional life? And that's when I started to really deep dive into, what makes me different? What's my biggest gift? What's my passion, all that kind of stuff. And I started to realize that I went to work at this intersection of leadership, strategy and purpose, or to put it another way, helping people, great leaders. I suppose the way I now describe it, or they didn't describe it that way at the time, was, I want to help great leaders reinvent themselves to achieve breakthrough goals that change the world. So there's a few things in there, that personal transformation, and it's about making a positive impact in the world. So up to now, I've given you all the external facts that allowed me to build this business and my new business. You know, I work with amazing leaders, CEOs of billion dollar companies, some of the founders of scaleups, tech unicorns. One of my clients is an Olympic medalist and is now building a billion dollar business. Another of my clients was nominated as Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst and Young. These are amazing people. But they're already impressive, but they're looking to connect their impact or make it make a big difference. But let me take you back to my childhood. With me, my sister was born mentally handicapped, very seriously mentally handicapped. She passed away just a couple of months ago. And she made a huge impact on me. She was an amazing character, very determined, very joyful. But we had very different paths. You know, like she stayed at home, she needed 24 hour care, a whole care team. She couldn't be left alone. Basically, she was so needy. Andi Simon: Yes, but it sounds like it had a big impact on who you were. Richard Medcalf: And yeah, I've realized that recently. Yeah, I realized that recently. I mean, I had this high flying career, went to Oxford. I went to a high tier strategy consulting company. I went to Cisco. I started my business. I move countries, all this stuff. And she didn't do any of that. And so I have this real sense that when we have the gifts, the talents, the resources, the opportunities, we kind of owe it to the world to make it a better place and to make an impact. And yet I see so often, we end up in our comfort zone, scared of doing things because we're a bit worried about what we might lose if we were to dare to do something different. Even when we're playing a big game, we can be busy, but in our comfort zone. So impact is a huge word for me because of that impact. Andi Simon: It's interesting, I read an article this morning about purpose. And don't worry about purpose unless you have an impact. Purpose-driven companies don't necessarily do anything, they just have a purpose, and actually I worked with one about a month ago. But your point about having impact is important for our listeners, because you are coming to that epiphany, that aha moment, where more of the same of what you're doing, even if it's financially lucrative, or even if it's for good companies, isn't personally purposeful. And that becomes a real interesting driver for you of what your calling is and why it's so important that you choose where you go, and you do it in a very intentional fashion, so that you have your own legacy and can answer to those kids and grandkids. You know why I've done what I've done in this life? Because it has made other lives better. So tell us from your company perspective, as well as from the book. You know, my segue is, how are you doing that? Richard Medcalf: How am I making that impact? Well, I think concretely, what I do, we're one-on-one with high-end leaders, CEOs or founders, entrepreneurs, sometimes C-suite leaders with their teams. I have a couple of programs that I run with perhaps more junior leaders. And I'm always helping them think about how they don't need to challenge my thinking. Where do I need to shift who I'm being as a leader in order to achieve things which right now are outside my zone as a reference? And, you know, what is that? What's really important? I think it's the fundamental question of what's really important in terms of what I want to accomplish, what's really important in terms of where I put my attention and my focus? What's really important in terms of where I build my skills? I think I described myself as being strategically lazy. I've always been a strategist. So my life, you know, it's why I got to the top, first at Oxford University, because I just knew where to put the focus, and what was important, what wasn't so important when I was studying. And I think it's strategic laziness. I just want to get a big result by focusing my efforts on the key areas. So I think I bring that to all these different parts of leadership, from ambition to goal setting to habit formation to dealing with people. That's kind of, I guess, the fundamental part. But what I find is that in all those conversations, whenever I sat down with a new leader, and we were looking at how you're going to multiply your impact, how you're going to, really just in the exponential, how you're going to break through, the first conversation we would always have, and he was like, "Yeah, I'd love to do that Richard. But right now, to be honest, I'm just so overloaded. I've got so much on my plate. You know, where do I go? Where do I go from here? And how do I even make time for all this exciting stuff?" I know, it's possible for me because that really was the seed of the book that I've now written. Andi Simon: But it's an interesting reflection. I am an anthropologist, and you're an observer. And as you're talking, I'm thinking about you meeting with your clients and listening to their stories, because we're story creators. And the story was a catalyst to change your own story in your mind. And I often preach that because telling stories isn't incidental, it doesn't stay outside of the other person. And as you're talking and sharing your story, our listeners' stories are also changing. But what's important is, as you're coaching your clients and they're sharing their sense of pain, success has now turned into, "I no longer have a vision, I no longer can see where we're going. I'm not even quite sure how it's all aligned with a strategy." You had an epiphany, a moment, which said, Wow, there's something here beyond simply helping them personally transform it that could be instrumental for them to get back to being the big leaders who are supposed to be visionaries. And they're not supposed to be worried about managing the tactical details. They're supposed to be leading people into some particular direction. So once you had this epiphany, then the book came out of it. Richard Medcalf: The first thing I want to just clarify is, for me, strategy is really a shorthand for strategic activity. So as a top leader, we might lead literally focusing on corporate strategy. But no matter where we are in the organization, we always need to focus on what is the most strategic, what's going to move the needle, what's going to have the biggest leverage. And that's really, when I talk about strategy, I mean that. So for somebody, that literally is: "I need to think about the vision and strategy for my company." But then I need to just step back and think about how am I going to maximize the impact for my business unit, or my department or my team or myself? So, yes, I think the book came out not necessarily immediately, but I started to go, "I've got stories here." I realized that a lot of people think that what they need is a time management book, a productivity tip that you think about how to maximize, filter their emails better or something. What I realized was that no, the breakthorughs my clients had were in these deep conversations. They weren't just in the area of tactics, which can be important, but it's not everything. So with the book, I wanted to really bring, if you like a transformation perspective, to this question of how do I free myself up for this? So because I realized that was what my clients were dealing with, they knew that theory about, you know, working on the important things, even if they're not urgent, and this kind of stuff, they knew all that. But what was really getting in their way. And when I realized this, I came to a few key areas I wanted to share. I tested it with those leaders. I tested it with a couple of group programs that I ran with multiple leaders from different companies in and then I realized, yeah, there's a book in this. It's actually quite easy to write because they've got the experience. Andi Simon: Pause for a second, Richard, because what you're saying is, while they didn't need time management, the title of your book is Making Time for Strategy. And so I just want to make sure that the listener understands that it isn't simply reorganizing your to-do list or your calendar for the day, it's a different way of thinking about what is important, and you're seeing, also it's not just for the senior leadership teams. This should be on every person in that organization's thinking about what it is that matters. So I can also not do things that are off-strategy and are done the way we've always done it, but don't need to be done anymore. Am I hearing you correctly? Richard Medcalf: Yeah, that's right. I mean, the way I see it, we live in a world of infinity. There is infinite stuff available to us for the first time ever. We've got infinite messages in our inbox, IM messaging platforms, infinite social media opportunities to converse and connect with people, infinite content to consume, to stream, to read, to whatever. It's just like, the more we look at, the more recommendations we get, and we have more to look at. So it's never ending. And so there's so many opportunities for every leader. It's infinity. And so we can't beat infinity with productivity. Most people, they hit the accelerator, they try to go faster and faster. And they find within hours in the day, they've hit the ceiling of complexity, as it can be called. Where do we go from here? And what I found is, we need to level up. We need to change gear, we can't change gear when one foot's on the accelerator. We have to start to invest our time, rather than investing more in your business and you're making like zero profit. You've got to invest in the future. You can't make things better, probably you're going to have your costs go up over time and you're going to get a business. Most leaders are running their life like that business. They're using their time. Every day is going and they've not got any margin available to invest in the breakthrough activities to invest in the future. And so they're just running along on a hamster wheel. Andi Simon: So I'm curious, what did you advise in your book Making Time for Strategy to help them get off that hamster wheel, reassess, and now invest in time? And I love your comments. You can't touch infinity with productivity. And I have a hunch you have a bunch of things that I want to make sure that we have time to discuss with our listeners because I think there's something of great value for them. And I think your discovery is very powerful. Please share. Richard Medcalf: So in the book, I talked quite a bit to start with about what you want to put your time on. It's really important. So I like to say, you can't free yourself up from things, you've got to free yourself up for something. What if you've actually got a spare minute or spare hour? What do you want to put your time on? What's going to make a breakthrough? So I spend a bit of time talking about that. And for me, people get clear on that. But in terms of how much we actually get into that freeing ourselves up, there's four strategies to use. And they actually spell the word TIME, which I was very happy about when I noticed that. So there's TACTICS. We do need a plan to get back into profitability. If you'd like more time, we do need a plan to go get rid of things which are not serving us and to stay at that level. So there is a tactical issue. The issue is that most people have over rotated on tactics, and they haven't thought about the other parts. But if we're actually finding diaries too full, we need to deal tactically with it. Then I is for INFLUENCE. I like to say, if you want to go on a diet or exercise, the people that are going to get in the way are your own family. Other people are going to want the chocolate cake under your nose, because they're used to dealing with you in a certain way. And when you're trying to change who you are and what you focus on, it impacts them. So in a business situation, you can make your plan or tactical plan for what you want to do and meetings you don't want to be in anymore and projects you don't want to do anymore. But you've got to sell that internally, but tell your boss that "I don't want to be in that. It's not helpful for me to be in that meeting anymore." But you've got a colleague saying, "I don't want this stuff coming from your department into my department because it's not what we should be focusing on." You've got to sell it to your team. "I need you to deal with things in a different way and stop involving me in the details." So influence is a really key part. That's what I call the Leadership Challenge. How are we actually leading other people so that we can take that higher ground? Then M is for MINDSET. Mindset is really important. That defines the bounds of what is necessary, possible, desirable in our lives. If we don't, if we don't have a good mindset, a broad enough mindset, well, we believe that we haven't got any choices in this matter. So I'll give you an example of one of my clients. I was helping him drive some transformational projects for a large company. He was in the C-suite of a several-billion-dollar company. And he was driving through internal transformation projects. I was helping him with that as he was onboarding into the C-suite. One day he comes to me and says, "Richard, I need some tips. I'm spending too much time on my email." So I joke and say, "Well, you pay me too much money if you want me to go and go through those, but tell me more." He explains, "Well, you know, I don't want to be the guy who's untrustworthy, unreliable or not a team player, who people are waiting on to reply to them, that you're stuck on projects." Andi Simon: So it's not alone. And it's a common recurring theme. My clients say, "I have to manage my email." But what did you tell him? Richard Medcalf: So he'll say, "Yeah, so that's why I have to regularly go into my inbox and help people." So I was like, "Okay, I can't help you." "You can't help me?" "Well, whatever I tell you about spending more time on these important projects, you're not going to do it because you want to be a reliable, trustworthy team player. And if I tell you not to do that, you're not going to do it. It's against your values. And I totally understand." "So, okay, well, what do I do?" "Tell me about your CEO. What does he want us to do?" "Oh, these transformational projects are going to make a big difference." "Okay. Where is your board? That, you know, makes a big impact on the bottom line." "They really want these big projects to happen." "Okay, what about your customers?" "If they were to know about it, they'd really want this internal transformation because it's going to free up the team to work on their projects." "Okay. What about the team itself?" "Oh, yeah. Well, they're desperate for more modern work experience." "Okay, so you're telling me that all these people want you to focus on these transformational projects?" "Yeah, that's right." "Okay. Well, I put it to you that that's what you're paid the big bucks for, and that when you're in your inbox, you're doing the easy stuff. You're actually being unreliable, untrustworthy, and not a team player. When you're doing the big stuff, then you're being the reliable trustworthy team player that you've been." Andi Simon: He really had to change his mindset, didn't he? Richard Medcalf: So in that one conversation, he got it and it was the aha moment. He didn't need any other tips from me because he had shifted his identity in the way he saw things. And so for all of us, we have places in our mind which are holding us back. And that's the mindset challenge. And actually, before that, let me pause. You don't have to do these in order, actually, in the book, and you can do it even before buying the book. I have an assessment that allows you to actually identify each of these areas. What's your score? What's your total score? What's your score on each category? And therefore, where's your weak spot? Where should you focus first? Because perhaps there's no point doing the tactics if your mindset is getting in the way. Or, you know, if actually you've got the plan, but you haven't got enough influence, then you need to start there. So you can read the book, but not only... Andi Simon: I'm sure you heard a little pause in our conversation. Richard in Paris froze for a moment. So we're going to pick up the conversation here, because we're down to the E. And the E is an important part of TIME. If in case you haven't noticed, it ends it but it also creates a setting for which everything else is taking place. Richard, please share with us what E stands for. Richard Medcalf: The final part of the type acronym is E for ENVIRONMENT. Environment is important because I wanted this to be a book for leaders. And as a leader, we have a responsibility to make time for our own strategy, our own focus, but also we need to create an environment where our team can thrive, where our team can focus on what's important as well. And that's our whole organization. So many organizations, they get caught up in busy work with too many priorities, mindlessly doing what the boss said, without thinking about "Why all this stuff?" And the question for the environment challenge is, how do I scale this into my team? How do I actually create a culture where, when I have something to delegate, my team is able to receive it because they've got TIME. Or if I've got a new project that I wanted to deliver because I've been thinking strategically, that we have capacity in the organization to take it on. And so for me, that's a really important part. We often focus on our own personal productivity. But in the book, I wanted to focus more on how do I go about changing the culture of my team in my organization, on this topic as well. Andi Simon: Do you have a client situation you can describe that might illustrate these four points and make them come alive a little bit? I can see them because I'm working with them. I hope my audience can as well. Anything you might share? Richard Medcalf: Yeah, so often I find that the breakthrough is on an individual basis for one of these points. So you don't necessarily need them all at the same time to get your breakthrough. That's why I said at the start of the book, you can take an assessment to find out which area you should focus on first. But I'll give you some examples. I've talked about mindset already, the fact that it's one conversation. Let's say around influence, it's quite a key one. Now, often one thing about influence is around not setting the boundaries with people. So often what happens is, we take on things from people and we haven't actually created an agreement with them. So yeah, I've had several clients who've realized, as we've talked about influence, that actually they have not had a real conversation with their own team about what do I expect from you in our relationship? When should you bring a problem to me? And how would you know where you need my support? And how do I want you to bring it to me? So many times, team members seem like leaders and feel they're being Sherlock Holmes, trying to diagnose the problems that their team brings to them because their team just says, "Hey, can we talk about x. I've got a problem with x." So in the book, for example, it's been one of the tactics which works really well, is the thing called SCARS. It's a five step acronym. It's a way we can bring a subject to a manager in a way that the manager can then really deal with. So, Situation: what are we talking about here? Context: what's the background I need to know? Analysis: what have I actually done to examine the different options available? Recommendation: what's the one or two options that you'd want to put forward on the table at this point that's memorable, and then Stakeholders is the last one, which is, don't use me as your manager to have to pull rank. Have you spoken to the other people who might be affected by this decision? Do they agree? So often, many team members come to us wanting us to make a decision so that they can then pull rank and say, "The boss said we're doing it this way." So the Stakeholders are actually key parts of SCARS. The S is quite important to make sure that they're actually managing the stakeholder environment, not just putting that back on it. The point is, when you've got this, when you've got those points, your team starts to come to you with what I call fully formed requests. But they actually know, "Hey, boss, I want to talk to you about the new, unknown Austrian office that we want to open. There are three options, ABC, these are the pros and cons." That's the analysis. The recommendation is: given all that, I think we should go for the city center office, because ABC, if that's too expensive for our budget, I'd recommend we go for an office by the airport, because of X Y, Z. And we explain that and then stakeholders: by the way, I've talked to the country manager, and he is happy with any of those options. And we've got something we can work with. Andi Simon: I am fascinated by your insights into how to change people so that they can be more effective, thinking beyond the immediate tactical thing, and how do I get this done. They can do it in a way which shifts their minds, their mindset, so they can see a bigger picture and a better way, changing that culture and culture. As an anthropologist, cultural change is one of the most challenging things, but one person at a time is extremely effective. We're getting to the point where we need to wrap up, as much as I would love to keep going on. But you know, as you said, you could talk all day. I have no doubt that you have great wisdom to share. Share with us two or three things you don't want our listeners to forget. And then we'll talk about where they can reach you and how they can get the book.  Richard Medcalf: Sure. So I think the first thing to realize is that the number one key performance indicator governing your future success as a leader is strategic time. I view investing in the future to make the future better. It's the difference between leaders who plateau and stagnate and find it hard to progress, and leaders where every year seems to bring new opportunities. It's that investing in the future that's so important and many leaders said they're running on empty. They hardly have any time in the week to work on those game changing projects, so it really matters. Second thing I want you to remember is that it's not just a productivity challenge.All these four areas: tactics, environment, mindset, and environment are really important. Work on the one that's most important for you. Go and take the test, if you want, on my website; it will help you. But, find out which one is important and really focus on that. Deal with the limiting factor and everything else will become a lot easier. And thirdly, always get really clear on what that breakthrough project would be. If you've got three minutes, just put a timer on your phone and brainstorm. Just write down questions. If I could answer some questions, if I had time to think and time to work, what would those powerful questions be? That would be a game changer for me. So you might write down, How can I get the best out of so-and-so on my team? How is artificial intelligence going to change my industry or change my workflows in the next three years? You know, how can I be more influential with a CEO? What new networks? Do I need to become part of it? Whatever it is, start to brainstorm interesting questions. When you do that, I guarantee after three or four minutes of writing ideas down, you'll suddenly go, Oh, there is a new level available to me. There is a new level that I could be involved with if I wasn't so stuck in the day-to-day. Andi Simon: Richard, I love our conversation. I have all kinds of thoughts, but where can they reach you and get your book? Richard Medcalf: So the book is available on Amazon. It's called Making Time for Strategy: How to be Less Busy and More Successful. And if you can also go to makingtimeforstrategy.com. Find out details about the book there. If you're interested, I put some resources specifically for listeners of the podcast at my company website, which is xquadrant.com/onthebrink. And there'll be a link to the assessment I mentioned, a link to the book, and a few other resources as well. That could be the best place to start. Andi Simon: Good, good. And we'll certainly have it up here. And we'll be promoting it as well. I want to make sure the listener understands a couple of things that I was struck by in Richard's conversation. Remember that humans are really futurists. And the only way you can live today is to see where we're going tomorrow, what's the future and the future you don't really know so you create and craft an illusion story about it. And now the interesting part for you, as a CEO or member of a C-suite or a manager in your organization, is to help the organization see where it's going, for its customers, its stakeholders, its board, whoever else you're really concerned about. But don't do it by just simply looking at that email list that comes in, or the immediacy of something you need to change. And humans hate change since that amygdala of yours will hijack the new, which is why I bring people like Richard here to talk to you because your brain hates him already. And we are going to love what it can teach you about time and how to invest in it. Because infinity can only be really captured and used well with not productivity, but with reframing it. The changes are here. Now if you haven't read Bernard Marr's book Future Skills, the skills for looking at data, AI, all types of things that are really right in front of us, please don't wait. But I do think making time for strategy can help you prepare yourself emotionally as well as intelligently for intentional transformation. All the time. Somebody once said the future is all around us. It's just not widely distributed. And I love that. I also know that the future is really here. It's today. And now we have to go push our way out. Richard, thank you for joining me today. It's been a pleasure. Now for all of our listeners, thank you for your ideas. Send your emails to info@Andisimon.com and our website is www.simonassociates.net where we talk about all the stuff we have for you there to help you see, feel and think in new ways. My two books are both on Amazon: Rethink: Smashing The Myths of Women in Business and On the Brink: A Fresh Lens to Take Your Business to New Heights. I'm here to help you see, feel and think in new ways. That's what I love to do. My third book coming out in September 2023 is called Women Mean Business. You can't quite get it yet, but I promise to keep you as you subscribe to our podcast in the loop and let you know when it's available. It's going to be a cool book with 101 women telling you their wisdom so that you can soar. On that note, I'm going to say goodbye. Have a wonderful day Richard. Enjoy Paris.

