Among orchestral musicians, there is a favorite story about Fritz Reiner, the brilliant maestro and stern taskmaster of the Chicago Symphony. Reiner was famous for his tiny, hyper-controlled conducting movements (more or less the opposite of the grand-sweep-gesture Leonard Bernstein school). One day, as a joke, a double bass player brought in a pair of binoculars. As Reiner began to conduct the rehearsal, the bass player raised the binoculars and peered through. Without missing a beat (literally), Reiner continued conducting with his left hand while with his right, he scribbled a hasty note and held it up so the bass player could read it. It said, “You’re fired.” That’s one leadership style.

My father has a different one. For fourteen years, my father conducted one of the country’s most famous amateur Bach choirs (in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania). I played in the orchestra. My father’s voice is so soft, it’s often hard to hear in normal conversation; on a crowded rehearsal stage, practically impossible. However, I have noticed that not a single musician ever misses a word. Why? Because they are so quiet, a dropped pin would sound like cymbals clashing in the 1812 Overture. Why so quiet? Because they are craning to hear his every word.

I’ve seen the most cynical, don’t-tell-me New York union musician turn into putty when my father makes a suggestion. People turn themselves inside out to follow him, and would follow him anywhere. There are two reasons for this: he is superb at what he does - and they like him. That is another leadership style.  Reiner was brilliant with the Chicago Symphony. He would, I submit, have been a lousy network marketer.

Why? It’s about leadership - and leadership style.

Why is leadership so crucial in network marketing? Because of the nature of the beast. Professionals expect to be told what to do. They expect to show up, do a job (whether or not they “feel like it”) and get paid. That describes the Chicago Symphony. It does not describe the Bethlehem Bach Choir. And it does not describe us. We are amateurs. We inherently don’t expect to answer to any authority. We even tout this as a many-splendored benefit of the business: “Be your own boss, choose your own hours, choose where and how and with whom you work.” We also crave the holy grail of the “duplicable system.” Yet there’s a funny thing about a duplicable system: it only duplicates when people do what they’re told.

A fundamental contradiction: we are professional amateurs. We want a system that tells us what to do, except that we don’t want to be told what to do - and pride ourselves on the fact that even when we are told what to do, we don’t have to do it.

When True Leadership speaks - even when in a voice as soft as my father’s - people listen, because they trust. That kind of leadership, we’ll follow.