Transcript: Interview with Richard Medcalf of Xquadrant
Davina Stanley 0:10
It's Davina Stanley from the Clarity First Program here, and today I had the very great pleasure of interviewing Richard Medcalf from Xquadrant. Now, Richard has got some terrific things to say about strategy and about influence, and about all of the sorts of things that need to happen as we transition from being an expert in an area or perhaps a solo practitioner, toward leading a team and then potentially moving further up the chain just having greater influence and also being more strategic. So I'll hit now into the conversation with Richard, and I hope you enjoyed this one today. Remember? Exactly. Alright, well, there we go. So welcome, Richard, thank you so much for making your time today. I loved coming across your website and actually was listening to a question The first place I came across you, and hearing how impact matters such a lot to you, and how you really love finding or working with leaders at that intersection between purpose and strategy, leadership strategy, how you bring those things together for leaders and and as they filter those things through their teams. So thank you for being with me today.
Richard Medcalf 1:23
Yeah, thanks, Davina. Yeah, it's great to be here. Yeah, you're right. Those things are important to me, deeply important. Purpose, because I think that actually we all want to make a difference in the world, where it matters. Strategy because frankly, we haven't gotten enough time to do everything so we have to have a plan, right? We have to know what's actually going to make a difference. And, and leadership because often, the way that we create our impact in the world is going to be with and through other people and we need to know how to bring the best out of the people around us. And so I think those three things for me are deeply important to who I am. I think my little secret is that, you know, I've got a, you know, what people may say is an impressive CV, but that deep inside my secret is, I'm desperate for more impact, right. And those things for my clients as well, people who have already achieved a lot, and you know, there's another level that they want to get to.
Davina Stanley 2:22
Yeah, no, I love that. And I think, you know, having worked in consulting, and then just, you know, for a long time now, just seeing that that passion that comes from people and who really want to get the most out of out of everything that's going on. It's a really fun place to be. And when I was listening to the podcast, and I was hearing a bit more about your journey, you talked about that pivot you made from being an expert, to being somebody who had influence and it seems to me that probably that experience was to want to not overuse the word pivotal in the way you're thinking and shaping the work you do. Can you tell us a little bit about how you made that shifts from being an expert and a consultant to being an influential leader.
Richard Medcalf 3:06
Yeah you're right, it's a key one. And I think if I look back at my career, to be honest, that my main, it was to do something differently, I would probably be around be around that transition because I probably waited a bit too long of resting a bit on my laurels, probably because I was pretty damn good at what I was doing as an individual contributor, right. And therefore, I could ride that wave. And it's comfortable, right? And it was, I was able to impress people by doing that. And, and yet, I started to realize, you know, you can do the best project you want or the best piece of work. But it could very easily end up sitting on a shelf, or being deprioritize in the next phase. Yeah, or you don't get that coalition around you of people who actually want to drive this forward and so I think for me, that was a key moment realizing that actually, more, you know, more technical expertise, if you like, wasn't going to have the impact that I wanted. And so there was that part and so starting to come into this sense of well, what, what the people around me need, what are they looking for? And how can I contribute to that? And then I think at a deeper level, I asked myself a question, which I often ask my clients, which is, you know, what am I going to be saying to my grandchildren and my great grandchildren when I'm old and gray, and they're on my knee, you know, and often what I did with my life, and the answer I came up with at the time I was working at Cisco, and I came up with Well, I don't want to tell them that I helped increase the EBITDA margin of AT&T by 0.5%. And there's nothing wrong with that, you know, and I've been doing a lot of work with telecoms operators. That's why this thing came into my mind this phrase, I don't quite know where it came from but nothing wrong with helping companies improve their margins or anything like that. And I still do that. But, but that wasn't the story. Right? That wasn't the story that I wanted to tell. Yeah, that wasn't going to be the thing that lit me up. And so that was why I say, Well, what is it that I that actually would light me up and I think most people, it comes down to some impact on people. And for me, my impact was I want to catalyze people who already highly competent to make this massive impact, much bigger impact than they're made to date. And, of course, you know, the impact we long to make, you know, for other people is often the impact we want to make on ourselves as well. Right. That's the secret. So that's my journey.