In this episode of the Remote CEO Show, I had the pleasure to interview Richard Medcalf. Richard Medcalf describes himself as "what you get if you were to put a McKinsey consultant, a slightly unorthodox pastor, and an entrepreneur into a blender".He is the founder of Xquadrant and a trusted advisor to exceptional CEOs and entrepreneurs, and their leadership teams.

Richard Medcalf: Making Time for Strategy Richard Medcalf is an advisor to some of the world's most accomplished CEOs. Today he reveals the secrets to becoming a more strategic leader, and offers a complete set of strategies to help you elevate your focus. Discover how to begin a deeper leadership journey to address four core factors – Tactics, Influence, Mindset and Environment (T.I.M.E.). Welcome to the Conscious Millionaire Show for entrepreneurs, who want to achieve high sales and positively impact humanity! Join host, JV Crum III, as he goes inside the minds of conscious guests such as Millionaire Entrepreneurs and World-Class Business Experts. Like this Podcast? Get every episode delivered to you free!  Subscribe in iTunes Download Your Free Money-Making Gift Now... "Born to Make Millions" Hypnotic Audio - Click Here Now! Please help spread the word. Subscribing and leaving a review helps others find our podcast. Thanks so much! Inc Magazine "Top 13 Business Podcasts." Conscious Millionaire Network has over 3,5000 episodes that have been heard by over 100 million in 190 countries. Join us as a regular listener to get money-making and impact secrets on how you can grow your business and make a massive difference for humanity faster!

Richard Medcalf: Making Time for Strategy Richard Medcalf is an advisor to some of the world's most accomplished CEOs. Today he reveals the secrets to becoming a more strategic leader, and offers a complete set of strategies to help you elevate your focus. Discover how to begin a deeper leadership journey to address four core factors – Tactics, Influence, Mindset and Environment (T.I.M.E.). Welcome to the Conscious Millionaire Show for entrepreneurs, who want to achieve high sales and positively impact humanity! Join host, JV Crum III, as he goes inside the minds of conscious guests such as Millionaire Entrepreneurs and World-Class Business Experts. Like this Podcast? Get every episode delivered to you free!  Subscribe in iTunes Download Your Free Money-Making Gift Now... "Born to Make Millions" Hypnotic Audio - Click Here Now! Please help spread the word. Subscribing and leaving a review helps others find our podcast. Thanks so much! Inc Magazine "Top 13 Business Podcasts." Conscious Millionaire Network has over 3,5000 episodes that have been heard by over 100 million in 190 countries. Join us as a regular listener to get money-making and impact secrets on how you can grow your business and make a massive difference for humanity faster!

You know you need time to think and to plan, you know you have a very important future-focused task to work on in the next 6 months, and you probably are so busy you have no time to do what matters for long term success. Tune in for fabulous tactics and advice on how to change that pattern for yourself for good.

You know you need time to think and to plan, you know you have a very important future-focused task to work on in the next 6 months, and you probably are so busy you have no time to do what matters for long term success. Tune in for fabulous tactics and advice on how to change that pattern for yourself for good.

Our guest in this episode is Richard Medcalf, executive coach & leadership consultant to exceptional founders & CEOs and their leadership teams. He's the founder of XQuadrant and host of the Impact Multiplier CEO Podcast.His clients are elite performers who've already achieved incredible things, and still have the ambition to 10x their impact and influence and achieve something that seems impossible right now. That can involve 1:1 coaching, taking the leadership team to its next level, or scaling high-performance culture throughout the business.Richard previously appeared on InnovaBuzz Ep 480, and has since written a new book "Making TIME for Strategy: How to be less busy and more successful"In our conversation on this episode, Richard talked to me about:Identifying the shift we can make in our mindset to multiply our impact;How strategic time is the key indicator of our success and how to make time for strategic thinking;Creating breakthroughs via creativity.Listen to the podcast to find out more.

Your future success as a leader depends on your ability to extract yourself from operational minutiae and make time for strategic activity. If you're having trouble getting out of the weeds, you don't need a new productivity trick. You need to begin a deeper leadership journey to address four core factors – Tactics, Influence, Mindset and Environment (T.I.M.E.). Richard Medcalf, an advisor to some of the world's most accomplished CEOs, reveals the secrets to becoming a more strategic leader, and offers a complete set of strategies to help you elevate your focus. Bio: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NSVnvh1eA9-YC7B_0AxhuCv1w0DacCo0KbR1SPXiuOk/edit?usp=sharing Social Media Links: Book website: http://makingtimeforstrategy.com/ Xquadrant website: https://xquadrant.com/ Richard's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardmedcalf/ Richard's Podcast: https://xquadrant.com/podcast/ Resource for Breakfast Leadership listeners:  https://BreakfastLeadership.com/Medcalf  

"Don't confuse my bonhomie with weakness!" We're continuing our season looking at the insights from some of the world's fastest-growing businesses, as measured by the Financial Times in this years FT1000 ranking. In this episode, Xquadrant's founder Richard Medcalf speaks with Darren Comber, the CEO of Scott Brownrigg, an architectural design firm that has repeatedly been listed as one of the top 1000 Companies to Inspire Europe by the London Stock Exchange Group.

"Busyness is a form of laziness." We're continuing this season looking at the insights from some of the world's fastest-growing businesses, as measured by the Financial Times in this years FT1000 ranking. In this episode, Xquadrant's founder Richard Medcalf speaks with Don Wenner, founder and CEO of DLP Capital, which has experienced 300-600% annual growth over a three year period for 17 straight years.

Richard Medcalf describes himself as "what you get if you were to put a McKinsey consultant, a slightly unorthodox pastor and an entrepreneur into a blender". He is the founder of Xquadrant and a trusted advisor to exceptional CEOs and entrepreneurs, and their leadership teams. His new book, Making Time for Strategy, will radically change how you think about your path to leadership impact, and give you practical tools to move you away from incremental progress and closer to breakthrough results. Website: https://xquadrant.com , makingtimeforstrategy.com LinkedIn: richardmedcalf Podcast: xquadrant.com/podcast

"You can't make time for strategy without having some bold conversations." In this season, Davina Stanley speaks with Xquadrant's founder, Richard Medcalf, about his new book, Making Time For Strategy. Today we dive into the Influence Challenge, which is an absolutely essential topic to address if you want your more strategic focus to be accepted and supported by your stakeholders.

"It won't get quieter next quarter!" In this season, Davina Stanley speaks with Xquadrant's founder, Richard Medcalf, about his new book, Making Time For Strategy. Today we dive into the Tactical Challenge, the very first issue to address if you are to elevate your attention as a leader.

