John Maxwell once said, “The pessimist complains about the wind. The optimist expects it to change. The leader adjusts the sails.”
Learning the art of leadership is one of the most important parts of a young person’s period of growth. For some, leadership is taught in classes and in training sessions. For others, leadership is a skill that is learned by experience and interaction with the people around them.
The task of leading other people begins in small settings and at a very young age. Being the leader of the group for a class project, or being a captain in a sports team at school shows us the basics of what teamwork and leadership entails. However, as we become older and take on more daunting roles, we may come to the realisation that leadership can be quite complex.
Recently, I discovered that the terms ‘upstage’ and ‘downstage’ come from the subject of theatre arts, and the words have a very literal meaning. Many professional stages in the western world are built with a slight elevation so that the back of the stage is higher than the front portion of the stage. The specific reason architects chose to build the stages in this manner was so that the actors who were playing roles that required them to be at the back of the stage were not hidden by their counterparts who occupied the front of the stage.
The elevation is generally quite small and not truly disruptive for experienced actors or singers who perform on the stage. It must be noted, however, that dancers are also artists who use these tilted stages. Unfortunately, it takes quite a bit of skill and training for them to learn to balance and perform well on these stages. This is especially difficult for ballet dancers whose entire art form is based on maintaining balance.
Like the tilted stage, the real world can also be a little strange sometimes. It is filled with odd inequalities, and unfairness tends to be found in unexpected places. This means that being a leader in the real world involves knowing how to weather tough situations and learning how to make the right choices for the people who trust you. Being a good leader also means having the skill to recognise that different people are born with different abilities, and as a result, can contribute differently to the group that you are leading – just the way that actors, singers and dancers all have different roles on the stage but are still able to efficiently utilise it in their own unique manner.
The world is a tilted stage, but the right form of leadership can create a society of graceful, balanced people who can soar like dancers. Do not choose to wait until you are awarded a position of leadership to become a leader. Instead, begin recognising the changes that you can make in our world and bring people from our generation together in order to make these changes. Choose to lead by action, and change will follow suit.
