IAM1589 – Author and Coach Helps His Clients Achieve Strategic Results

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.

• CEO Story: Richard continues to work on being a coach to CEOs and Executives on how to be more strategic. If you want to get to the next level, you have to get rid of the stuff on your plate, you can’t be stuck in the operational stuff. And that is the big pain point that Richard has been working on over the years with his clients. And he turned it into a book because of the counterintuitive truths that people need to understand.
• Business Service: Coaching. The key thing from his book was T.I.M.E. Tactics – time workflow. Influence – renegotiate with people around you. Mindset – what you believe to be true and necessary. Environment – working on what’s going to be a breakthrough.
• Secret Sauce: Clarity of thinking. Drive it down into action, getting that result.
• CEO Hack: Having the structure, while having the space to have that creativity.
• CEO Nugget: Strategic laziness. Find those key activities that will change everything.
• CEO Defined: Total ownership of the project.

Website: https://xquadrant.com , makingtimeforstrategy.com

LinkedIn: richardmedcalf

Podcast: xquadrant.com/podcast

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Transcription

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00:27 – Intro

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share precisely the information you're searching for. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

00:55 – Gresham Harkless

Hello, this is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast. I have a special guest back on the show. I have Richard Medcalf of Exquisite Quadrant. Richard, excited to have you back on, my friend.

01:05 – Richard Medcalf

Yeah. Gresh, hi. It's great to see you again and look forward to having this conversation.

01:11 – Gresham Harkless

Yes, absolutely. You're doing so many phenomenal things, which I'll talk about a little bit. So super excited to have you back on. Of course, before we jumped into that conversation, I wanted to read a little bit more about Richard so you can hear about some of those awesome things he's been working on. 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's the founder of X Squadron, a trusted advisor to exceptional CEOs and entrepreneurs and their leadership teams. His new book, Make 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. Richard, again, excited to have you on the show, and hear more about your book and all the awesome things you're doing. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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01:57 – Richard Medcalf

Absolutely. Let's do this.

01:59 – Gresham Harkless

Let's get it started then. So to kind of kick everything off, I wanted to rewind the clock a little bit here, a little bit more on what you've been working on since we got started and last time we spoke.

02:08- Richard Medcalf

Yeah, absolutely. Well, the main news, since I spoke, I've still been doing all my fun work with CEOs and executives and everything else, helping them be more strategic and break through their barriers. But the big thing has been my book, right? Making Time for Strategy. Because the one thing that everybody I worked with, everybody I work with says is if I'm going to get to the next level, I have to get rid of all this stuff on my plate because I'm in the weeds.

I'm pressured from every side. I haven't got time to think. It's crazy busy, all this stuff. If I'm going to get to the next level, I can't be stuck in all the operational stuff like I am. That was such a big pain point that I worked with clients on. Over the years, I've run programs on that. I thought this needed to be a book because there are some real counterintuitive truths that people need to understand.

03:01 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. I would love to hear about those counterintuitive truths. But the title and everything just really resonated with me because I think so many times you go especially from a leadership standpoint, there's no shortage of things you can have that are on your plate. But I almost feel like. You probably feel the exact same way when you do create that time, that space, to strategize, to understand why you're doing the things you're doing. Actually, probably look at the things that you do to see what works and maybe what doesn't. That's when the true transformation happens, not when you're going, going, going sometimes when you have and create that space.

03:32 – Richard Medcalf

Exactly. So I call it the Infinity Trap. So the Infinity Trap is, first of all, we live in a world of infinity. There's an infinite number of messages streaming into our inbox, and our messaging systems keep going. The more you reply, the more you get back. So infinite, infinite number of podcasts to listen to, videos to watch, blogs to read, books to read. Every time you buy one product, you get recommended 10 more to try. Infinite people to contact over social media and engage with. So it never stops. The infinity traffic, first of all, is we get all this pressure, all these different calls on our time and attention, especially when we're in leadership.

We tend to respond by hitting the accelerator, working faster, and working harder. Until we hit what I call the ceiling of complexity, there are no more hours in the day, we can't go any faster. On one level, we're feeling good, we're feeling productive, we're making things Happen. We're ticking things off our lists, we're adding value, solving problems and so we feel pretty good, Hey, I'm. I'm doing everything, man. I'm engaged. Yet we get tunnel vision. We don't see those big opportunities that are just off-field.

You might have seen that video on YouTube where they ask you to count the number of times a basketball team passes the basketball between them, and you count it and whatever. Then at the end, they say, did you see the gorilla and there's a guy in a gorilla suit that walks right through the team away at the camera, and walks off. Everyone's so focused on counting the passes that they don't see the guy in the gorilla suit, which is ridiculous. Right? But that's the Infinity Trap.