This week in the Marketing Studio, our host Ian Truscott chats with Jeff Clark our resident Rockstar CMO strategic advisor and former Research Director at SiriusDecisions/Forrester, about bringing ARTE (Awareness, Revenue, Trust and Enablement) to campaigns, following on from their previous conversations about personas. Richard Medcalf, the founder of Xquadrant, an executive coach and leadership consultant, returns to the show, going backstage with Ian to discuss his new book Making Time for Strategy and discuss the four key success factors that Richard has uncovered in his work with exceptional founders and CEOs and their teams - Tactics, Influence, Mindset, Environment (T.I.M.E.). Finally, we wind down the week in the Rockstar CMO virtual bar and get transported away with Robert Rose, Chief Trouble Maker at The Content Advisory, who shares a thought about differentiation, and how to find your purple ocean. Please get in touch if you have any thoughts or suggestions on the topics we discuss. Enjoy! — The Links  (if you can't see them, please stop by https://rockstarcmo.com) The people: Ian Truscott on LinkedIn and Twitter Jeff Clark on LinkedIn and Twitter Richard Metcalf on LinkedIn, Twitter Robert Rose on Twitter and LinkedIn As mentioned in this week's episode: Richard's company: Xquadrant, and his book: Making Time for Strategy Experience Advisors Mastodon  The Content Advisory Blog Rockstar CMO: Rockstar CMO on the web, Twitter, and LinkedIn Previous episodes and all show notes: Rockstar CMO FM Track List: Piano Music is by Johnny Easton, shared under a creative commons license We'll be right back by Stienski & Mass Media – on YouTube Paint Me by the Ohio Players on Spotify Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In episode 72, Coffey kicks off a year-end series of conversations on New Year's resolutions for people leaders. This week, he talks with Richard Medcalf about making time for strategic thinking throughout 2023.They discuss the difference between tactics and strategy; the challenges leaders face in setting aside time to think about strategy; Richard's #1 key performance indicator for leaders; Richard's simplified definition of strategy; the importance of “the project no one is asking for”; and how to address the four issues leaders face in making time for strategy: tactics, influence, mindset, and environment.Good Morning, HR is brought to you by Imperative—premium background checks with fast and friendly service. For more information about our commitment to quality and excellent customer service, visit us at https://imperativeinfo.com. If you are an HRCI or SHRM-certified professional, this episode of Good Morning, HR has been pre-approved for three-quarters of a recertification credit. To obtain the recertification information for this episode, visit https://goodmorninghr.com. About our Guest:Richard Medcalf describes himself as "what you get if you were to put a McKinsey consultant, a slightly unorthodox pastor and an entrepreneur into a blender". He is the founder of Xquadrant and a trusted advisor to exceptional CEOs and entrepreneurs, and their leadership teams.Information about his latest book, Making Time for Strategy, can be found at https://MakingTimeForStrategy.com. Richard Medcalf can be reached at https://xquadrant.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardmedcalf About Mike Coffey:Mike Coffey is an entrepreneur, human resources professional, licensed private investigator, and HR consultant.In 1999, he founded Imperative, a background investigations firm helping risk-averse companies make well-informed decisions about the people they involve in their business.Today, Imperative serves hundreds of businesses across the US and, through its PFC Caregiver & Household Screening brand, many more private estates, family offices, and personal service agencies.Mike has been recognized as an Entrepreneur of Excellence and has twice been named HR Professional of the Year. Additionally, Imperative is included in the prestigious Best Places to Work in Texas list and has been named the Texas Association of Business' small business of the year.Mike is a member of the Fort Worth chapter of the Entrepreneurs' Organization and volunteers with the SHRM Texas State Council.Mike maintains his certification as a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) through the HR Certification Institute. He is also a SHRM Senior Certified Professional (SHRM-SCP).Mike lives in Fort Worth with his very patient wife. He practices yoga and maintains a keto diet, about both of which he will gladly tell you way more than you want to know.Learning Objectives:  Define strategic thinking. Address the four issues leaders face in making time for strategy. Effectively plan strategic-thinking sessions.

"It's actually impossible to free yourself up from operations!" In this season, Davina Stanley speaks with Xquadrant's founder, Richard Medcalf, about his new book, Making Time For Strategy. Today we figure out what your most strategic issues are, and highlight the hidden trap that keeps most leaders stuck in the weeds.

"Strategic time is your #1 predictor of future success." In this season, Davina Stanley speaks with Xquadrant's founder, Richard Medcalf, about his new book, Making Time For Strategy. Today we explore why Richard wrote the book, understand how even top leaders struggle with overwork and tunnel vision, and look at why conventional approaches to time management don't work in today's connected age.

"I was very scared of scaling." We're continuing our new season looking at the insights from some of the world's fastest-growing businesses. In this episode, Xquadrant's founder Richard Medcalf speaks with Chris Lee, the founder and CEO of Solgen Power. Founded in 2017, Solgen was recently recognised by Financial Times as the 6th fastest growing privately held company in the USA, now employing over 1000 team members in 18 locations.

This podcast is for CEOs - and those who think like CEOs... As a CEO, you've demonstrated your ability to solve complex problems and achieve extraordinary results - you have skills, resources and experience. But you know you have the potential for even greater impact and a more satisfying legacy. What will it take to multiply your positive impact - in the business, for our people, and in the world at large? In this episode Richard Medcalf, Leadership Strategist and Founder of Xquadrant chats to Richard Rankin who shares his strategy and leadership thoughts as well as some of his experiences since being CEO at H&H Group plc.

"I value trust a lot more than control." We're continuing our season "Mission-Driven CEOs". Top Chief Execs talk about the impact they want to make beyond just the financials - in terms of the company mission and their personal leadership legacy - and how they put that into practice on a daily basis.  In this episode Richard Medcalf speaks with Adrian Weiler, who was CEO for over 35 years at Inform, an international software business focused on AI-based decision-making. Adrian has now handed over the reins of that business, and we spoke to one of his successors, Matthias Berlit, on a previous episode of the podcast. Instead, Adrian is focusing on Smart Freight Centre, an NGO in the field of climate repair.

"Be comfortable with vulnerability" We're continuing our season "Mission-Driven CEOs". Top Chief Execs talk about the impact they want to make beyond just the financials - in terms of the company mission and their personal leadership legacy - and how they put that into practice on a daily basis.  Today Joshua Lachs speaks with Richard Medcalf. Joshua is CEO of Moneythink, a not-for-profit organisation on a mission to help students understand their financial options and the impact of their choices so they can have the best chance for college and career success.

Going from incremental growth to exponential growth requires radical changes in your business—from your mindset and focus to your team and how your company operates. If you're a CEO who feels 'stuck' in incremental growth but wants more, you'll want to listen to this episode of Sales Talk for CEOs Expert Series with  Richard Medcalf. Richard is the CEO of Xquadrant, a company that works with high-achieving founders, CEOs, and executives to reinvent their success formula and push their companies to the next level. He knows what it takes to achieve exponential growth and shares his expert advice today. Believe me when I say that all CEOs who want to scale their growth need to understand the ideas discussed in this episode.Our conversation focuses on what CEOs need to do to get to the next level where they can work ON their business instead of just IN their business. We discuss 4 limiting factors that could be holding you back from exponential growth and the crucial role of mindset. We also explore how delegation frees up your time and what you can do to get the right team in place. In the end, the challenge for most CEOs is to envision a very different future (one of exponential growth) versus living in the past (of incremental growth). Richard shares tips on this and what you need to have in place for exponential growth to happen. So, do you want to achieve exponential growth in your company? Then listen in and heed the advice offered in this episode. Highlights:3:05 4 limiting factors that hold you back from exponential growth6:35 The role of mindset in growth12:34 Learning how to delegate—examples and exercises17:45 Getting the right team in place22:23 Envisioning the future vs. living in the past29:29 3 elements needed for exponential growth to happen36:40 Resources for CEOs Quote:“As CEO, if you don't focus on the needle-moving parts of the business, the long-term vision, the strategy, the go-to-market strategy, if you're not making sure that you are really leveling those things up, who is?”  Connect with Richard Medcalf in the links below:Website: https://xquadrant.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardmedcalf/ You can learn more about and connect with Alice Heiman in the links below.Website: https://AliceHeiman.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aliceheiman/

Richard Medcalf is the founder of Xquadrant, and host of The Impact Multiplier CEO podcast, and describes himself as "what you get if you were to put a McKinsey consultant, a slightly unorthodox pastor and Freddie Mercury into a blender." Richard is an executive coach & leadership consultant to exceptional founders & CEOs and their leadership teams. His clients are elite performers who've already achieved incredible things, and still have the ambition to 10x their impact and influence and achieve something that seems impossible right now. That can involve 1:1 coaching, taking the leadership team to its next level, or scaling high-performance culture throughout the business. After a Masters's Degree at Oxford University, where he came top in his year, Richard started his career in a premier strategy consultancy where he rose to become the youngest-ever Partner. He then spent 11 years at tech giant Cisco, firstly elevating Cisco's relevance in the C-suite of its Fortune 100 customers before being selected for an elite team set up by Cisco's President and CEO, John Chambers and Chuck Robbins, to catalyze strategic partnerships & new business models. Richard has advised Founders and C-level execs for 20 years, from Fortune 100 companies (Comcast, Mastercard, Sanofi, Sky, Orange, Bosch…) to high-growth tech firms (in AI, networking, robotics, fintech, …). He has overseen over $2B of deals. Keen to marry the disciplines of strategy and leadership in service of his clients, he qualified as a senior leadership consultant and executive coach before founding Xquadrant in 2017. Richard is bi-national English/French, lives near Paris, and is happily married and the proud father of two. He's also a licensed lay minister in the Anglican Church, and has an insatiable love for spicy food and the electric guitar. -- Critical Mass Business Talk Show is Orange County, CA's longest-running business talk show, focused on offering value and insight to middle-market business leaders in the OC and beyond. Hosted by Ric Franzi, business partner at Renaissance Executive Forums Orange County. Learn more about Ric at www.ricfranzi.com. Catch up on past Critical Mass Business Talk Show interviews... YouTube: https://lnkd.in/gHKT2gmF LinkedIn: https://lnkd.in/g2PzRhjQ Podbean: https://lnkd.in/eWpNVRi Apple Podcasts: https://lnkd.in/gRd_863w Spotify: https://lnkd.in/gruexU6m #orangecountyca #mastermind #ceopeergroups #peergroups #peerlearning #collectiveintelligence #southerncalifornia #criticalmassbusinesstalkshow

Richard Medcalf is the Founder of Xquadrant and an executive coach to some of the world's most impressive and successful CEOs and their teams. In this episode, Richard shares four key insights that help his clients make real transformational progress in this area and become champions of transformational change. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/startuprepublic/support

Embracing a learning mindset -- one that's all about experimentation and innovation -- is where great strategy begins. Join host Lori Jones and her guest Richard Medcalf of Xquadrant on this episode of the Integrate & Ignite Marketing Podcast to learn more.

Why you've got to check out today's episode: Working long hours but no moving things forward? Feeling crazy busy but missing the big opportunities? Wish you had more time to think strategically so you can stop feeling frustrated and overwhelmed? If you are a CEO or senior leader in a fast growing company where technology is rapidly changing, you likely have a million things pulling on your time. What you need is to free yourself up for strategic activity to get out of the bottleneck that's holding you up.   Resources/Links: Check out the productivity calculator to see how strategically you are using your time: https://xquadrant.com/go/productivity-assessment/ Watch the video of this episode: https://youtu.be/fAt7N_xttQ Take the 7 Day Burnout Challenge: http://www.7dayburnoutchallenge.com/   About Richard Medcalf: Richard Medcalf describes himself as "what you get if you were to put a McKinsey consultant, a slightly unorthodox pastor and an entrepreneur into a blender." Richard is a leadership consultant and trusted advisor to exceptional CEOs & Founders of complex technology-driven businesses, and to their leadership teams. His clients are elite performers who've already achieved incredible things, and still have the ambition to 10x their impact and influence and achieve something that seems impossible right now. That can involve 1:1 coaching, taking the leadership team to its next level, or scaling high performance coaches beyond their team.

If you lead a team or organisation, your daily demands may suck all your time — leaving no space for strategic thinking. How can you fix that? I talk to Richard Medcalf, founder of Xquadrant and an executive coach, about four mindshifts you can make now.

