Avanti Salon

I’m not a big Reality TV fan. I’ve never much cared what the Tribe speaks or what the Real Housewives of anywhere have to say to one another.  But flipping channels the other day I came upon Tabitha’s Salon Make-Over.  Tabitha goes to failing beauty salons all over America and makes them live.  OK, I probably know less about Beauty Salons than I do about Reality television, but she caught my eye when she brought the staff of Avanti’s Salon to the Harvard boathouse to learn to row and, more importantly, to teach the owner to lead.

Sometimes we miss the transferable skills that rowing offers our kids.  It’s intimidating to have to stand up in the stern and take charge.  There’s nowhere to hide.  The well groomed young stylists who pulled an oar in the Harvard boathouse saw almost instantly the analogy between rowing and working, between coxing a boat and leading a business.

We talk about teaching leadership in schools across the country.  I wonder if that’s even possible without putting kids in the position of actual leadership.  I allow myself to hope that when it’s time to lead their own office or team out in the work force, or when it’s time to support their leader, my kids will remember the lessons they learned rowing a boat together in Station Maine.