Davina Stanley 5:44
Yeah, fantastic. No, I can really understand that and resonate with that idea of being the expert and then wanting to broaden out and help other people. And so when you talk about having that influence on other people, I can understand the people but how do you do that? In a practical sense, you know, you've moved out into your own space now. But before you did that, when you're working at Cisco, you're starting to need to have more influence internally and so on. What were the things that you did or that you tried to gain more influence so you could have that greater impact within an organization? What did you do?
Richard Medcalf 6:21
Yes, I think there's a few areas, I think, I mean, I think the first thing I would say, for as a principal, right, is that there is operations and there is strategy. Operations is getting results now and we're very often trained to do that. We're often trained to knock out the results this week, this month, this quarter this year. And then there is strategy and for me, strategy is the art of making future results easier.
Davina Stanley 6:55
Nice, okay.
Davina Stanley 6:56
Okay. So you've got you've got the machine today. machine, then you go tinkering with the machine to improve it for the next month. And so I think often influence comes from actually helping people start to think about where they could be in the future that's going to make it easier for them to be more successful. And so, I think it's okay to focus on Well, what can we do right now? And what are the incremental adjustments we can make in the business and all the operational? Fine, but I think actually having people tap into what would be amazing in a year or quarter and helping actually people kind of emotionally connect to why that's important. I think after often we stay at this very intellectual, especially in business, we fear to go almost past the intellectual level. And yeah, these are the facts but I think it's important to really find out with the other person what's, what's going on. Theres an example I can give I was working with them. So I was it. I was part of a team at Cisco, set up by the CEO to really go and do cross functional, cross company business partnerships with new strategic partners. And we went to work with one company. And basically, the two CEOs had met and got excited and said we should do something exciting. And we got the phone call to say, we don't know what it is, but go and make it happen. And the CMO, we had a first meeting with the chief marketing officer, and, okay, they're a little bit skeptical that had some experiences with the company in the past and they weren't entirely sure what were these guys here to do? And they're trying to sell us something, are they, what are they, you know, they try to pay the CEO card to force us to do things we don't need to do. And so it's okay is good meeting but you know, there was like, Okay, well come back and we'll explore a little bit a bit tentative. And we got to a conference call a couple of weeks later just to review the progress we've made. And see the CMO turn up a bit late but he thought he was on mute as he's talking to his chief of staff. And he was like, What are these guys, what are these guys doing? You know? And he was kind of being very negative in the background about Oh, why do I have to call these with these guys. And so he was starting from a very negative place. But we turned him around because, he started, we got on the call and we went through and I think we found out much later he said to it, okay, these guys have been listening to me. And they're not here to push something. They're actually been drawing upon what we need.
Davina Stanley 9:44
So not just listening while the mic was not on mute, but listening through the process as well. That was just clarifying in my own mind. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 9:58
Okay, him No, no, no. So it was really about actually been paying attention to, to actually what was required. And I remember he took me to his office a couple months later and said, you know, Richard, you've been doing the Lord's work. I remember the phrase, you know, he said, because you've, you've been doing the hard graft, you know, and this is not like a short term payoff for you, I realize that, but we appreciate it. And we see that there's your know, there's real effort here to find a way to create something that's beneficial. So in a way influence you get when you start to help people get what they want, right? At the end of the day.
Davina Stanley 10:33
Isn't it interesting because it could be you could tend to think that influencing and communicating up and communicating out is all about putting stuff out there. But actually, you're saying quite the reverse aren't you. Your saying, you know, listen really well and do good things for other people and demonstrate that you're there, your committed if you like, and people will respond to those things.