Richard Medcalf is Founder and CEO of Xquadrant and an executive coach to some of the world's most impressive and successful CEOs and their teams. He's also the host of the Impact Multiplier CEO Podcast. In today's show you can learn about: The productivity paradigm and the infinity trap. Why we don't need a productivity hack, we just need a mindset shift. Why many struggle to focus on higher-value tasks and prioritization. How to kick start our strategic thinking. Join our Tribe at https://leadership-hacker.com Music: " Upbeat Party " by Scott Holmes courtesy of the Free Music Archive FMA Transcript: Thanks to Jermaine Pinto at JRP Transcribing for being our Partner. Contact Jermaine via LinkedIn or via his site JRP Transcribing Services   Find out more about Richard below: Special Link to resources: https://xquadrant.com/hacker Richard on LinkedIn: https: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardmedcalf/ Richard on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rmedcalf Podcast: https://xquadrant.com/podcast/ Company  Website: https://xquadrant.com/   Full Transcript Below ----more---- Steve Rush: Some call me Steve, dad, husband, or friend. Others might call me boss, coach, or mentor. Today you can call me The Leadership Hacker.   Thanks for listening in. I really appreciate it. My job as The Leadership Hacker is to hack into the minds, experiences, habits and learning of great leaders, C-Suite executives, authors, and development experts so that I can assist you developing your understanding and awareness of leadership. I am Steve Rush, and I am your host today. I am the author of Leadership Cake. I am a transformation consultant and leadership coach. I cannot wait to start sharing all things leadership with you Joining on today. Show is super coach Richard Medcalf. He's the founder of Xquadrant, and he's an Executive Coach of some of the world's most impressive and successful CEOs and their teams. He's also the host of The Impact Multiplier CEO Podcast. But before we get a chance to be Richard, it's The Leadership Hacker News The Leadership Hacker News Time is a valuable commodity that should not be wasted. A marketer is likely to be concerned with both time and money about the value they create. Luckily, plenty of thought leadership techniques are also available for those who do not mind spending time on their strategy, but don't wish to spend a lot of money on marketing. Thought leadership is a leader's best friend for promoting what they do. Recently I researched Services, a global thought leadership agency that focused on evidence-based research, published a list of techniques and ideas to help leaders in the space of thought leadership. And I'm just going to share with you the top four. Be accessible. Thought leadership is about being visible. You can boost your visibility by making yourself accessible to others. Sharing your expertise freely and having your team do the same. Don't be afraid to speak to media outlooks or bloggers or write articles. It can all help you get your brand out there and your message to the audience. Always create content. Consistently creating content can take time, but it also can help you build an audience for your brand. Additionally, it can help you create more ideas, content creations is an excellent way to show that you're aware of your industry. You're aware of the news and you're aware of what's trending. This can really help you become an industry leader, become more renowned so that people can see your content and become familiar with who you are and what you stand for. Hone your problem-solving skills. Problem solving is a life skill and one you should hone. It shows that you can identify, analyze, and solve a problem. It also shows that you are innovative and capable of being an industry leader and helping others solve problems with you, demonstrates credibility. Be a leader. Thought leadership is about being a leader in your industry. This means that you should express ideas and take action when the opportunity arises. While you shouldn't strive to jump into every issue of controversy that abounds, you should also not be content to sit on the sidelines, particularly if it concerns your industry, it's all about having balance. So don't be afraid to try any these techniques for your thought leadership. It will cost you nothing. It might cost you a bit of time, but you'll get loads of value, and you'll learn along the way. So good luck with your thought leadership. That's been the leadership hacking news, and we are looking forward to sharing more news as the weeks go by. So please let us know if there's something specific, you'd like us to talk about. Start of Podcast Steve Rush: Joining me on today's show is Richard Medcalf. He's the Founder and CEO of Xquadrant. He's an Executive Coach and coach some of the world's most impressive and successful CEOs. He's also the host of The Impact Multiplier CEO Podcast. Richard, welcome to the show. Richard Medcalf: Hi Steve. It's great to be here. Thank you for inviting me Steve Rush: Looking forward to getting into the mindsets behind some of the work that you do and the work that Xquadrant do with you and your clients. But before we do that, we'd love to get the opportunity for our guests. Just give the bit of the backstory as to how you arrived doing what you do? So, tell us a little bit about Richard? Richard Medcalf: Well, sure. Obviously talking about myself with my favorite subject. So, you've got a spare five-hour, strap in and we'll, no, just kidding. So, my background is that I'm a bit of a strange hybrid. I like to describe myself sometimes as what you get. If you take a kind of a McKinsey Consultant, a slightly unorthodox pastor, and an entrepreneur, and you put them in a blender. Steve Rush: That's interesting. Richard Medcalf: I'm a Brit', but I've lived in France now for twenty-two years. My first role having studied Oxford, got my master's degree there. My first role was in strategy consulting. I was asked by one of the partners in that firm to come over, to help him build out the Paris office for a year or two, sounded like a good idea. And then 22 years later, I'm still here. I married a lovely French lady and have kids and everything else. So that was how life evolved. I really enjoy strategy consulting; I think have a strategic brain naturally. And that all work really well. I became the youngest have a partner in that company, worked with a whole load of really interesting clients at board level, mainly the tech and telecom space. And then I was head hunted by Cisco, just at the point I'd been in the partner role for a couple of years. And I felt, you know, perhaps it was time to do something new and keep learning. And so, I joined Cisco, obviously a huge tech company. So, I became a smaller fish in a much bigger pond and cut a long story short after about 11 years again, I had a really interesting ride at Cisco. The last role was in a small team set up by Cisco CEO to really catalyze board level business initiatives with partners and customers. I'd like to describe it as fulfilling rash commitments made by the CEO in executive meetings. Steve Rush: Which happens a lot, right? Richard Medcalf: Yeah, so they both get excited about, you know, let's do something together in enterprise, you know, Wi-Fi, or I don't know, in internet of things or in the cloud or whatever the subject was, and they'd get like very excited and then we'd get the phone call to say, okay, there's some excitement to the CEO level, but now you need to help these organizations find something in that space that is strategically meaningful, operationally feasible, and both sides actually want to do at the actually operational level. So, it was really interesting role. For various reasons though, I kind of started to think after a couple of years of that, you know, although it was a lot of fun, I was thinking, you know, what's the legacy I really want to create in my career, in my life? What do I want to be telling my great-grandchildren when they're on my knee? You know, at age 90 or whatever it is. And I realized that although I love creating business results and I still love doing that. I didn't just want to tell my great-grandchildren that I helped increase, you know, AT&T and EBITDA margin by north 0.5% or whatever, you know, that wasn't quite enough. So, I decided to really look at what did I do really, really well, you know, what was my unique secret source? What's the impact that I really wanted to make in the world? And I kind of came to the conclusion that what it was, was helping already competent successful leaders make an even bigger and more positive impact in the world. And to do that, you have to obviously make a bigger impact in your organization, in your people and on the mission that you're there to create. And I think that was for me, the heart of it, was saying, you know, how can I actually help people who have already got a success formula that works really well as evidenced by their track record? How can I help them reinvent that success formula and think strategically and get past their own fears, perhaps of change or of failure or of stretching too far to actually create the impact that they can make? And that's really what sets me on fire today. And so, I set up Xquadrant a few years back, it's basically a small boutique coaching and consulting practice where we help leaders generally often CEOs or Founders, or sometimes other C-suite members, generally of tech firms or firms going through a lot of technology, disruption and shifts. It really help them find what their next level of impact is going to be? And to do that, it's always about thinking more strategically and operating more influentially and that's it. Steve Rush: Got it, yeah. So, the title Xquadrant, is there something in the name there? Richard Medcalf: Yeah, there's a few things in the name, obviously, apart from the fact that the domain name is available. Steve Rush: So, it was a good start, right? Richard Medcalf: Yeah, there's a few things. So, you know, the first one is a bit of a, you know, a nod, right. Consultant's love drawing two by two matrices and drawing an X in the top the top right corner to say, that's where you need to be. And so first of all, it kind of speaks to ambition, right. The second one is, is often, insight is found when we realize that it's not an either-or choice in front of us, but there's perhaps a new option that allows us to do both things, right. So, you know, we either support our team or we challenge our team. Well, you know, what happens if we created an environment where we really support them with high support, but we also create really high challenge? Right. Suddenly something feels like an either or becomes a both and. Steve Rush: Yeah. Richard Medcalf: And that is also kind of, if you like that X on that two by two represents to me. And the final reason for Xquadrant is, the X stands for multiplication. And this is really key for me. It's easy in a sense to continually add value and play the game of being incremental, but I'm really interested in what does multiplication look like, right? How do we create an exponential curve for people? Where behind us, it looks flat and ahead of us, it looks vertical because we're on such a curve, and that's what excites me. Steve Rush: I like that, really nice. So, when we are talking around exponential and matrices. From the last conversation you and I had, I'm going to be talking about a lot of execs get stuck in this productivity paradigm. So, tell us a little bit about what that really means and how I get out of it? Richard Medcalf: Yeah, so the name I like to use for this paradigm is the infinity trap actually. So, the infinity trap is, you know, we live in a world of infinity, right. There's an infinite number of tasks, of people, of content out there. So, there's always more to do and we just can't get through it, right. The more books we buy, the more recommendations on books we get, the more emails we reply to, the more emails we get back. It's never ending, right. And so, we can't use productivity to break out of that because you can't defeat infinity with productivity. There's always more to do. And so, the infinity trap, and I see it all around and is, just for people going, you know, I'm crazy busy or even I'm good busy, but people are so focused. They're running, they are perhaps very clear on what they're trying to achieve actually, but they've got their heads down trying to achieve it. And so, what happens is, they haven't got enough time to think. They know they're not really thinking about all the big issues around them. They've got tunnel vision, in fact. So, in a sense, they might be really focused, but perhaps they've even lost serendipity from their lives, lost a bit of randomness or lost a bit of contexts. So, it shows up in different people in different ways. Steve Rush: Yeah. Richard Medcalf: But I think the infinity trap is really where we are running fast. It feels good. We kind of feel that we are making progress. We kind of feel that we are perhaps being the super leader in our organization and, you know, lifting things on our shoulders and everything else. And we know it kind of works in a sense, but actually progress is becoming incremental at this point. Steve Rush: Yeah. Richard Medcalf: We can't see it. Steve Rush: However, I guess the flip side of that is, we still need to keep productive and improve productivity where we can. And I remember, again, from the conversation we had before, there aren't any real productivity hacks. It starts with yourself, and it actually starts with shifting your mindset. From your experience what's playing out there? Richard Medcalf: Yeah, so obviously there are things we can do to kind of organize ourselves and do things differently and create an environment around us that's conducive to the work we need to do and all those things, right. But I think the fundamental limits to all that are, it's what we believe, right. It's what we believe is necessary desirable or achievable, possible around things. It depends on the self-image we have, right. How do we achieve things? How do we get things done? Right. What has to be true for us to succeed? What is success? All these things actually shape us. So let me give you an example. A couple examples come to mind. Let me just start with this one. I was talking with an executive, just being promoted to board level in a seven-thousand-person firm. It's pretty big firm and he'd got operations around twenty different countries. And I was being asked to help him really onboard into this executive role, into the C-suite and maximize his impact as he does that. He was clearly a high performer. People loved him, but he knew he really wanted to play bigger game. And so, we identified together a couple of big transformational projects that he was going to champion throughout the business. Things that had never been done before on a global scale. And he was really going to move the needle. And he was very excited about this, and all the stakeholders were excited, and he was working on them and making some great progress. And then one day he came to me and said, you know, Richard, I'm just stuck in my email. I'm just like, I'm not getting enough time to work on these projects. They're not going as fast as I wanted. And so, I kind of asked him, well, why is that? You know, why are you spending so much time in your email? He says, well, you know, I just want to be a good team player. I want to be trustworthy and reliable. I don't want to be the guy that people have to chase up. I don't want to be that person, right. The one who never replies to emails, who is a bottleneck for everybody else, who's not pulling their weight in the team. And indeed, he was a people person, right. He really wanted to do his best with people. And so, I stopped, and he was asking me for a tip, you know, Richard, what tips can you gimme about email? And I said, well, you know, if you're coming to me for a tip, it's probably a waste of your money, right. You can probably Google the tip, right. I don't think that's what you need from me. In fact, I can just tell you that whatever tip I did give you, you wouldn't do anything with right now. I can't help you on that level. And he was like, what do you mean you can't help? I said, well, you've just told me that the reason you do your email and you spent so much time there is, because you want to be reliable and trustworthy and a team player. So, I'm not going to tell you to be an unreliable, untrustworthy, non-team player. You're never going to buy it. So, he was like, ah, that's a good point. So, I said, well, let try it another way. If the CEO was in the room with you, what would he be asking you for? He had to think, and he said, well. Yeah, work on those big transformational projects. Because he's really excited about the benefits that's going to bring. Okay, what about the investors? What would they be asking for if you were in, one of those board meetings? Oh, well. I guess same thing I suppose, because that's going to make a really big difference on our financials if we can shift the employee experience in this way, okay. What about the employers themselves then? What about the team? What do they most want you to be doing if they could be in this room with us right now? And he thought, he said, well, I guess the same thing, right? Richard, the same projects, because they're sick and tired of the old ways of working and the inefficiencies that we've been working with. And what about customers, if they could talk to us, what would they be telling us? And he said, well, they won't know so much. Because it's a bit of an internal project, transformation project, but I guess it'd be the same kind of thing. Because if the employees can focus less on internal admin, they can spend more time with the customers and solving customer issues. So, I said, okay, so at this point, you're telling me, that all these different stakeholders really want you to focus us on these two or three transformational projects? Yeah, that's right. Okay, so let me put it to you that you're being untrustworthy, unreliable, and not a team player when you are busy getting to inbox zero, you know, and managing all these inbound requests. And at this point, you know, the penny drops, right. And he's like, oh, you're right. Like, this is not who I am anymore, right. I need to be playing a different game. And so, at that point he didn't need me to tell him how to set up a filter in Gmail, right, or how to turn his notifications off. Although those things always help, right. I'm a strong believer in turning notifications off, right. I mean, these are proven things, but the key shift was in that identity, you know, thinking actually, what is the trustworthy and reliable thing for me to do? Steve Rush: Yeah, and then choosing that right identity creates the right behaviors and beliefs that come with it, right? Richard Medcalf: Yeah, exactly. I was working with somebody else, and he was explaining how he couldn't possibly delegate to his team because things had to be done at certain level of quality and he wasn't sure if his team was able to do it. So, I just kind of made up a concept on the fly and said, oh, so you're telling me you're being the high performing janitor. Then you want to be the high performing janitor, you know, wiping those floor tiles to perfection. Whilst there's a business to be running. And again, he just a little aah. I know you're right. Perhaps I'm focusing on doing low level tasks incredibly well. Steve Rush: Yeah. Richard Medcalf: And perhaps not getting on into the messy business of working on the big issues. Steve Rush: Yeah. Richard Medcalf: Which I'm not quite so certain on. And again, it's these kinds of shifts that when you make this shift, then the productivity stuff finds its natural flow. Steve Rush: And the story you just shared, ironically is not, you know, an isolated incident. You get a lot of people, certainly at the senior level, also getting drawn into those menial tasks. Richard Medcalf: Certainty. Steve Rush: From your perspective, then Richard, what would be the reason that many executives and this is not exclusive to executives by the way, this could be, you know, junior team leader, right the way through to senior executives. I think most people will struggle with this. What's the reason we then struggle to prioritize in the right way typically? Richard Medcalf: I mean, there're actually a bunch of possible reasons, but I think some of the common ones are, yeah, number one is instant gratification and the comfort zone. Have things put in front of us that we deal with. So, you know, if you're always getting notified by your email, then it's easy just to deal with emails as they come. Because they give you instant