Richard Medcalf introduces The Defining Move podcast.
CEOs, Founders: what do you do when the next big leap isn't happening fast enough? Or when you've achieved more than you ever imagined, but haven't yet recalibrated to what's now possible?
Welcome to The Defining Move.
Most founders and CEOs respond to the next stage of growth with better strategy, stronger systems, or more capable people. Those things matter, but they rarely solve the real constraint.
The real constraint is often leadership leverage: your ability to make the bold decisions that change who you must become as a leader, build organisations that no longer depend on you, and create businesses that scale beyond your own capacity.
In every episode, Richard Medcalf presents one of the world's most accomplished founders or CEOs with a fictional defining move – an irreversible decision that changes the trajectory of their business. Together, they explore how they'd respond, what would have to change, the risks they'd face, and the leadership required to succeed.
You'll see how exceptional leaders think when the safe option disappears, discover the hidden leverage behind extraordinary businesses, and uncover practical ideas you can apply to your own leadership immediately.
Hosted by Richard Medcalf – founder of Xquadrant, CEO coach, and author of Making TIME For Strategy and The 10X Reckoning – The Defining Move is the podcast about CEO leadership, CEO evolution, leadership leverage, and scaling businesses by becoming the leader your next chapter requires.
Learn more
Xquadrant: https://xquadrant.com/ Show home: https://xquadrant.com/podcast About Richard: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardmedcalf/
Click to view full transcript.
Founders, CEOs. What do you do when the next big leap isn't happening fast enough? Or when you’ve achieved more than you ever imagined, and haven't recalibrated to what's now possible?
You’ve tried the usual things. Strategy. Systems. Stronger hires. Progress is real, but it’s incremental and often exhausting.
You know your biggest danger is impressing everyone … except yourself.
Here's what I've found after twenty years working with leaders like you. The constraint almost never turns out to be the strategy. It's leadership leverage. Either you haven't built enough of it yet, or you're sitting on leverage you haven't dared bet on.
So you push harder, and the dent you make stays smaller than the one you're capable of.
You don’t need more advice. You need to see what happens when a leader has the safe option taken off the table.
That's The Defining Move.
A defining move is a scary decision that catapults you into a different world with no way back. Saying you'll get fit is one thing. Publicly announcing you're running a marathon for charity this year? That's a defining move.
I'm Richard Medcalf. I advise founders and CEOs of fast-scaling companies from disruptive scale-ups to billion-dollar corporations, I've written two books on leadership and strategy, and in my previous podcast I spoke with over 100 elite CEOs about what it takes to create an extraordinary business.
But asking questions is one thing. Watching them step into a new level of leadership is another.
So in every episode, I hand one of the world's most accomplished leaders a defining move, already made, that changes the trajectory of their business. I take a group CEO out of his own company. I kill the cash cow of a pioneering founder. I push a biotech leader to bet everything on one disease.
We learn from their strategic response. We explore their leadership stance. And we find the hidden lever that takes them to their next level. And takes you to yours.
Episodes run under 30 minutes, so you get the insight without filler. Follow The Defining Move wherever you get your podcasts, or watch on YouTube.
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