Davina Stanley 10:56
I'll give you another example from an executive at a global tech company that I've been coaching, executive coaching. And she has a really key technology project that she's been asked to figure out and to promote, it's going to really make a difference in the way her company relates to comfort to partners and customers. And she said to me, Well, I've got this key meeting with two of the key regional CEOs, the key regional leaders, and I've already been getting negative vibes from them. They're not sure this project is a good idea. And, you know, the question she came to the coaching session was was, well, how do I convince them? You know, and that's exactly the motion, you were saying, I'm gonna need to, like, tell, explain. And so many times I hear this and it's just one example but it's repetitive. It's like, I need to get them to understand , I need to get them to buy in and it's a pushing motion and is a definitely a space and a time to be clear and very precise. But I said, well get curious, right? Just put your agenda in the background for a second, like, these sensible people. Perhaps start the conversation by saying, Hey, I'm curious, because we have this project we've been talking about and personally, I can just see all the benefits. I think it's going to be incredible, it's going to do a, b, and c. But I'm aware that you know, you're not convinced. And I'm really interested by that because there must be something here that I'm missing or I'm sure you've got an interesting perspective about what's the issue, you know. I'd love to understand what you know, where you're coming from on this and what you're thinking of, actually. Rather than trying to kind of arm wrestle them into submission, just get curious and get on the same side of the table. So I often pick up like an object in coaching, like a cup, right? So I would, rather than put it between us and make it like this is the thing that we're wrestling with, I kind of put it to the side and say, well, look the two of us, let's talk about this thing. Have you noticed this, and it might be a relationship issue. You might have noticed recently that the two of us we, in meetings, we seem to be having big debates in the middle of the board meeting, all right, or in a team session, you know, I'm just noticing that we are throwing little bards at each other, what's going on there, because that's not normally how we are, what's going on and get curious about it. And so I think that idea of, I call it push and pull, you know, it's like you need both. Some people some of us are great at pushing and telling and demanding and pressuring people, frankly. Others are great at drawing people out and listening but the flip side is we then don't make our needs or requirements clear. So push and pull. I think they're both key leadership skills.
Davina Stanley 13:52
No, I like that and having some discernment as to know which to use when is part of the key and I guess that comes with experience and maturity, doesn't it? So no, I love that. And that sense of curiosity I think it's really engaging, isn't it? Because people love being asked about themselves. They love talking about themselves and their own point of view. So if unsure, let them talk. And it gives you some time to think if nothing else and just observe and really calibrate, doesn't it?
Richard Medcalf 14:20
Yeah, exactly. And I think people, when people have a chance to talk about it, and they can be much more open, you know, if they're not feeling that they're having to justify their position. Yes, you invested in that position, then it can actually evolve because they're not in that fight or flight, defensive posture.
Davina Stanley 14:41
Yes, yeah. No, I can see that being being really helpful. And I think that this does take some preparation, doesn't it? It does take some time to actually think about when you're going into a meeting or into a discussion, and just being aware of the vibes and aware of the relationship as well as the material that you want to convey and being crisp and to the point where wherever you need to be. So how do you carve out the time to take that extra leap to be influential, to be strategic, to really think about the best way to handle these conversations? There's so much going on, you've got to deliver so much. How do you actually carve that time out? What are your suggestions?
Unknown Speaker 15:20
Yeah. So I think there's there's a couple of things, right. There's, there's influence and the strategy, and we should be careful about not to mix those up, right.
Davina Stanley 15:27
Yes. So yes.
Davina Stanley 15:29
So I think, yeah. One thing that I say let's talk about that strategy to start with, because I think once you have that, then you can be influential around it. And so I think, you know, the first thing is that we need to identify the moments of truth where we can have a chance to convey our strategy right and convey a key points and insights about the business and where it's going and what needs to happen. And so a moment of truth might be, well, you know, I have my management meeting, right? Or I'm gonna be invited into the board meeting. And so be very clear about this is the moment where I need to show up as a strategic leader. I think that's that's really helpful. And then when you have that is to decide that is when I need to be concise and deliver my point, and you're the expert in this, with real precision. So I liken it to the I think it's the third Mission Impossible film, where they kind of basically start in the first 10 seconds. He's basically they're counting down, they're about to shoot Tom Cruise, and it's like three to one, bam, and then the screen goes black, then the film begins and you've totally hooked, because oh my god, they just killed the hero in the first 10 seconds, What the hell's going on and so you've kind of delivered the punch line and then you're like, well, what? What's going on there? Why don't you know what happened?