gratification, right. It's not the important work necessarily, but it's some something. So, I think that's part of it. I think the comfort zone is another, right. In other words, there are some areas that we know how to do pretty well, but those are probably areas which actually are not the cutting edge of the work that we need to do. But we do know that we add value when we do them. Steve Rush: Yeah. Richard Medcalf: So, there's a bit of fear. I may as well just do the things that I'm really good at, and I know that's going to do some benefit, right. Rather than tackle this kind of other stuff, which I probably should be doing. But it's a bit less clear and that's really the third point is, ambiguity, right. We don't often take the time to really define what are those high I value tasks? Right. If I had five minutes, how would I actually proceed on them? Once we can define how you'd spend five minutes, then it's quite easy to do that five-minute task. But if it's like, I'm just need to do some strategic thinking. Where to begin on that? Right. It's really difficult. So, I that mixture of that kind of comfort zone, instinct gratification, and then this kind of fear and ambiguity on what are these higher value tasks that we want to be doing. But all those things play together Steve Rush: And there's some chemical reactions that go on with us as individuals that happen there. This is not kind of an instinct. That instant gratification, and it gives us that dopamine rush. It makes us feel good in that moment. And therefore chemically, we're also drawn to those quick hits rather than the other chemical reactions that come with uncertainty and fear and challenge that can sometimes hold us back as well, right. Richard Medcalf: Yeah, exactly. So, it's also important to try to hack those emotions a little bit, right. And celebrate when you start to feel those, right. I've defined something that was a bit ambiguous, like give yourself a fist pump, right. Actually, reward yourself for making a dent in those ambiguous fluffy areas that are actually the important ones. Steve Rush: Yeah, and you mentioned strategic thinking there as part of that kind of role that we all have and strategic thinking's quite overplayed in my experience. I'd love to get your spin on this, by the way. So, for me, strategic thinking is just about thinking about what we don't know yet and thinking about what we don't know, that we can then translate to what we actually do know. And again, role agnostic, whether you are a junior team leader or a C-suite executive, it's all of our responsibilities to think that way. What's your experience about how strategic thinking plays out in our workplace, these days? Richard Medcalf: Yeah, I mean, you're right. I mean, there's a couple of ways you can look at strategic thinking, right. For me, strategic thinking actually is a laser, right. Or it's a lens, right. For me, it's a lens that focuses us in, right. So where do we put our focus and our attention? What are the subjects where we need to focus? So that's part of it. And I think the other part is the more diffuse one, as you said, which is like, what is it in the environment? What are the factors that I'm not, that we're not folding in at this point? And I think those are both important ways to look at it, right. But I mean, but for me the most pragmatic way or most is to think about, there's a book I called The One Thing. And it's quite a helpful question they ask, which is, you know, what's the one thing that if we were to achieve that would make everything else easier or more relevant? Steve Rush: That's a great question, isn't it? Richard Medcalf: And I think just focusing on that, so what's the one thing right now that we most need to do? Right. I think that's just a really simple way of thinking about this. Steve Rush: Yeah. Richard Medcalf: And the answer to that lens, right, that focus. My particular angle on strategic thinking is, I suppose I kind of call it exponential leadership, right. So, I'm always thinking, you know, how do we multiply impact rather than add value? How do we multiply value, not add value? How do we multiply things? And the way to think about that is, what's the constraint, right? Where is the constraint in the system in which we're operating at the moment? There's pretty more than we can get into right now on that and exactly all the constraints, but for example, we have limited time, we have limited attention, we have limited resources, you know, there are kind of things. We might have limited ambition, right. I need to understand, like what frustrate me personally, as a leader and also in the organization. And again, the goal here is to find, what's the one area that if we were to address and improve would allow all this whole system, this business, for example, to kind of expand up to the next level of impact or to the next level of results? And for me, that's kind of the question. So, it's about rather than just turning the handle on the machine, it's trying to step back and look at the machine we've built and think about, you know, what's the one thing that's holding back performance? Just a little point on that. If people are interested in this idea of exponential leadership and moving from a more of an incremental, to more of a multiplicative mindset, I've actually written a short email series is about, I think, six emails and people on my newsletter have just been going through them. And I think I've had more feedback on that one email series than anything else I've ever written. So, it's really resonating with people, it's called The Exponential Leadership Principles. And it walks through, you know, these different constraints and what and do to overcome them. If people are interested, they can just go to xquadrant.com/hacker is a simple way for them to find their way there from this podcast. Steve Rush: We also make sure that links in the show notes, because as you said, it's just a simple process that gets people to think and reflect, and that's half the challenge, isn't it with strategic thinking? It's giving yourself the capacity, the time that you need to be thoughtful about what it is you're doing. Richard Medcalf: Yeah, it could because just one insight can change anything, right. One insight can certainly make us see the world in a new way, see the options we have differently. See, what's not working, that we're spending so much time on or whatever it is. And so often it's just encountering new ideas, new people, having new conversations that opens us up, right. To get onto a different trajectory. Steve Rush: Yeah, absolutely right. Yeah. Now you managed to interview some of the world's largest CEOs on The Impact Multiplier Podcast. And it's really interesting to dive into, I've listened to quite a few of your episodes now, and they all bring different perspectives and different stories, but there are still some commonalities. And I'm sure you find, as I do with many of our guests, that there are some common themes. From your perspective in having those conversations, Richard, what would you say is the maybe the most common challenge that keeps representing itself in and amongst these CEOs and Executives? Richard Medcalf: Yeah, I've seen this. Yeah, right on the podcast and in my own work with these kinds of leaders. Actually, there's a couple of things on trends. I mean, a bonus point, I'd almost say one of the things I've really seen as a success component actually is a theme, you know, is (A) genuinely being interested in people, right. And (B) really thinking about creating structures that multiply in fact, right. I interviewed some of the CEOs of the fastest growing companies in Europe and in the U.S. and like their common refrain was how they pushed down decision making responsibility, created independent little entities, you know, and empowered leaders who could build their own subparts of the business, and really, really interesting. In terms of the challenges. I mean, I suppose what I really see is, I think there's an internal challenge actually in a lot of people, which is even at that level, it's about confidence and imposter syndrome and all those things that's always there. There is that kind of focus challenge of getting out the weeds. I think, you know, they all say, you know, my next level is going to involve me living behind even more operational tasks, right. Trusting in my team, even more. Focusing, even more on some of the new areas, perhaps it's, you know, it's an acquisition plan they want to roll out or whatever it is. And so, continuing to get out the weeds and focus on higher level tasks. And the third one is, that one around nailing the critical conversations. So, you know, leadership is delivered one convers and at a time, and you can have all the plans and strategies you want, but actually just slowing down to master that one conversation with that one report, that one stakeholder, whoever it is, perhaps bringing them on board to what you're trying to achieve is really important. And so, I think perhaps those three areas that, you know, be in a game of confidence, the kind of higher-level activities and those critical conversations would be the three themes that I see come up. Steve Rush: Awesome. Yeah, good. And delighted you share those now, however, I'm going to turn the tables a bit and hacking to your top thinking and your top tips for the future. And I know we think about tips and hacks and ideas. People kind of have this different perspective about what they mean. And in essence, hacking for me is just shorting into your great thinking. So, if you think about your career as a leader and what you do now, if you had to kind of get them into your top three tips or hacks, what would they be? Richard Medcalf: Number one would be play the long game, which means they'll always be so transactional, right. It's easy to kind of get transactional and just focus on the thing in front of you, but, you know, build relationships for the long term. Think about where you want to be, you know, a little bit longer than the next year or the next quarter. Play the long game, right. And build relationships that last, right. So that'd be number one. The second one would be, go in the direction of your discomfort. See the discomfort zone is where you learn, that's where you grow and therefore treat imposter syndrome as a feature and not a bug. In other words, when you're feeding imposter syndrome, it generally means that your confidence is lagging your competency, in fact and it also means that you are actually playing a bigger game, right. You're pushing yourself; you are seeking to add more value and as a result, it feels a little bit uncomfortable. So, I think that second one, go in the direction of your discomfort. Steve Rush: I love that. Richard Medcalf: And then, I think the third one would be, I guess it comes back to what I talked about earlier is, focus on the key constraint, think about multiplication and not addition. Goes back to that email of course, I mentioned. Goes back to that thinking around yeah. How do I stop just using my time, doing the same tasks, time and time again? And how do I invest my time? Steve Rush: Yeah. Richard Medcalf: To remove constraints Steve Rush: Three fantastic hacks. I particularly love the idea of playing the long game. I guarantee many people listening to this will be going, ah, because we often don't think long game. We think, you know, this quarter, this year, next year, but actually it's all part of the long game, isn't it? Richard Medcalf: Yeah, it's what I said. I thought about, where do I want to be when I'm 90? Steve Rush: Yeah. Richard Medcalf: One thing I love to ask my clients, you know, is what's so important to you that you have to 100 X it? What really matters, right? What do you really want a 100 X? So, for me, for example, wouldn't it be amazing if I got a 100 X, you know, the number of leaders who really point to me as a real catalyst for the impact that they've had in the world, right. As somebody who's really helped them a 100 X their impact. So, I'm on a mission, you know, I said, let's actually do that for a hundred leaders, right. Let's actually a hundred X the impact of a hundred leaders, that'd be a fantastic legacy. So that's what I'm excited about, but play the long game, think about, what would that 25-year vision be? What would be bring a silly grin to your face? Because it's so exciting, get a bit embarrassing. Because you're not sure how you're going to do it. Steve Rush: Yeah. My unconscious thinking though, is just worrying and ticking as I'm thinking about my own long game. So, I'm hoping that it's inspiring our listeners in the same way. Next part of the show, Richard, we call Hack to Attack. So, this is affectionately where we dive into something in your life or work that has not worked out as you'd planned, could have been a complete catastrophe. It could have been a minor hiccup, but as a result of that event, it's now serving you well as a learning in your life or work, what would be your Hack to Attack? Richard Medcalf: Yeah, I think when I look at my time at Cisco, I think there was a period at that time and perhaps it was okay. It was just life. There was a bit of a time in that 10-year period where I think I stagnated a little bit I, my kids were very young. I was in my comfort zone, shall we say, right. So, I was delivering, I was performing, people like my work, but I think I had not necessarily growing and not necessarily increasing my impact for a period. And looking back, I felt that's a bit of a missed opportunity because just like putting money in the bank, you know, things compound over time, right. If you want to play an exponential game, things compound over time. One example that's recently come to my mind is, you know, dominoes, right. If you lineup dominoes and you knock the first one over, it can knock over another domino, that's 50% bigger than itself. And then that one can knock over another domino that's 50% bigger and that's again, exponential, right. And so, I think I got into a time at Cisco where my dominoes were all the same size, shall we say, right? Steve Rush: Yeah. Richard Medcalf: And it was okay. But I think that also started to kind of, I got to a think at a stage where I realized that perhaps I'd missed some opportunities and again, I had a good career, right. Good thing, and I got into this amazing team that was, you know, reporting to the CEO. And so, it wasn't a bad moment, but I think within that, before I got into that team, there was a phase where perhaps I wasn't making the most opportunities that I've been presented with. Wasn't my eye on the ball. And so, I think that's something I've really thought about now is, invest in myself, you know and reinvent. I think probably reinvent is probably the best word, right. So, I always say to people, what's your Madonna moment? You know, Madonna who, you know, turns up and she's like, we got a new style and, you know, whatever it is or any other rock band or pop star, who's been around for a long time. And most of them have had moments where they've reinvented themselves and they've changed things up. Steve Rush: That's right, yeah. Richard Medcalf: And I did when I left Cisco, you know, I changed things up. And it's worked really, really well. And I think continuing to reinvent ourselves, not to leave things behind actually. We think we are leaving things behind, but we don't, we just build upon them, right. And we add to ourselves, we become more multifaceted, and I think that's what I would say. So, reinvent ourselves. Steve Rush: Yeah. Richard Medcalf: Get stuck. Steve Rush: Cool. Now the last part of the show, we've affectionately become used to giving our guests some time to do some time travel. And you get to go and bump into Richard at 21 and give him some words of wisdom. What would your advice to Richard at 21 be? Richard Medcalf: I think, I'd say read self-development books. Invest in yourself more, generally, never be scared of investing in yourself. Don't always wait for your company to do the investing in yourself and always be wary of the comfort zone. And I kind of knew that in some ways. But I think all those things I kind of learned more and more over time. Yeah, so now I invest in myself more than, you know, more than ever by orders a magnitude. I remember when I was in the corporate world, I was invited to go to a conference by a friend who's running the conference. I knew it was going to be a really, really good conference, but I didn't go because I had to pay for like a 200 Euro, you know, Eurostar ticket or something, right. The company wasn't going to pay. And so, I said, oh, I'm not going to go then, and ridiculous right. I mean, and nowadays I write checks for, you know, five figure checks, right. I wrote check for $25,000, the other day for my own self development, right. Because it's so important. Steve Rush: Yeah. Richard Medcalf: And yet, you know, there I was in a well pay corporate job and even spending a few hundred euros, seemed like a bit of an ask. It's completely ridiculous. So, investing ourselves is the best investment we can make. Steve Rush: Great advice. So, what's next for Richard and Xquadrant then? Richard Medcalf: Well, there's quite a few things. This year we're kicking off a CEO mastermind group. I've got a group of really, really incredible CEOs. Some of them are running kind of startups, scale up. Some of them got million-dollar companies in the U.S. and in Europe and other places around the world. And we're creating that community, which is really, really exciting because, you know, iron sharpens iron, right. You know, you get these really impressed, capable leaders together, often of whom they don't get enough of that peer input. And that's really exciting group. And then I'm also doing another program for kind of the slightly lower-level leaders as well, but another kind of community for them called Xquadrant Core. We kicked off the first session of that a couple of weeks ago. And that was a really strong start as well. So, there's a couple of kind of programs I've been up to. And moreover, what I'm focused on is that mission right. Of helping a hundred top leaders multiply their impact by a hundred. That's what gets me out me of bed. Steve Rush: Yeah, awesome. And if we want to connect our audience with you beyond today, we know we've got that one link that we shared a little earlier, but where's the best place for us to send them? Richard Medcalf: Yes, absolutely. So obviously, if you go to xquadrant.com/hacker, that's going to be a blog post. You can sign up at the bottom to my email and newsletter, The Xquadrant Insider, which is where basically once a month, I talk about something around this whole idea of multiplying impact. And you can deep dive into different topics if you're interested at that point. The podcast you mentioned as well, right. The Impact to Multiplier CEO Podcast where I interview some really interesting business leaders. And people are always happy to look me up on LinkedIn. Just if you send me an invitation request, just customize your message so that I know why you're connecting and where you found me. And I'm always happy to have a conversation, right. Because play the long game, build interesting relationships with interesting people, add value and generally good things come back to you over time when you take that approach Steve Rush: And we'll help people play that long game by making sure those links are in our show notes as well. Richard Medcalf: That's perfect. Steve Rush: Richard, I've really enjoyed chatting with you and looking forward to you and I working together in the future. And I'm really looking forward to letting our audience find out a little bit more about the work that you do and explore some great things together. Thanks for being part of our leadership packet community Richard. Richard Medcalf: You're welcome. It's been fantastic. Steve Rush: Thanks very much.   Closing Steve Rush: I want to sign off by saying thank you to you for joining us on the show too. We recognize without you, there is no show. So please continue to share, subscribe, and like, and continue to get in touch with us with the great new stories that we share every week. And so that we can continue to bring you great stories, please make sure you give us a five-star review where you can and share this podcast with your friends, your teams, and communities. You want to find us on social media. You can find us on Facebook and Twitter @leadershiphacker, Leadership Hacker on YouTube and on Instagram, the_leadership_hacker and if that wasn't enough, you can also find us on our website leadership-hacker.com Tune into next episode to find out what great hacks and stories are coming your way. That's me signing off. I'm Steve Rush, and I've been your Leadership Hacker.  

