1078: How to Stop Playing Small and Achieve Your Greatest Goals with Richard Medcalf

How to Be Awesome at Your Job

How to be Awesome at Your Job

Success, Career, Self-improvement, Health & Fitness, Sharpening, Business, Education, Selfhelp, Collaboration, Winning, Meaning, Development, Mockaitis, Skills, Training, Mental Health, Speaking, Decisions, Careers, Interview, Fun, Money, Writing, Thinking, Wins

4.6 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 24 July 2025

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Richard Medcalf gets to the heart of why so many high achievers get stuck—and offers a transformative solution for reaching the next level.

— YOU’LL LEARN —

1) Why strategy alone won’t get you to the next level

2) The signs you’re playing too safe or slow

3) The bold reframe that leads to a more meaningful life

Subscribe or visit AwesomeAtYourJob.com/ep1078 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

• Book: The 10X Reckoning: Why great leaders get stuck, play small, or go slow—and how to ignite your life’s greatest work

• Free digital version: The 10X Reckoning

• LinkedIn: Richard Medcalf

• Podcast: The Impact Multiplier CEO Podcast

• Website: XQuadrant.com

— RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THE SHOW —

• Article: “ChatGPT May Be Eroding Critical Thinking Skills, According to a New MIT Study” by Andrew R. Chow

• Study: “Your Brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of Cognitive Debt when Using an AI Assistant for Essay Writing Task” by Natalia Kosmyna et al.

• App: Streaks

• Past episode: 867: How to Stop Being Busy and Start Being Strategic with Richard Medcalf

• Past episode: 1000th Episode Special!

— THANK YOU SPONSORS! —

• Strawberry.me. Claim your $50 credit and build momentum in your career with Strawberry.me/Awesome

• Plaud.ai. Use the code AWESOME and get a discount on your order

• Rula. Connect with quality therapists and mental health experts who specialize in you at Rula.com/Awesome

• LinkedIn Jobs. Post your job for free at linkedin.com/beawesome

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	How to Be Awesome at your job is sponsored by LinkedIn Jobs.
0:04.0	When you clock out, LinkedIn clocks in.
0:07.4	Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com slash be awesome.
0:11.5	That's LinkedIn.com slash B-E-A-W-E-S-O-M-E. What would be my preferred future?
0:28.3	What would be a future that would put a silly grin on my face and feels a bit embarrassing to say?
0:33.2	Because it feels completely unrealistic.
0:35.6	Until you get to that, then why would you really bother going through the pain of an experimentation
0:41.1	of actually trying to change?
0:44.0	Don't think that your next 10x is going to come from a better strategy.
0:47.4	There is a strategic component, but that only gets you half the way.
0:51.2	The other half is the personal transformation component. Because if you just do the strategy, you're still going to be basically operating within the box of your comfort zone. So strategy is great, but it has to be paired with becoming the leader who could actually achieve a 10x future.
1:21.1	That's Richard Medcalf.
1:22.7	He's the founder of X Quadrant,
1:26.4	where it helps leaders reinvent their success formula and multiply their impact.
1:28.7	Today, he's here to share some of that wisdom and more from his latest book, The 10X Reckoning, which Richard has generously given a free copy
1:34.6	to us in the show notes. So check that out. We'll learn one, why strategy alone won't get you to the
1:41.4	next level. Two, the signs you're playing too safe or too slow.
1:45.9	And three, the bold reframe that leads to a more meaningful life.
1:50.0	And if you want a quick summary write-up of some of these actionable takeaways,
1:52.8	you can find those extra quick via the gold nugget email newsletter found at
1:57.4	awesome at your job.com.
1:59.6	I'm Pete McItis.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from How to be Awesome at Your Job, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of How to be Awesome at Your Job and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.