Davina Stanley 17:07
Creating curiosity again, using curiosity again?
Unknown Speaker 17:10
Yeah, so you create curiosity and you and the number of leaders I've worked with who have been, who have turned around their perception because previously people were like, are these are just like, operational, like low level people. They come in, they kind of waffle about this stuff, it's not concise. And just begging them to go, Okay, this is a key moment for you. What is the number one insight and lead with it, don't do 20 slides of context and then get to your point, lead with the key point. And then say, I'm now going to give you three reasons why this is so important, or these are the three reasons why we can conclude this. And suddenly, you're in control of the meeting. And you haven't got people flipping ahead in deck saying Well, yeah, yeah, where are the financials. Where's the actual you know, here's the recommendations right on the last page.
Davina Stanley 18:03
I love that. And I love that I didn't prime me to say that too!
Richard Medcalf 18:08
Well this came out in the last in last week, right? This is that kind of thing. And so I think showing up as a strategic leader is often about those moments of truth, where other people get re-evaluate, who are you? And where are you?
Davina Stanley 18:22
It's a it's a real opportunity, isn't it? And I think though, one of the things that people in my world ask me, they say, look, I know I need to do this. But I also know that it's going to take me quite some thinking, particularly perhaps when I'm transitioning to a role where I haven't done a lot of this before. Yeah. So how do I carve out time? Just thinking of the week it's so busy delivering, how do I separate myself from that? What is some sort of maybe tactics even not, not the biggest thing, tactics for actually carving out that time other than taking it home and working on the weekends, you know, putting that off limits?
Richard Medcalf 18:57
That's a great belief. In, in boundaries, right, because boundaries will actually create pressure in the system, healthy pressure. So, you know, like, if we're going to go on vacation on Friday, then we, we get our work really productive right the day before so we can go off. And so I tend to recommend people no, this is my work week, right? And therefore I'm not just going to add on to it, but I'm going to reprioritize and what I think the most the simple, simplest hack it really is to number one block out some time in your diary, like a time when you go, Okay, I can spend, I'm gonna take an hour to do first of all, simply something strategic, right. Second thing is you have to label that in your diary. Something that makes it so important you're not going to delete it. You just been thinking time or like block, then as soon as somebody is asking for a meeting ago, got some time there, delete, and it's gone.
Davina Stanley 20:10
I like that, especially in situations where others can actually see your diary. There's plenty of companies that see that, and they think no, no, no, no, I'm gonna call him and get around that. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 20:23
Yeah, exactly. So you might label it. You know, if people can see it, you can just leave it at whatever you want. I mean, I know somebody who, on a Friday afternoon it was actually I think, it was like a consultantso she was working for herself. So she didn't have to, she could do her time and she won. But even so she blocked her Friday afternoon for her baby child. Yeah. And she described it as executive board meeting. Because you know, that my my keys you know, my client, my child, right? Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yes. Most important person for me so and, and so for her it was helpful because it was like, Oh, yeah, this is my executive board meeting and she could say to people, Yeah, I've got executive board meeting on Fridays, right? So it just helped her remember how important it was.
Davina Stanley 21:06
And have the language like a contextually appropriate language just to close out and not even think it's removing that thinking, isn't it? like not having to sort of fudge it or create something on the fly as well?
