Steve Davies Online

The lion tamer uses the threat of force and if he actually uses it, he has lost. If he hits the lion with the whip and the lion figures out it doesn’t hurt that much, he’ll eat him.    

This has numerous applications in managing employees. The best example from my own experience is in the area of non-competes. All my salespeople had non-competes and when they left we sent a lawyer’s letter to them at their home (via Fed Ex to arrive on a Saturday morning) and their new employer saying that we expected the non-compete to be honored. 

While this didn’t work perfectly, it made them wary and served its purpose in slowing them down and making them act with a little more caution. Neither side really knew whether it would hold up in court, but the threat worked.

After I left, my successor decided to pursue an employee who left and proceeded to violate the non-compete. The company lost in court and from that day on the non-competes that my salespeople had signed became worthless.