If you lead a team or organisation, your daily demands may suck all your time — leaving no space for strategic thinking. How can you fix that? I talk to Richard Medcalf, founder of Xquadrant and an executive coach, about four mindshifts you can make now.

I invite guests to share personal stories about acts of leadership that help shape their lives. In Episode 134, Richard Medcalf describes what someone said to inspire him to pursue an executive coaching career, shares a story about a new CHRO who he coached, and advises how to overcome our biggest bottleneck that holds us back. Prologue Richard Medcalf describes himself as “what you get if you were to put a McKinsey consultant, a slightly unorthodox pastor, and Freddie Mercury into a blender.” Richard is an executive coach & leadership consultant to founders, CEOs, and their leadership teams. He is bi-national English/French, lives near Paris, is happily married, and is the proud father of two. Richard is a licensed lay minister in the Anglican Church. He has an insatiable love for spicy food and the electric guitar. 01:30 Part 1: Mastermind with Freddie Mercury Richard describes what someone said that inspired him to pursue his coaching career. 06:44 Part 2: Stuck in the Inbox In this story, Richard helps a CHRO overcome an email management issue. Richard then explains incremental and exponential leadership. 13:14 Part 3: Find Your Biggest Bottleneck David advises us on identifying the biggest barrier that holds us back. He shares four categories to consider. _________________________________ How You Can Support the Show Unlabeled Leadership is a free service for people to learn about leadership. If you want to support the show, you can make a $0.99 donation. Your support reduces production expenses. https://anchor.fm/unlabeled-leadership/support Robynne Orr is the opening voice narrator. To learn more about her amazing storytelling capabilities, visit Robynne's website, R.ORR. No transcript available (future enhancement) Episode links Richard's LinkedIn Profile, website, Twitter Richard's show, The Impact Multiplier CEO Podcast Select articles: Exponential Leadership Principles New CEO onboarding The ultimate guide Freddie Mercury L. David Marquet Gary DePaul's website Gary's books: What the Heck Is Leadership and Why Should I Care? Nine Practices of 21st Century Leadership Background Music You can find all the musical tracks at Envato Elements. 00:00 Theme music: Uplift Corporate Inspire by OlexandrIgnatov 01:12 Summer Chill House by LumenMedia 06:26 Spirit Talk by MyMusicID 12:56 Noir Detective by _Blacksmith_ 24:05 Fun and Flirtyby BrownHouseMedia Lead on! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/unlabeled-leadership/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/unlabeled-leadership/support

Richard Medcalf describes himself as "what you get if you were to put a McKinsey consultant, a slightly unorthodox pastor and an entrepreneur into a blender". He's an executive coach & leadership consultant to some of the top CEOs on the planet and their leadership teams. Richard is bi-national English/French, lives near Paris, and is happily married and the proud father of two. Website: xquadrant.com Linkedin: richardmedcalf Twitter: rmedcalf Offer: Exponential Leadership Series xquadrant.com/iamceo xquadrant.com/podcast

Coffey talks with executive coach and consultant Richard Medcalf about strategy, leadership, and purpose. They discuss the the three components of leadership; the commitments required for successful teams; leadership as a skill, not just an inherent trait; strategy vs. “smatergy”; keeping leaders focused on strategy rather than “managing infinity,” and four conversations every leadership team needs to have to move organizations forward.Good Morning, HR is brought to you by Imperative—premium background checks with fast and friendly service. For more information about our commitment to quality and excellent customer service, visit us at https://imperativeinfo.com.If you are an HRCI or SHRM-certified professional, this episode of Good Morning, HR has been pre-approved for half a recertification credit. To obtain the recertification information for this episode, visit https://goodmorninghr.com.About our Guest:Richard Medcalf is the founder of Xquadrant and host of The Impact Multiplier CEO podcast.Richard describes himself as "what you get if you were to put a McKinsey consultant, a slightly unorthodox pastor and Freddie Mercury into a blender".Richard is an executive coach & leadership consultant to exceptional founders & CEOs and their leadership teams.His clients are elite performers who've already achieved incredible things, and still have the ambition to 10x their impact and influence and achieve something that seems impossible right now. That can involve 1:1 coaching, taking the leadership team to its next level, or scaling high-performance culture throughout the business.After a Masters Degree at Oxford University, where he came top in his year, Richard started his career in a premier strategy consultancy where he rose to become the youngest-ever Partner. He then spent 11 years at tech giant Cisco, firstly elevating Cisco's relevance in the C-suite of its Fortune 100 customers before being selected for an elite team set up by Cisco's President and CEO, John Chambers and Chuck Robbins, to catalyse strategic partnerships & new business models.Richard has advised Founders and C-level execs for 20 years, from Fortune 100 companies (Comcast, Mastercard, Sanofi, Sky, Orange, Bosch…) to high-growth tech firms (in AI, networking, robotics, fintech, …).He has overseen >$2B of deals.Keen to marry the disciplines of strategy and leadership in service of his clients, he qualified as a senior leadership consultant and executive coach before founding Xquadrant in 2017.Richard is bi-national English/French, lives near Paris, and is happily married and the proud father of two. He's also a licensed lay minister in the Anglican Church, and has an insatiable love for spicy food and the electric guitar.Richard's work can be found at:https://xquadrant.com/https://xquadrant.com/podcast/https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardmedcalf/About Mike Coffey:Mike Coffey is an entrepreneur, human resources professional, licensed private investigator, and HR consultant.In 1999, he founded Imperative, a background investigations firm helping risk-averse companies make well-informed decisions about the people they involve in their business.Today, Imperative serves hundreds of businesses across the US and, through its PFC Caregiver & Household Screening brand, many more private estates, family offices, and personal service agencies.Mike has been recognized as an Entrepreneur of Excellence and has twice been named HR Professional of the Year. Additionally, Imperative is included in the prestigious Best Places to Work in Texas list and has been named the Texas Association of Business' small business of the year.Mike is a member of the Fort Worth chapter of the Entrepreneurs' Organization and volunteers with the SHRM Texas State Council.Mike maintains his certification as a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) through the HR Certification Institute. He is also a SHRM Senior Certified Professional (SHRM-SCP).Mike lives in Fort Worth with his very patient wife. He practices yoga and maintains a keto diet, about both of which he will gladly tell you way more than you want to know.Learning Objectives:1. Define the three components of leadership.2. Understand why defining stakeholders' expectations are key to leadership strategy.3. Outline the four areas that leadership teams need to consider as they create a strategy.

"Creating and changing perception are equally difficult" Lori Jones (CEO of Avocet Communications) speaks to Xquadrant's Founder, Richard Medcalf. We're continuing our season on "CEO Success Formulae", where highly impactful CEOs share what's driven their success to date - and explore what it will take to reach the next level.

We live in a world of infinity. We have an infinite amount of things we can do at any one moment. As responsible individuals, we try to take care of all the opportunities and requests that come our way. Try as we might, there is a point where there are no more hours in the day and we just hit this ceiling of complexity. What do you do when you can't go any further when you can't go any faster? Do you just spend your life jammed up against this ceiling of complexity? In this episode, Richard Medcalf shares how you can change your mindset and learn how to pause and approach things differently. As he says in the podcast, you can't change gears when your foot is on the accelerator. Learn how to take a different approach.

“You don't get what you want, you get what you are." What does it take to move you onto an entirely different trajectory and multiply your impact? And move from incremental improvement to a step change? It's not about having better answers but about having better questions. In this season of The Impact Multiplier CEO podcast, Richard Medcalf and co-host Davina Stanley explore some powerful questions that every CEO, entrepreneur or senior business leader should reflect on.   Engage with them fully, and they'll provoke deeper thinking and shift you into a new realm of possibility.

Today we're joined by Richard Medcalf, leader, coach and Founder of Xquadrant; helping elite CEOs and their teams multiply their impact and take their influence to a new level. When touching on his experiences as a coach to CEOs and high level leaders, Richard shares his belief that we can all think like a CEO and take ownership and control of our destiny, regardless of our job title. He uncovers that one of the most common themes he addresses among those he coaches, is the need to perfect the art of letting go of the nitty gritty, and expresses the strategic benefits that can be achieved by doing this. One key message he shares with those he works with is the importance of fully formed requests. A simple yet important element of leadership, encouraging clear boundaries and freeing headspace for the things we should be focussing on – something everyone can take away and begin implementing immediately. This episode provides invaluable insight into the skills and traits you need to be a successful leader, regardless of job title or position. Discussing the importance of culture (and what it actually means), accountability, forming agreements and so much more, this is a leadership masterclass that everyone should hear.

There are a thousand different templates of questions to ask during your New Year reflections and plans, but here are three questions you might not have thought of. Happy Christmas! In this semi-festive edition of The Impact Multiplier CEO podcast, Richard Medcalf and co-host Davina Stanley explore three powerful questions that every CEO, entrepreneur or senior business leader should reflect on to set themselves up for a fantastic New Year. Engage with them fully, and they'll provoke deeper thinking and shift you into a new realm of possibility.

“Being a mountain-climber is one thing; being a Sherpa is another." What does it take to move you onto an entirely different trajectory and multiply your impact? And move from incremental improvement to a step change? It's not about having better answers but about having better questions. In this season of The Impact Multiplier CEO podcast, Richard Medcalf and co-host Davina Stanley explore some powerful questions that every CEO, entrepreneur or senior business leader should reflect on.   Engage with them fully, and they'll provoke deeper thinking and shift you into a new realm of possibility.

In this episode, I'm really excited to have as my guest, Richard Medcalf who describes himself as "what you get if you were to put a McKinsey consultant, a slightly unorthodox pastor and an entrepreneur into a blender". Richard is an executive coach & leadership consultant to exceptional founders & CEOs and their leadership teams. He's the founder of XQuadrant and host of the Impact Multiplier CEO Podcast. His clients are elite performers who've already achieved incredible things, and still have the ambition to 10x their impact and influence and achieve something that seems impossible right now. That can involve 1:1 coaching, taking the leadership team to its next level, or scaling high-performance culture throughout the business. In our discussion, Richard talked to me about: Why focusing on Impact rather than productivity is important Building agreements with stakeholders to help you achieve your goals Starting with a mission so amazing that it lights you up Listen to the podcast to learn more. https://innovabiz.co/richardmedcalf (Show Notes and Blog) https://innovabiz.com.au/innovabuzz/ (The Podcasts)

"Who's speaking the unwelcome truth?" What does it take to move you onto an entirely different trajectory and multiply your impact? And move from incremental improvement to a step change? It's not about having better answers but about having better questions. In this season of The Impact Multiplier CEO podcast, Richard Medcalf and co-host Davina Stanley explore some powerful questions that every CEO, entrepreneur or senior business leader should reflect on. Engage with them fully, and they'll provoke deeper thinking and shift you into a new realm of possibility.

“Get comfortable with discomfort. It's a sign of growth and learning." What does it take to move you onto an entirely different trajectory and multiply your impact? And move from incremental improvement to a step change? It's not about having better answers but about having better questions. In this season of The Impact Multiplier CEO podcast, Richard Medcalf and co-host Davina Stanley explore some powerful questions that every CEO, entrepreneur or senior business leader should reflect on. Engage with them fully, and they'll provoke deeper thinking and shift you into a new realm of possibility.

In this episode of The Remote CEO Show, I had the pleasure to interview Richard Medcalf. Richard describes himself as "what you get if you were to put a McKinsey consultant, a slightly unorthodox pastor and an entrepreneur into a blender". Richard is an executive coach & leadership consultant to exceptional founders & CEOs and their leadership teams. His clients are elite performers who've already achieved incredible things, and still have the ambition to 10x their impact and influence and achieve something that seems impossible right now. That can involve 1:1 coaching, taking the leadership team to its next level, or scaling high-performance culture throughout the business.

"Most people are over-obligated and under-committed." What does it take to move you onto an entirely different trajectory and multiply your impact? And move from incremental improvement to a step change? It's not about having better answers but about having better questions. In this season of The Impact Multiplier CEO podcast, Richard Medcalf and co-host Davina Stanley explore some powerful questions that every CEO, entrepreneur or senior business leader should reflect on. Engage with them fully, and they'll provoke deeper thinking and shift you into a new realm of possibility.

"What's the one thing you can do such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?" What does it take to move you onto an entirely different trajectory and multiply your impact? And move from incremental improvement to a step change? It's not about having better answers but about having better questions. In this season of The Impact Multiplier CEO podcast, Richard Medcalf and co-host Davina Stanley explore some powerful questions that every CEO, entrepreneur or senior business leader should reflect on. Engage with them fully, and they'll provoke deeper thinking and shift you into a new realm of possibility.

“A goal is not a place to get to, but a place to come from..." What does it take to move you onto an entirely different trajectory and multiply your impact? And move from incremental improvement to a step change? It's not about having better answers but about having better questions. In this season of The Impact Multiplier CEO podcast, Richard Medcalf and co-host Davina Stanley explore some powerful questions that every CEO, entrepreneur or senior business leader should reflect on. Engage with them fully, and they'll provoke deeper thinking and shift you into a new realm of possibility.

“You can't move others until you're moved yourself." What does it take to move you onto an entirely different trajectory and multiply your impact? And move from incremental improvement to a step change? It's not about having better answers but about having better questions. In this season of The Impact Multiplier CEO podcast, Richard Medcalf and co-host Davina Stanley explore some powerful questions that every CEO, entrepreneur or senior business leader should reflect on. Engage with them fully, and they'll provoke deeper thinking and shift you into a new realm of possibility.

"Stop thinking about what's most successful for your bank balance, and start thinking about what's most successful for you." Alex Cheatle, CEO of Ten Lifestyle Group, speaks with Xquadrant's Founder, Richard Medcalf. Ten Lifestyle Group provides "Intelligent Support" concierge services to high net worth and affluent individuals around the world, with close to 1000 employees in 24 global offices. We are continuing our season on "CEO Success Formulae", where highly impactful CEOs share what's driven their success to date - and explore what it will take to reach the next level.

"We thought culture was fluffy but ended up realising it's crucial." Today Rob van den Heuvel, CEO of Sendcloud, joins Richard Medcalf to discuss how he navigated almost 70% annual growth over several years to become Europe's #1 e-commerce shipping platform. We're continuing our season on "Secrets of Scaling", where the CEOs from some of the fastest-growing companies in Europe and the USA (as measured by the Financial Times top 1000 rankings) share what's propelled their growth, what's held them back - and explore what it will take to reach the next level.

Hear how to make time for strategic thinking and strategic growth  Richard Medcalf describes himself as "what you get if you were to put a McKinsey consultant, a slightly unorthodox pastor and an entrepreneur into a blender." Richard is an executive coach and leadership consultant to CEOs and their leadership teams. What we hope you'll take away from our discussion is how to build your own career and amplify your story. Sometimes you need a mentor or a coach, and sometimes you are the coach. Both are hard. (I know; I currently have six mentees and it is hard.) For solutions, Richard has a number of big ideas to help you sharpen your listening skills and do things now, not just someday. Listen in, not a minute to waste! Watch and listen to our conversation here Richard really REALLY wanted to be on our podcast So much so that he sent me an email so full of reasons why that it was impossible to say no. You might try me and send along your story as well: info@andisimon.com.  Richard's reasons, in his own words: #1. I'm a fan. You had Nadia Bilchik on the show in February and I particularly enjoyed that episode. Nadia's point on being a "Go-giver just as much as a Go-getter" and her concrete tips were really interesting. Before going further I'd like to thank you for the time and energy you invest in putting this out into the world. #2. Your audience will find value in the topic I have in mind. Many of your listeners will be leading teams or businesses and hitting the "ceiling of complexity" as daily operational demands suck all their time, leaving no space for strategic thinking. I deal with this issue all the time. There are four specific shifts leaders must make to overcome this issue, and they're not the usual recommendations. I'm sure we'd have a fun and insightful discussion with practical application for your listeners. #3. You'll have a credible and engaging speaker. I'm the Founder of Xquadrant and I coach some of the world's top tech-sector CEOs and their executive teams.  Laughing with me? It worked. I was curious and from his email came a great podcast to share with you. Enjoy.  More about Richard Medcalf  Richard's clients are elite performers who have already achieved incredible things but still have the ambition to boost their impact and influence and achieve something that seems impossible right now.  After earning a Masters Degree at Oxford University, Richard started his career in a premier strategy consultancy where he rose to become the youngest-ever partner. He then spent 11 years at tech giant Cisco, eventually being selected for an elite team to catalyse strategic partnerships and new business models. After qualifying as a senior leadership consultant and executive coach, he founded Xquadrant in 2017.  Richard has dual citizenship in the UK and France, lives near Paris, is married and is the proud father of two. He is also a licensed lay minister in the Anglican Church. You can connect with Richard on LinkedIn, Twitter, his website xquadrant.com or his podcast. To book Richard to speak, click here. Could you use some help with strategic thinking? Start with these, then contact us Blog: Will You Adapt Or Die? How Cultural Anthropology Can Transform Your Business Strategy Podcast: Tony Guarnaccia—Can A Better Strategy Really Help Your Business Thrive? Podcast: Kim Bohr—Assessing Your Company's Organization To Sustain Growth In Changing Times Don't miss this opportunity to help change the future of women in business Registrations are filling up fast, don't miss out! Please join me at the Women Business Collaborative (WBC) Summit: Empowering Through Gender and Diversity, Sept. 21st and 22nd. A powerhouse lineup from the WBC Community will discuss topics ranging from building equity and diversity to increasing the number of women-led institutional funds, share how men are aligning with women to support the changing workplace, and demonstrate how women are succeeding in the technology sector. Details and registration here.

Richard Medcalf is Founder of Xquadrant and an executive coach to some of the world's most impressive and successful CEOs and their teams.  In this episode Richard shares four key insights that help his clients make real transformational progress in this area and become champions of transformational change.   https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardmedcalf/   Free course: "Freeing Yourself Up For Strategic Activity: An Executive's Productivity Paradigm" https://xquadrant.com/go/productivity   Impact Multiplier CEO Podcast https://xquadrant.com/podcast/

In this HCI Podcast episode, Dr. Jonathan H. Westover (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanhwestover/) talks with Richard Medcalf about marrying the disciplines of strategy and leadership in the service of our clients. See the video here: https://youtu.be/Rv2WIwwJHwk.  Richard Medcalf (https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardmedcalf/) describes himself as "what you get if you were to put a McKinsey consultant, a slightly unorthodox pastor and an entrepreneur into a blender". Richard is an executive coach & leadership consultant to exceptional founders & CEOs and their leadership teams. His clients are elite performers who've already achieved incredible things, and still have the ambition to 10x their impact and influence and achieve something that seems impossible right now. After a Masters Degree at Oxford University, where he came top in his year, Richard started his career in a premier strategy consultancy where he rose to become the youngest-ever Partner. He then spent 11 years at tech giant Cisco, firstly elevating Cisco's relevance in the C-suite of its Fortune 100 customers before being selected for an elite team to catalyse strategic partnerships & new business models. Richard has advised Founders and C-level execs for 20 years, from Fortune 100 companies to high-growth tech firms. Keen to marry the disciplines of strategy and leadership in service of his clients, he qualified as a senior leadership consultant and executive coach before founding Xquadrant in 2017.  Richard is bi-national English/French, lives near Paris, and is happily married and the proud father of two.   Check out Dr. Westover's new book, 'Bluer than Indigo' Leadership, here: https://www.innovativehumancapital.com/bluerthanindigo.  Check out Dr. Westover's book, The Alchemy of Truly Remarkable Leadership, here: https://www.innovativehumancapital.com/leadershipalchemy.  Check out the latest issue of the Human Capital Leadership magazine, here: https://www.innovativehumancapital.com/hci-magazine.  Ranked #6 Performance Management Podcast: https://blog.feedspot.com/performance_management_podcasts/  Ranked #6 Workplace Podcast: https://blog.feedspot.com/workplace_podcasts/  Ranked #7 HR Podcast: https://blog.feedspot.com/hr_podcasts/  Ranked #12 Talent Management Podcast: https://blog.feedspot.com/talent_management_podcasts/  Ranked in the Top 20 Personal Development and Self-Improvement Podcasts: https://blog.feedspot.com/personal_development_podcasts/  Ranked in the Top 30 Leadership Podcasts: https://blog.feedspot.com/leadership_podcasts/

Richard Medcalf describes himself as "what you get if you were to put a McKinsey consultant, a slightly unorthodox pastor and an entrepreneur into a blender". Richard is an executive coach & leadership consultant to exceptional founders & CEOs and their leadership teams. His clients are elite performers who've already achieved incredible things, and still have the ambition to 10x their impact and influence and achieve something that seems impossible right now. That can involve 1:1 coaching, taking the leadership team to its next level, or scaling high-performance culture throughout the business. After a Masters Degree at Oxford University, where he came top in his year, Richard started his career in a premier strategy consultancy where he rose to become the youngest-ever Partner. He then spent 11 years at tech giant Cisco, firstly elevating Cisco's relevance in the C-suite of its Fortune 100 customers before being selected for an elite team set up by Cisco's President and CEO, John Chambers and Chuck Robbins, to catalyse strategic partnerships & new business models. Richard has advised Founders and C-level execs for 20 years,  from Fortune 100 companies (Comcast, Mastercard, Sanofi, Sky, Orange, Bosch…) to high-growth tech firms (in AI, networking, robotics, fintech, …). He has overseen >$2B of deals. Keen to marry the disciplines of strategy and leadership in service of his clients, he qualified as a senior leadership consultant and executive coach before founding Xquadrant in 2017. Richard is bi-national English/French, lives near Paris, and is happily married and the proud father of two. He's also a licensed lay minister in the Anglican Church, and has an insatiable love for spicy food and the electric guitar.   https://xquadrant.com/ https://xquadrant.com/podcast/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardmedcalf/    A bullet point list of facts: British-born, living in France since 1999 Top of my year at Oxford University Youngest-ever Partner at global tech-sector strategy consultancy 11 years in exec roles at tech giant Cisco, including being recruited to an elite team set up by the CEO to catalyse strategic initiatives at board level Non-exec advisor to a $3B global tech company Overseen $2B of transactions Grown partner revenues 18x in 18 months Created a $100M revenue pipeline Turned around a declining business by adding $30M to revenues Secured contracts as large as $40M Released over $1B of customer benefits Worked at senior level at global brands like Vodafone, Sanofi, Mastercard, Comcast, Tesco, Air Liquide, Orange, Cisco … as well as with a host of smaller companies and high-growth scale-ups Happily married with two wonderful kids Slightly too enthusiastic about rock music and spicy food   1:1 coaching clients include: The CEO of a $3 billion worldwide IT services corporation The founder and chairman of a global fibre-optic telecoms company The UK chief executive and chairman of a global pharmaceuticals firm A Founder named Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst & Young for "growth & profitability that most can only dream of" The CEO of a scale-up tech 'unicorn' that recently raised record-levels of financing for their innovative B2B platform The COO of a leading Artificial Intelligence firm The CTO of a leading autonomous vehicle brand The CHRO of a 3500-employee global systems integrator The CFO of a B2B tech services company