Richard Medcalf 21:19
Yeah, exactly. But otherwise, you might just book something, you know, if you if you can give people creative other name, you might come up with a name, which is like, you know, it might just be you know, drive strategic change, right, or improve my future, right? Or, you know, work on systematically getting out of my overwhelm or whatever, whatever it is that actually gets you to go, I need to do this. There has to be important, so for you to be the one to do it. And then I think the next thing is, you just need to figure out as quickly as possible, it might not be on the first second, but like you need to really start to figure out what am I going to do with that? Time, okay, because if it's ambiguous, like, Oh, I get a think, there's always something more concrete that you can do.
Davina Stanley 22:08
Yes, so true.
Unknown Speaker 22:10
So I think you don't want every week to be like unstructured thinking time. Unless you've really got into the habit of using that if you haven't got a habit of it, you're not going to do it regularly. Right? So what you might say is, I'm going to spend some time figuring out what's my number one strategic project. So this is really so what I'd say is, what would be the one thing which I could deliver, either in my own life or in my team or in the business? It will make the most difference if I could, if we could achieve this in the next month or the next quarter or next six months. Now what about so rather than even if you've got huge vision, well, what would be the one thing that would make the biggest difference what the finish line, I think we have to have a finish line. Otherwise, it's just an ongoing struggle striving towards the future. We just get demoralized, right? We need to have a mile you need to have finish lines in the race, right? Or you need to if you're running a marathon and you need people to cheer you on after you've done the first mile or the second mile, you're making progress.
Davina Stanley 23:19
Definitely, yes.
Unknown Speaker 23:22
So I tend to say is like once, you know, once a quarter, have one session where you really get Okay, what's my thing at the moment? Why what's the one thing
Davina Stanley 23:32
and to really focus on that and to drive towards it
Richard Medcalf 23:35
and get it done rather than having four things that are going to take you a year to complete have one thing that's gonna take your course to complete or, yeah, and then really compress it and then move on and then it's already working for you in the business. You've already got a capability built. So often, we, think that more is better and we just had on and so many people they have so many projects going on, so many And none of them are really moving forward. And you have to define one and say do it. And right now, I ended up launching my podcast. But I've got tons of other ideas of things I want to do my business. But I know it's like, I just need to, like, get this thing done. So it's, you know, it's launched and it's under control. And then I can do the next thing. But if I try and do that, and launch a new program, and do a marketing campaign, and all these things, they're all going to take long time, and I'm going to be jumping from A to B to C to D, all the time.
Davina Stanley 24:36
Now that's right. And you end up context shifting, which was what we were talking about offline before, which is, I think people forget how draining that can be and how actually, it can, it takes such a lot of time to move our minds from one context to another to another. And I think you know, in this world of multimedia, we just forget that we really ought not have loads of things going on at once because it feels a little bit like the normal doesn't it The younger people I see with Facebook open and they're working at the same time, and they've got music on as well and they're flitting between them and coming kind of think that that's not a strategy for success. So I agree with you that that sense of focus is really valuable. And it's so simple yet so easy to stop doing.
Unknown Speaker 25:20
Yeah, I mean, a couple of ideas around that. The first one is to download a tool like I use RescueTime. Which readers tracks everything you do on your computer. Yeah, a bit tricky, but it's, it will tell me literally how many hours I spent on email last week. How many hours did I spend on zoom? Or?
Davina Stanley 25:43
Okay, I'm gonna write that down. Rescue time.
Unknown Speaker 25:48
There is a free version, which is also pretty good. But the premium plan gives you extra reports and things and I don't use it all the time. But it's great to go back and if I need to actually go, where do I spend my time?, I can see without doing any effort, right isn't, you know, you could do that manually if you wanted to, but it takes effort. So I find that that gives me some data. And so the complementary activity is doing a commitment inventory. A commitment inventory is you say, Okay, What I need to do? Or what, what what am i needing to do every single week? And probably every month because we tend to have monthly rhythms and weekly rhythm. So what am i weekly activities and what are my monthly activities? So you might say, well, I need to know, what are my commitments? Well, I'm committed to delivering a report to my boss, right? I'm committed to doing an email newsletter. I'm committed to one on one calls with my team. I'm blah, blah, blah, right? So you go through and you write down under, probably under a few categories, you know, that you mean deliveries, your management, your team, whatever. And another thing is that you kind of want to achieve with your commitments and then I just say how many hours is that going to take? We're like, I'm committed to answering my emails. You know? Like, that's gonna take some time. I mean, how much time is that I can use rescue time. Okay. Right now it's taking me this much time.
