Successful founders and CEOs rarely stop because they’ve run out of ambition. Instead, they drift because every option in front of them fails a test they’ve never named.This essay describes the trap, reveals why the obvious ways out don’t work, and shows what gets you back on track to a bigger, more exciting future. When (continued…)
Big ideas for leaders playing a bigger game
Here’s where you’ll find the tools and ideas to help you lead your next 10X with clarity, courage, and conviction.
Read the books
The 10X Reckoning
The manifesto for elite founders & CEOs who feel restless despite their success.
Making TIME For Strategy
The international bestseller that helps busy executives free up time for what matters most.
Signature ideas & frameworks
Here are just a few of the big ideas that underpin the Xquadrant way.
The 10X Reckoning™
At some point, every successful leader faces the 10X Reckoning, and must choose between two futures.
Your Default Future is safe, respectable, and pragmatic, but no longer excites you.
Your Preferred Future both excites and terrifies you, and demands reinvention and bold moves.
The 10X Reckoning is where you stop settling for what you can achieve and start creating the future you were born to lead.
The Infinity Trap™
In a world of infinite opportunities, it’s easy for leaders to get stuck in infinite activity.
Leaders lean into ‘superhero mode’ – running harder and harder, but falling into the Infinity Trap: tunnel vision, missed opportunities, and no time to shift gears into more strategic work.
It feels productive, but ultimately leaders to incrementalism.
Conviction Compass™
When you’ve outgrown the game you’re winning, it’s not more hustle you need. It’s fire.
The Conviction Compass helps you rediscover the mission that excites you, define the Quantum Leap you actually care about, and lock in the identity shift required to lead at that level.
You’ll stop coasting, start creating, and wake up energised by a future that’s worth playing for.
The Freedom Calendar™
Your calendar is the most honest reflection of your priorities — and most CEOs are trapped by it.
The Freedom Calendar reclaims 10+ hours a week for strategic thinking and bold moves by shifting what’s on your plate, how you use your time, and where you say yes.
You’ll finally lead from altitude instead of firefighting in the weeds.
The Accountability Covenant™
If you feel like you’re dragging the business forward, your team isn’t broken – your accountability is.
The Accountability Covenant aligns your executive team, raises performance standards, and installs a culture of follow-through.
The result: a team that owns the vision, delivers at pace, and frees you to focus on the moves only you can make.
Other writing and speaking
Articles
Your annual planning process may produce alignment, priorities and a polished plan, yet still fail to create real strategic movement. Many CEOs think that’s a process problem, but the real cause is that most plans never force the costly choices that turn agreement into commitment. Here’s what actually needs to happen if your annual plan (continued…)
Your team may not lack urgency. They may simply be responding accurately to the diluted, over-negotiated, low-consequence environment you have designed. Here is what it takes to fix that, and why it runs through you before it reaches them. When teams lack momentum “When I look around the office, nobody is breaking a sweat.” François (continued…)
Have you ever walked out of a leadership offsite feeling energised and aligned… only to find that six months later, the team is operating just the same? You’ve tried the resort, the team-building, the personality assessments. Yet something fundamental never quite shifts. There’s a reason for that – and a better way to design what (continued…)
The Defining Move Podcast
Formerly The Impact Multiplier CEO Podcast.
In every episode, Richard Medcalf hands one of the world's most accomplished founders or CEOs a fictional move, already made, that changes the trajectory of their business.
You’ll learn from how they think and how they lead when the stakes rise. And you’ll discover the hidden sources of leadership leverage that take them to their next level, and will take you to yours.
Other media appearances
Here are some favourites.