You're so focused on the things you're focused on that you don't stop to see these huge opportunities that are there. That's where exponential success comes from. That's where breakthrough results come from. It's stopping and seeing what you're not seeing. So the Infinity Trap is that tunnel vision. You feel good, you're working hard, but you're not making. You're making just incremental progress and that's the game, right? How do we break out of that? That's why it's so important to make time for strategy.

05:39 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. I definitely gotta check out that YouTube video you gave us. You spoiled the. Spoiled the surprise. So anytime we look at it, we'll actually know. But you hear that concept so many times around like I never see this red car. Then as soon as you say it, it seems like you start to focus and you start to. It starts to become apparent. I think, as you said, it could be ridiculous not to see the gorilla in that and the suit that's in the middle of the game.

But it happens, I imagine, so often that we can get that tunnel vision. We can get that focus. While that can sometimes be a tremendous strength, it also can kind of lead us from that. Those opportunities where we do have to break through, have that transformation that you work with clients with.

06:23 – Richard Medcalf

Yeah. So the way I like to say it to my clients is you can be productive or you can be creative. We know that it's when we think creatively, when we do creative things when we work on the projects that matter and acquire our real. Our real genius, that's when we create the breakthroughs. But creativity doesn't often feel productive.

It involves reflecting, staring at a blank piece of paper, doodling, not sure where you're going, trying something, experimenting and not working, and learning. That's the creative process. You can't get out of that. Right. But when you finish, you might have a masterpiece that changes everything. So product, Often we become overly productive at the expense of our creativity and our magic.

07:15 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. I really appreciate you sharing that. Especially when we are creative, we feel like we're not productive. It's like those two things are warring against each other. But I almost feel like to truly be on a different level of production, you do have to have that as part of it. Which is why I love everything that you're doing.

Because if you don't a lot of times when you're working on a problem, you're trying to figure it out, you're working. Continue to hack at the tree, trying to make it fall down and go. You walk the dog, you take a shower, you do something, you get away from it. It seems like that's when the answers come. So it kind of seems like it's somewhat similar to what you're talking about.

07:52 – Richard Medcalf

Yeah, that's right. I guess the message from the book, the key thing that I found was that most people are looking for that extra productivity tip or trick to make them more. A bit more efficient. But you can't beat infinity by productivity. It's just not adequate for the job. You can't. There's always stuff coming. You can't work faster. So instead you have to address four things. This is the insight that I found that coaching my clients really helped because I was able to go deep and work on these different areas. It's not just installing a better filter on your Gmail that's going to make the difference.

The four areas are tactics because you do need a plan to get, to really reduce the calls on your time. You do need some blocking and tackling, and you do need to, perhaps look at your workflows. You need to kind of make sure those are tightened up for sure. But that's not enough. Then you need influence, because if you want to level up, you need to renegotiate the agreements with the people around you. Let's say you want to go on a diet. Well, your family is going to be the ones offering you the chocolate cake still, because they want to eat it, they want you to eat it. They don't want to feel bad.

Your tactics and influence and you've got a mindset. The third one, because it's what we believe to be true and necessary, desirable and possible, actually drives us. If you feel that, like, being super responsive to everybody is important because that's who you are and that's who you are, I'm the responsive guy, then you'd always be distracted by all the noise and all the pings on your phone. So you need to rethink. Well, perhaps I don't want to be the super responsive guy anymore. Perhaps I want to be the senior strategic leader. Then the last one is the environment because I wrote the book for leaders, so I wanted it to be also applicable to people who want to shape their culture in their company as well as work on their own personal leadership.

The environment is how do we actually take the rest of my team on this journey or the rest of my organization on this journey of strategic focus and working on what's going to be a breakthrough? Because if I'm the only one doing it in the business, it's going to have a limited impact. Whereas if I can get my whole team or the whole leadership in this way of thinking, then we're going to really move the needle. So you've got tactics, influence, mindset, and environment, which I was very happy to see, spells the word time, which is a great way of thinking, and remembering it. So these are the areas that I've found most people, focus on one or two of those, but they haven't really taken the whole package and that's why they're feeling a bit stuck and overwhelmed.

10:30 – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely huge. So do you feel like that's kind of like part of your secret sauce? It could be for yourself, the book, or everything that you do. Do you think it's not just the ability to understand, like how important strategy is, but also to have the tactical knowledge that you talk about in this book and I imagine that you do with the clients that you work with? Do you think that's what sets you apart and makes you unique?