Davina Stanley 27:13
That's helpful, yes.
Unknown Speaker 27:15
I start actually get down to Okay, this is how I am spending the 40 or whatever hours it is in, you know, in the week, where I'm being productive. And what that does is you suddenly go, okay, this is a fixed quantity.
Davina Stanley 27:30
Okay, boundaries again.
Davina Stanley 27:33
And so am I spending on operations? How much on strategy Do I have enough time? Is that the balance I'm happy with? Because at the end of the day, I work with the client, he's a lovely exec, and he's got brilliant people skills. He knows how to motivate his team. His best work is done in the corridors and on the phone. And yet, when we looked at his time, he was spending about a third of his week on email, because he was trying to get, he had so many demands on his time, and even 40% because he was having to respond to the board and Team and like, okay, there's a problem here, right? Your genius zone is with people. And yes, your time behind your computer, knocking out emails. When you realize that then you can start to be strategic and say, is that my highest value activity?No, I need to put boundaries around it.
Davina Stanley 28:30
Now, I love that the idea of the genius zone I've heard someone else talk about, and they had a different name for it, but that and then the drudgery zone. And you know, making sure you separate those two things out and make sure the drudgery zone gets automated or delegated out, then it's a distraction zone as well which you know, is one to avoid as well. Things that are fun to do, but don't necessarily add a lot of value.
Richard Medcalf 28:52
I think Michael Hyatt uses those, I think.
Davina Stanley 28:55
It is yes.
Richard Medcalf 29:00
And in really practical ways, we've talked about, you know, we talked about putting that strategic hour in there. And we just talked about email so the word I use and words are really helpful because it locks in our mind is prisons and fortresses. Okay, so your prisons are what thing is do I need to keep within a certain band like I'm doing email from four to 5pm you know but not all throughout the day? That's my prison. Well, I'm going to do it like an admin burst on a Friday afternoon for like, an hour and a half where all my admin for the week is done on my desk and I'm done. So prison and then a fortress is the opposite fortress is the things which protect our protection zones I need to protect this time for strategic thinking, I need to protect this time for working on my number one project. I need to protect this time for you know, frankly, seeing my family. What are the fortresses which would be immobile things?
Davina Stanley 29:59
Yes.
Davina Stanley 30:00
I had a fortress many, many years which was running you know is like, I don't mind moving it I need to go for a run in the week. I don't mind moving it around according to my agenda, but I don't delete it.
Davina Stanley 30:12
I'm with on that, you know, with my yoga three times a week and make sure that it actually happens and scheduling things around it just because those sorts of things and they're both, you know, personal activities, but they do make such a difference to energy and make sure we can keep, keep going. So I love that idea of the fortress, where you're keeping things out of it, making sure that you know, you're keeping the barbarians away, if you like. And then that notion of the prison, we're keeping it inside a particular space and not letting it sort of infiltrate the rest of your week. I think that's a great concept to close on. They're very, very powerful images and very, very useful for people. So no, thank you for those. Look, I've learned such a lot from our conversation. Thank you so much for your time. I think we did talk about having some sort of opportunity for people if they'd like to make contact with you to do so. And did we have a link in mind? Was it Xquadrant.com/clarity or something like that that people do? Go and find some more information about you? You've got some really great materials.