The CFO and CEO's roles have an important relationship. On this episode of the GrowCFO Show Kevin Appleby looks closer at this relationship with Richard Medcalf, founder of Xquadrant . Richard is a mentor to CEOs and tells you how the CFO should work with the CEO and also how to make the jump from the CFO role to the CEO one. About Richard Medcalf Richard studied at the University of Oxford and is now a leadership strategist to top tech CEOs. He is the founder and CEO of Xquadrant. Imposter syndrome and the CFO and CEO relationship Imposter syndrome is where you may feel out of place in your new role, or as though you don't know how you have ended up with it. Richard explains how this shows that you are developing and learning. CFOs and CEOs are both senior positions meaning that you will be playing a bigger game. You will constantly be experimenting as to what will work best for you. Richard importantly states that "there is no learning in the comfort zone, and no comfort in the learning zone". The ways the CFO and CEO should work together Richard expands on how the CFO should be the CEO's right hand. He describes how the CFO should make the CEO's case for change by using the numbers to back it up but then give a further insight to the executive and the board as to what the numbers mean. CEOs look forward for goals that will improve the business. This means, a CFO cannot be completely focused on the last quarter, but also what should happen in the next. The CFO's and CEO's need for time balance CFOs and CEOs both need a high level of skill in time management. Richard covers how you need not only to be focused on projects and execute them to a high level, but also to have time for strategic activity. If you do not time manage and are not involved, it can hinder your progression in that role. Reliability to answer questions about your section of the business is important and this means you have to have time balance so you can have that availability. The jump from CFO to CEO Richard and Kevin discuss ways to make this jump; One is to make sure you are doing more than what is required of an average CFO. This includes taking a larger interest in all the sections of the business as this is a key role of the CEO. Secondly, you have to be big on vision. The CEO looks forward and looks at what the company wants to be. The CFO often looks at what has previously happened, so there has to be a balance of looking forward but also seeing what has worked in the past. Lastly, you need to be ready to leave numbers behind. It is a new role,so don't try and be a better CFO than yours. You will be expected to be well-rounded and have expertise in all areas, not only finance. How can a CFO build business relevance: Richard discusses this in two parts; He looks into why you shouldn't look to wow with your finance skills, show your business skills. You need to add perspectives and not only see the business from a finance point of view. Also look commercially at what risks would be beneficial to take. Richard then delves into why you should not only have a financial plan but also a plan for finance. This will help you to uplevel your finance function which, if you can't do, you won't be able to do for the rest of the business. Richard's website Richard's website has many complementary features to GrowCFO's lessons. It includes things such as the kryptonite test which will highlight your teams' weaknesses and areas that need management. The CFO can also utilise this as it can see what impact finance wants to make on the business. You can also find an executive productivity assessment. This will show your benchmark and how you are doing. It will also help with time balance as you can see the least prioritised areas for work. Find out more about GrowCFO If you enjoyed this podcast you can subscribe to the GrowCFO Show with your favourite podcast app.

We kick off the episode with former VP Principal Analyst for Forrester Research  Julie Ogilvie who returns to dive into her marketing greatest hits and pet peeves from her fabulous career; this week, we discuss influencer marketing for B2B.Something different this week as we get the perspective of the CEO and the C Suite, as my guest this week is Richard Medcalf founder of Xquadrant,  an executive coach & leadership consultant to exceptional founders & CEOs and their teams. As you'll hear, his clients are elite performers who've already achieved incredible things and still have the ambition to achieve more in terms of their impact and influence. After a Masters Degree at Oxford University, Richard started his career in a premier strategy consultancy, where he rose to become the youngest-ever Partner. He then spent 11 years at tech giant Cisco, firstly elevating Cisco's relevance in the C-suite of its Fortune 100 customers before being selected for an elite team set up by the President and CEO to catalyze strategic partnerships & new business models. Keen to marry the disciplines of strategy and leadership in service of his clients, he qualified as a senior leadership consultant and executive coach before founding Xquadrant in 2017.My visit to the Rockstar CMO virtual bar this week finds my friend and content marketing guru Robert Rose, Chief Trouble Maker at The Content Advisory with a suggestion to add some mystery and magic to our content marketing storytelling.  I hope you enjoy this episode, and please visit these links:The people:Ian Truscott on LinkedIn and Twitter Julie Ogilvie on LinkedIn and TwitterRichard Metcalf on LinkedIn, TwitterRobert Rose on Twitter,  LinkedIn, and The Content Advisory Mentioned in this weeks episode:Julie's website: ChubbyCouple.mediaRichard's website:  XquadrantRichard's blog post: 4 Pitfalls of High PerformersRichard's podcast: The Impact Multiplier CEO PodcastRichard's eBook: The 5 Influencer KillersRockstar CMO:The Beat Newsletter Rockstar CMO on the web, Twitter, and LinkedInPrevious episodes and all show notes: Rockstar CMO FMRockstar CMO AdvisorsThe wonderful Piano Music is by Johnny Easton,shared under a creative commons license.

Today we're wrapping up Season 3, focused on High Value-Creating Leadership Teams. Richard Medcalf recaps the main areas we've focused on in the season, and talks about how you can practically make some shifts in how your executive team creates value.

"You need to deal with the whirlwind of operations, but you also need to come out of the storm and work on the structural issues. When you do that, everything changes." As a CEO or other senior leader, how do you make sure you spend more time on the strategic topics you know really need to be addressed and not so much time on operational topics? Today we're continuing Season 3, focused on High Value-Creating Leadership Teams. Richard Medcalf and Davina Stanley discuss senior leadership teams getting stuck in operations. We also discuss the 'identity and purpose conversation' - and how to use it to avoid operational topics from swamping your team agenda.

"Events inspire, processes transform. So work on the process surrounding your offsite much more than the retreat itself!" As a CEO or other senior leader, how do you feel when after a leadership retreat you come up with a bunch of incredible ways to up-level your business, but a few months later, all those ideas have died a quiet death, and business is much the same as before? Today we're continuing Season 3, focused on High Value-Creating Leadership Teams. Richard Medcalf and Davina Stanley discuss what we can do to implement all the good stuff from our off-sites and the practical ways to maintain awareness and focus, and to eliminate lower-value activities.

"Less is more, and making a breakthrough on one major issue is more valuable than minor updates, discussions and rubber-stamping a whole bunch of smaller issues." As a CEO or other senior leader, what do you do when your leadership team meetings aren't the strategic decision-making powerhouses that you'd like and when they're frankly a bit "meh"? What's the #1 issue your team really needs to breakthrough right now? Today we're continuing Season 3, focused on High Value-Creating Leadership Teams. Richard Medcalf and Davina Stanley discuss what makes leadership team meetings flat and uninspiring. We also discuss the communication tactics and what to do if I'm a CEO and my executive team meetings need a boost.

"As a leader, it's your job to create an environment where every voice around the table is heard and every perspective is valued." As a CEO or other senior leader, how balanced are the discussions in your team meetings? Are they productive and inspiring or long-winded and unbalanced? Today we're continuing Season 3, focused on High Value-Creating Leadership Teams. Richard Medcalf and Davina Stanley discuss how to deal with and improve the quality of your leadership team discussions permanently so they become richer, more effective and balanced.

"There are plenty of teams who get on well, have a decent know/like/trust factor, are quite happy arguing over various business decisions, but who don't address the big issues together." As a CEO or other senior leader, what do you think about the quality of conversations in your leadership team? Are they bold and honest, or are there important issues that are not being surfaced? Today we're continuing Season 3, focused on High Value-Creating Leadership Teams. Richard Medcalf and Davina Stanley discuss how to create the right forums and set things up to make it easy to hold people accountable and deal with toxic behaviours. We also discuss the one big metric that will determine the level of quality discussion your team truly has.

"If there are silos in your leadership team, these will spread across the entire organisation." As a CEO or other senior leader, what do you do when everyone in your leadership team is focused on their functional silos? What are the specific negative impacts of silo-thinking? Today we're continuing Season 3, focused on High Value-Creating Leadership Teams. Richard Medcalf and Davina Stanley discuss what it looks like when your leadership team are functionally focused, the specific negative impacts of silo-thinking, and ways to shift your executive team into a more collaborative and organisation-first approach.

S3E3 - There's not enough ownership in my team "It's better to be 60% right with 100% ownership than to be 100% right with 60% ownership." As a CEO or other senior leader, do you think your team is not taking ownership of problems? Today we're continuing Season 3, focused on High Value-Creating Leadership Teams. Richard Medcalf and Davina Stanley discuss what causes high achievers to fail to take ownership of problems. We also discuss specific strategies for CEOs who want to increase ownership in their team.

S3E2 - What's holding your executive team back? “No organisation can be healthier than its number 1 team." As a CEO or other senior leader, how do you know what's holding your executive team back? And holding it back from what? Today we're continuing Season 3, focused on High Value-Creating Leadership Teams. Richard Medcalf and Davina Stanley discuss how to build an objective view of what's holding your team back from greater impact. We also discuss the different tools you can use to help you understand your team.

“There'a difference between a group of highly valuable people and a high value-creating team." As a CEO or other senior leader how do you know if your executive team is under-performing? If they are, how do you get them to become a high performing team? Today we're starting Season 3 of the Impact Multiplier CEO Podcast: High Value-Creating Leadership Teams. Richard Medcalf is joined by Davina Stanley, CEO of the Clarity First Program, and we look at what you can do to transform your leadership team from a group of high performing people to a high value-creating team.

“How do you remain resilient during the crisis and at the same time prepare for the rebound?” - Fred Trinel In this episode of our series Leadership Lessons for Challenging Times, Fred Trinel, co-Chief Executive and co-founder of Ecovadis talks with Xquadrant's Founder, Richard Medcalf. Ecovadis is the most trusted provider of business sustainability ratings, intelligence and collaborative performance improvement tools, and has just raised $200M of financing to further accelerate its growth. Fred Trinel is an international Entrepreneur. He started his first business 35 years ago and is the founder of four companies, all active today. His businesses operate in Asia, Eastern Europe and the UK, in the fields of Global Trade, Software, and Human Resources.

“How do you balance professional and personal life as well as the mental fatigue and strain that come with a crisis?" - Brooks Borcherding In this second episode of our series 'Leadership Lessons for Challenging Times', Brooks Borcherding, Chief Executive of Cloudreach, the leading multi-cloud services provider, talks with Xquadrant's Founder, Richard Medcalf. Brooks is a tech savvy, results oriented senior executive with extensive go-to-market experience and a distinguished record building, operating and leading high growth technology companies. He is a highly regarded “cloud” industry entrepreneur credited with two extremely successful transactions including the sale of NaviSite to Time Warner Cable and Datto to Vista Equity Partners.

“You can't change gear when you've got your foot jammed on the accelerator" In the first episode of the Impact Multiplier CEO Podcast, Richard Medcalf (founder of Xquadrant) and co-host Stephanie Frackowiak break down the DNA of the show. You'll understand what it's all about, what you can expect from each episode, and a little bit of background on us.

Richard Medcalf shares strategies to grow your influence despite the noise and overwhelm of the digital world.— YOU'LL LEARN — 1) The language that gets people to listen to you. 2) The two ways of effectively relating with anyone. 3) A quick trick to exude charisma and confidence. Subscribe or visit AwesomeAtYourJob.com/ep544 for clickable versions of the links below. — ABOUT RICHARD — Richard Medcalf has advised exceptional founders and senior executives in complex, fast-moving industries for over 20 years. After earning a first-class degree at Oxford University, Richard became the youngest-ever partner at tech-sector strategy consultancy Analysys Mason. He then moved to tech giant Cisco, where he held various senior positions over 11 years, most notably being hand-picked for an elite team set up by Cisco's CEO to lead new board-level business initiatives. Believing that there's no business transformation without personal transformation, he founded Xquadrant to work at the intersection of leadership, strategy and purpose and help digital-age leaders create extraordinary positive impact.• Richard's company: Xquadrant.com• Richard's Free Guide: Xquadrant.com/awesome• Richard's LinkedIn: Richard Medcalf• Richard's Twitter: @richardmedcalf— RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THE SHOW — • App: Evernote• App: Todoist• Book: Pre-Suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade by Robert Cialdini• Book: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change by Stephen Covey• Book: The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You by John Maxwell— THANK YOU SPONSORS! — • LinkedIn LearningSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Today, I'm talking with , the founder of , a strategy, culture, and leadership consulting firm. Building a strong company culture and getting high levels of commitment from your team is a struggle in any business, but it's made even harder when your staff is spread around the world, especially when you have a mix of full-time employees and contractors.  That's a situation I can relate to and I know a lot of listeners can as well which is why I'm excited to have Richard on the show today. In our chat, we dive into how to build commitment in your team regardless of if they are contractors or full-time, remote or co-located, or both. Richard breaks down how to know if you have a problem here and walks us through how you as a founder can work to fix it. So without further adieu, here's Richard Medcalf of xquadrant!