The Noncompete Trigger

As I closed Leveraging Leadership Growth, I stressed the importance of constantly working to grow and strengthen every professional relationship possible. When Cindy and I left our roles in large organizations, we both had extensive networks internally but found ourselves starting from scratch externally. When I started our business in June 2015, I knew developing my network would be the biggest hurdle. In August 2015, I saw an opportunity to host a local leadership development event that would help me establish that network while adding value to the same people I hoped to someday, somehow serve. With just 60 days to plan and execute that initial event, I was truly flying by the seat of my pants. While one could argue that I do that quite a bit still today, every idea I’ve moved on since has involved significantly more preparation than that initial event.

I held that on the first Friday in October; Cindy was still working a ton of hours in her very lucrative full time role and had just accepted a new role that would require even more of her time so it was all on me. The results were modest, at best, but I started planning for a 2016 event as I walked out the door that Friday afternoon. With just a touch of experience and an entire year to prepare, I was able to triple the attendance year over year. Since Cindy had just stepped into our business full time as we held the 2016 event, she played a crucial role that day but had limited involvement leading up to it. Going into 2017, though, she was all in! And attendance grew another 50% locally.

One thing we noticed early on, which has held true for every event we’ve hosted since, was that there’s no substitute for personal touch. After hosting events for more than a dozen years, I can almost fit the number of folks who attended due to random ad campaigns on two hands; thousands of people attending over the years with maybe a couple dozen that we didn’t touch directly in some way. While we didn’t recognize just how critical that personal touch was early on, we were beginning to see that it definitely played a role. That initial knowledge would have made hosting a separate event, just two weeks after our local one, a non-started without some very powerful reasons offsetting it.

I was invited to serve on a workforce development board in late 2016, which almost immediately led to a seat on that board’s executive committee. Through that role, I got to know a few folks who oversaw the workforce development arm of a continuing education institution a few counties north of us. They were aware of the event we were hosting in our area and suggested partnering on a similar one on their campus. We had a few business relationships around them but this partnership stood to offset our concern for being able to put people in a room for this type of event. Even then, we stood on the idea of “if it’s to be, it’s up to me” and put a tremendous amount of time, energy, and financial resources into building new relationships near where this event would be held.

Within days of paying for the licensing for some of the material we’d be using for this event, we sat down with the folks at this institution to finalize the details of the partnership. We signed and paid for all the licensing on our end since the material was only accessible through our relationship with Maxwell Leadership; the institution didn’t have access to it otherwise. As we read through the contract for hosting the event on their campus, we noticed something in the fine print at the very end that was a show-stopper: it stated that anyone attending the event became the institution’s client and we were expressly prohibited from doing any business with them for the following twelve months - even if they were our existing client or attended because of our personal outreach. I called attention to this to make sure I understood it correctly, and to see if there was any wiggle room. I did, and there was not. The policy was hard and fast. Having already solidified event partnerships (we’ve never referred to them as sponsorships) with several organizations that were existing clients and being so close to stepping into our business full time, there was no way I could afford to forfeit these clients to someone else, especially when we had all the financial skin in the game at that point.

The non-compete language was the trigger that ignited wildfire. We had already paid several thousand dollars for the licensing. That was nonrefundable so that toothpaste was out of the tube. Moving forward with the institution wasn’t an option so we immediately worked to secure another venue for the event. We knew filling seats on our own would be a tall order, but we jumped in with everything we had. Soon after, we learned that the institution was sending mailers far and wide stating that they were hosting a competing event using much of the same content - content that they did not have (and could not get) a license for. Oh, and theirs was listed as being one day before ours and we had the privilege of paying for their mailers with our tax dollars.

Institutional battles test justice and courage; a single contractual flashpoint can force definiteness of decision rooted in values. Proportionately, we had far more on the line a few years prior when we were forced to take a stand against behavior that went completely against our values. Having that foundation for leaning into Hill’s attribute of A Keen Sense of Justice served us through this situation too. Yet again, we had to make definite decisions and execute definite plans - plans we didn’t expect we’d need to develop. Like so many of the adversities we faced before, this had ripple effects. We’ll work through those next. Now, though, I want you to think of a time a contract, a policy, or a system challenged your values. What blind spot in loyalty or comfort did it expose?