Unknown Speaker 31:14
Yeah, absolutely. So I think there are I say there were three, three things that might be interesting. So the first one yet is I have another resource called How to Lead Strategically When There's Already Too Much To Do. So this is fantastic. People who feel Yeah, I've got a lot of on I've got my team. I've got all my operational stuff. What are the questions I should be asking myself, right, what are the different shifts to make? It's just a very simple checklist of some key questions and key ideas. So very digestible, and you can get that Xquadrant.com/charity program. And, in fact, I'll make it Clarity First right, that's your brand.
Davina Stanley 31:57
Lovely. Thank you. Yes.
Richard Medcalf 31:58
So Clarity First is called actually, I've changed the URL. So Xquadrant.com/clarityfirst. And second thing is, I've just been saying probably by the time this goes out over time people are watching it, my podcast will be alive. And that's called the Impact Multiplier CEO. It's the CEOs, but also people who want to think like CEOs. And it's at the intersection of strategy, leadership and purpose. And the first series is around that what I call the five impact multipliers, which executives is like we can't multiply our own time and that time is fixed, but what are the ways in which we can kind of rather than incrementally add on what are the ways in which you can multiply our impact through our team through strategic thinking through building commitment in others and so that now could be interesting place you can find that probably wherever your podcast is, or you can go to Xquadrant.com and uou'll find it on on the on the website as well. And then finally, I guess it's just a summary which I've been doing for a number of people at the moment, which is, I make a space pretty once or twice every couple of weeks for to coach somebody who's going through a new leadership challenge. And it's not a client. I don't do any really hard selling but I just enjoy broadening my client base on boarding people and working I've worked with I've coached and giving back to people you know, who perhaps are going through that new new phase in leadership, perhaps they've got a new role, or they've stepped up or they're trying to break into a new level, or they've got a team issue that they're really struggling with or wrestling through. And so I tend to offer say, one or two slots every couple of weeks for people just to get an experience of what it's like to be coached and to help them right through that, so it's not for everybody, there has to be kind of a, I guess a pressing needs and in which they can really see is, is key. And they can find the details of that on the website as well. If you're interested, you can go to Xquadrant.com/speak. So they are the PDF is a podcast, and then there's an opportunity to speak live, if that's helpful.
Davina Stanley 31:58
That is wonderful. That's very, very generous. And I think, just as we do, rep, I do have one more question for you. Xquadrant and you're talking about the multiplier and all of that. And I know you've got a lovely consulting graphic with, you know, four boxes on it. Just wrap up by telling us how did you come up with that name? It's cool. How did you find it? or How did you come up with it?
Unknown Speaker 34:41
Yeah, I've actually got a little manifesto on the website, which you might better find his shows a bit more about it. But um, yeah, I mean, you know, as a consultant, I was a consultant for many years, right. And having that two by two matrix for the next in the corner is a classic thing. So there's actually couple of things going on in that. Obviously, the first one is the domain name was available, which is always important. But and seriously, I suppose there's a few things. The first thing is the x stands for multiplication, right? Because that's how we create exponentially bigger impact is when we think into multiplication, having multiply ourselves our impact. The second thing is it's about insight. Because often you find yourself with an either or choice. You know, do it like do Ihave more time for myself? Or do I go for the promotion? Or you know, whatever it is, but once you could do both, what how would you? What would that look like? How could you actually be more successful than ever, and have more freedom than ever? What that well, that's an that's a new dimension, you forgive those, that choice around in two axes, and it creates a new opportunity. So that's also what the S quadrant stands for, and also stands for ambition really, because There's always a place to be getting to. Right. It's always worth what's that next place for me? And so those are those deep, all those things important to me, I think inside ambition and, and multiplying impact.
Davina Stanley 36:14
Wonderful. No, that's terrific. Well, thank you so much, Richard, for coming and talking to us today. And everyone, you can find more about Richard's work at Xquadrant.com. And we'll have a link below the recording here for you to go and go directly. So thanks again. And we look forward to talking with you again soon offline.
Richard Medcalf 36:34
Thanks Davina. It's been a pleasure.
Davina Stanley 36:35
Pleasure. Bye bye.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai