As a founder or CEO scaling your business, what do you do when the next big leap isn't happening fast enough? Most CEOs respond by making time for strategy, improving strategic execution, hiring stronger leaders, or working even harder. Eventually you hit a business plateau, because the real constraint isn't strategy or systems. It’s Leadership Leverage – your ability to make bolder decisions, break the CEO bottleneck, build executive team ownership, and create a scaling culture. And leverage grows when a CEO makes a defining move – an irreversible decision that changes who they must become to lead the next version of the business. That's what this show explores. The Defining Move is a podcast about CEO leadership for scaling businesses, and the CEO transformation that drives the next level of growth. Unlike other CEO leadership shows, we don’t discuss past successes. We watch what happens when elite leaders face high-stakes challenges. In every episode, Richard Medcalf hands one of the world's most accomplished leaders a fictional defining 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. Richard Medcalf, founder of Xquadrant, CEO coach, and author of Making TIME For Strategy and The 10X Reckoning, has advised founders and CEOs of scaling businesses for over 20 years – from disruptive scale-ups to billion-dollar corporations – on CEO leadership, CEO transformation, and executive team development. The show helps founders and CEOs strengthen their CEO leadership, accelerate CEO evolution, and build businesses that can scale without becoming dependent on the founder. Episodes explore founder & CEO leadership, CEO transformation, CEO accountability, executive team ownership, vision execution, strategic execution, strategic leadership, strategic decision making, leadership leverage, founder bottlenecks, CEO bottlenecks, scaling culture, CEO evolution, business plateaus, and the defining decisions behind extraordinary companies. You'll also discover Richard's practical frameworks for CEO transformation: Leadership Leverage, Leadership Constraints, The Defining Move, The 10X Reckoning, and other ideas that help founders and CEOs evolve to lead organisations that scale faster than their own personal capacity. Questions we explore include: How do you break the founder/CEO bottleneck? What creates leadership leverage? How do you build executive team ownership and accountability? Why do leadership teams struggle with strategic execution? How do you create a scaling culture? How do you build an accountability culture? How do you scale without becoming the centre of every important decision? What separates CEOs who hit a business plateau from CEOs who create extraordinary businesses? What does CEO evolution entail? When is it time to make a defining move? How does CEO transformation drive business growth? If you're building a scaling business and believe your next breakthrough depends on your own CEO evolution, not simply better strategic decision making, you'll feel at home here. Popular Episode Topics Include: CEO Leadership, CEO Transformation, CEO Accountability, Executive Team Ownership, Founder Bottleneck, CEO Operating System, Vision Execution, Vision Execution Gap, Strategic Leadership, Strategic Decision Making, Scaling Culture, Accountability Culture, Leadership Leverage, Organisational Leverage, Business Plateau, Scaling a Business Without Burnout, and CEO Evolution. Previously published as The Impact Multiplier CEO, this podcast continues to explore CEO leadership for scaling businesses through a new format centred on defining decisions and CEO transformation.