BUFFER: The Unfair Advantage

"Essentialists accept the reality that we can never fully anticipate or prepare for every scenario or eventuality; the future is simply too unpredictable."

-       Greg McKeown, Essentialism

I am wrapping up a week where I spent a lot of time editing my personal book and also spent a couple of wonderful days in a mastermind session with Gary Keller and his top agents. The progress I made in reading my current book, Essentialism, was incremental but still pretty profound. This week’s chapters empowered readers to target their ability as leaders to execute effortlessly.

According to McKeown, there are two core approaches that Essentialists take to prepare for the unknown: 1) Build in a buffer, and 2) Practice extreme and early preparation.

Buffer in Business

McKeown providers readers with a visual of two cars driving on the interstate. There’s a buffer between your car and the car immediately ahead of you so that if the car ahead of you slams on their brakes, you would have enough time to slam on your breaks without a collision. McKeown equated this analogy to business and leading people. It is really best if you have a buffer in your business to give you the space to withstand and successfully execute a hard turn. The “space” can take different forms, of course; it can be time, financial resources, additional personnel either already in your company who can provide additional bandwidth or people on your bench ready to join your company. The key is that your built-in buffer facilitates your ability to withstand (or prevent) your company’s collision with the unknown. 

Extreme and Early Preparation

This concept is right up my alley as a military guy. When you execute extreme planning, you plan like your life is on the line, like we did when we were in combat. When you execute early planning, you give yourself a lot of time to plan so you are forced to think through all the different scenarios that could happen, in addition to what’s most probable to happen. This type of planning puts yourself in a really strong position to be a thoughtful leader. One that can react quickly and smartly to different scenarios without requiring a lot of time to make an adjustment because you’ve already thought through possible contingencies. This is a great example of your planning actually giving you a buffer to keep you navigating safely through the unknown. In the military, we used to stand around a terrain board (3D representation of the area of operations) and discuss the plan, where we thought the enemy might attack us, and how we'd react if they did. Marking out the scenario, the competitive landscape, and the hypothetical outcomes allowed us to conduct our risk mitigation well ahead of the operations.  The lesson of using a terrain board to manufacture task visualization with your team has never left me.

These tactics are not only valuable in your business but have valuable application to your personal life and health, as well.  Interestingly enough, we spent nearly a quarter of our time at the top agent mastermind this week discussing ways to improve our physical health – how to make our bodies, hearts and brains healthy – and relevant tactics for achievement in those areas. And these attendees around me, who are all at the top of their game in their businesses, were fascinated about learning more about this topic. Your health is certainly something that benefits from extreme and early preparation. And the results don’t lie – when you plan and protect the time to consistently exercise, meal plan and meal prep, research and prioritize optimal nutrition and sleep, you will be at the top of your game when it comes to your personal health.

Don’t neglect to add that buffer in – to your business and personal lives. Plan early and plan like your life is on the line – because it is.  

Written by Schuyler Williamson

REALTOR. Leader. Veteran. Business Owner. Investor.

Weekly Email List: https://www.schuylerwilliamson.com/weekly-leader-note

God Bless!

~ Schuyler Williamson