Joe nodded and tried to hand the baton back to Maestro who shook his head and said, “No Joe, keep it. I have more.” As Joe left the rehearsal hall, he headed back to the reception and huddled with his team. “Everyone, I need you to go back to the hotel and re-work your presentations. We’ve tampered with the essence of our company — make sure the message, the look and the tone is in harmony with who we are as a company. Our company’s story is like a great masterpiece — that composition shouldn’t be tampered with; actually, it should be protected. Each of you are like sections of the orchestra, you need to be in tune, in harmony and in sync with each other. My job is to make sure that you’re each playing the right parts, that I have the right people playing the right roles. I’m looking forward to your performances, and I’m con昀椀dent that they’ll have passion.” Dotty handed a document to Joe. “Joe, here’s the Customer Treatment Standards presentation. You’ll need to brush up on it since you’re going to be presenting it.” Joe reached out and took the document, responding, “Thanks, but Bill needs to conduct that session. As you work on the presentations, my job is to 昀椀nd Bill and hand that baton to him.” Three days later at the conclusion of the dealer meeting, after Bill’s speech on customer retention, Joe took the stage and asked all who had contributed to the meeting to stand up and be recognized. As the dealers applauded, Joe experienced something he had never seen at an annual dealer meeting: a standing ovation. He remembered the Maestro and thought, This is what leadership feels like — it’s extraordinary. DA DA DA DAAAAAAAAA!! 18