10:49 – Richard Medcalf

Yeah, I think I've been trying to think about this recently what is it? It's one of the questions you're always asking yourself, right? What's the key essence? I think people say to me is it's this clarity of thinking to really understand complexity and break it down and make sense of it, but then to drive it down into action, which is really what we said. Right. So I want to understand it structurally not just stay in the clouds, but really make it concrete. What am I going to do? How do I get it into a result?

11:17 – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely. Awesome. It sounds like you touched on what might be one of those CEO hacks for you is just being able to kind of have that structure. Because I always say like that I believe the systems will set you free and the constraint. So a lot of times will set you free. So it almost feels like you feel like those two things go hand in hand. By having the structure, it allows you not to have to be as disciplined. But two, it also gives you space so that you can have that creativity that sometimes we all are skipping out on.

11:44 – Richard Medcalf

Don't feel guilty if you have some time. See that as your magic. The rest of the organization is working, beavering away probably so that you can step back and have the insights.

11:57 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. So I know you touched on some things from your book as well too. So I wanted to see if you had something else that might be what I call a CEO nugget. A little bit more words of wisdom or piece of advice. I usually say it might be something you would tell your younger business self or if you happen to be a time machine, you might tell your favorite client too.

12:13 – Richard Medcalf

Pursue strategic laziness because it's leverage. Find those key activities that change everything and just do more of those. If we're feeling, if we feel we have to be super busy and like always on the move and always knocking things out or on our to-do list, then our teams are going to have to do the same. We create the culture. Our teams are unlikely to have more time for strategy reflection and thinking than we are. They're not going to what they're going to model. That's why it's so important to be a leader and demonstrate, what you believe in.

12:52 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah.

12:53 – Richard Medcalf

Work on that and hack yourself. That's the coaching conversation. Because we can intellectually get it. I need to do this. I should be doing this. I should have more time. But what I'm interested in is, well, why is it not happening and how can I help you actually move things around? Sometimes it's tactical there are a few issues. Sometimes it's influence. You're not having the conversations you need to. Often it's mindset.

Let me actually play with the way you're thinking here or its environment. Well, I want to do this, but my team is so overloaded. I don't even feel I could give them anything extra because they're already so. Or they haven't got the skills they need yet to do it. Well, that's a strategic project that we need to address. So, yeah, we always bring what we bring ourselves and we're often the bottleneck in the whole organization.

13:39 – Gresham Harkless

Definitely appreciate that. Now I want to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO, hoping to have different quote-unquote CEOs on this show. So Richard, what does being a CEO mean to you?

13:50 – Richard Medcalf

CEO, it's about really total ownership of the project. Then from there you obviously create ownership and share it. But in a sense, it's that sense, it's that essence of the buck stops with me for this whole enterprise project. So I think that's essential.

14:07 – Gresham Harkless

Perfect. Well, Richard, truly appreciate that definition. Of course, I appreciate your time even more and I wanted to pass the mic to you one more time just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know. If you could tell us again where we get a copy of the book, take that assessment, find out about all the awesome things that you're working on, and of course how we can work with you too.

14:28 – Richard Medcalf

The first thing is, yeah, my company is called X Quadrant, so you can find that @xquadrant.com, has tons of resources. I think people quite like the kind of stuff I put out because it's a little bit playing with your thinking, a bit counterintuitive, and so forth. The book is called Making Time for Strategy and get that at Amazon or probably other places online. But perhaps the best place to find out more about that is @making timeforstrategy.com and that's where you can read about the book.

You can click on the link and do the assessment that I mentioned and just get a quick one-minute diagnostic about where you currently are as a leader. If people want to look me up on LinkedIn, that's great as well. Just kind of type in the connection request where you heard how you came across me and we can kind of strike up a conversation there as well. That'd be great.

15:25 – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely. All great things can come from just reaching out and having a conversation. So of course, to make that even easier, we're going to have the links and information in the show notes and include Richard's previous episode, 1295 as well too, so you can hear about all the awesome things there. So Richard, truly appreciate you for all the awesome things you're doing.

Of course, doing so many phenomenal things, and of course, we're going to continue to have you on and talk and hear more about that growth and that evolution. But I think what you do and what you've been able to kind of focus on with that time is so important because we often think that we can charge through to that breakthrough. But in reality, you have a different opportunity. So I appreciate you.

16:02- Richard Medcalf

It's been a pleasure.

16:03 – Gresham Harkless

Thank you awesome and have a great rest of the day.

16:06 – Outro

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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