August 27, 1976, seems so long ago but it feels like yesterday. It was on that day that I took my first steps on American soil at JFK airport determined to make a life on my own.  I had left my loving family in Greece to join a host family in the Boston area as an exchange student, in search of a future that I hoped I'd have a hand in influencing instead of accepting what was served to me by the status quo.  So without language skills, or knowledge of people or culture, I set out to prove to myself that I could.

Another school year just started or is soon to start, and you along with your children are looking forward to it and dreading it at the same time. New school year means new beginnings, but it should also mean different beginnings, avoiding mistakes or irritating situations of years past, and establishing new habits that will serve as the platform to your child’s character formation. As the new school year commences, here are 3 Things to adopt that will have a great impact on your life and your child's character in the future.

Two Things to Give Your College - Bound Child! by Chris Efessiou - video

Congratulations Mom and Dad. You survived the teenage years! You and I both know, you deserve a damn medal just for that. You taught them what they need to know to thrive in the world, and now they are off to college. But did you teach them proper financial management? Managing a college student's cash flow is imperative to the habits they establish for life and keeps you away from having to have unpleasant discussions with them and bridging their shortfall.

Want that Job? 3 Easy Steps to Ace that Interview! by Chris Efessiou - video

No, I am not a Human Resource guru, an industrial psychologist, a professional career strategist, or a personnel recruiter.  I am a business person who over the past 20 years has hired well over 1,000 people, counseled the careers of more than 100 persons of all ages, and coached the interviews of dozens with a perfect success record.  Impressed?  Don’t be.  I gave you this background only to illuminate the origin of my advice in the lines to come.

Now that Will and Kate’s bundle of joy has arrived, I’d like to share with them five things I wish my father had told me about parenthood. Incidentally, if you’re not destined for the throne, worry not; this advice applies to royals and commoners alike.

If you haven’t heard about the summer movie the Bling Ring–don't fret! You’re not uncool, I had no idea either until my daughter shared what a mess these teens were depicted in this movie. In short, it’s about a group of teens and young adults burglarizing the homes of several celebrities and boasted about it on social media. Paris Hilton was the target on several occasions – {alright people - contain your empathy for the poor girl!}

To a teenager, the door is everything. It’s their direct path to closing out the world, but mostly closing out the world from their parents. I’m not one who likes having lots of rules at work or at home. I prefer a few basic rules

You can never expect team members to invest in the team more than you do. A true statement that applies equally at work and at home. When a team leader invests in the team, the members will follow suit and reciprocate. While this applies in time of calm, its application and diligent execution is crucial in time of turmoil.  So, when you find yourself in a challenging situation, go to this P.L.A.C.E™.

Understanding and effectively using your authority as an employer, a supervisor, a team-leader or as a parent, almost always means that you have to let go of something you have to gain something you want. The article below was developed by Dolores Hoffman captures my discussion with her on the subject, and was publish in the June issue of South Jersey Mom Magazine South Jersey Mom Magazine June, 2013 - Page 21 under the title "Words of Wisdom on the Art of Negotiation from the Chief Daddy Officer.”  Thank you to both for their great work. For the blog readers' ease of use, the same  is provided below.

In some cases children have become more independent but, studies show that they have regressed in social skills and in the “people skills” necessary to establish and maintain relationships with other children and adults. Several years ago the concept of “group dating” was unheard of.  Today, group dating is a way to boost one’s self-confidence so as to feel more comfortable in a setting where most people are unknown to them.

There was a time when most college students had to ration their pocket-money carefully to have enough for an ice cream soda or a movie on the weekend. When I was in college, I had a bottle where I dropped pennies every day, and once or twice a year I’d have enough for a dinner at a nice restaurant. Today’s students are bombarded with offers for credit cards as soon as they arrive on campus. Many are saddled with burdensome credit card debt at ridiculous interest rates in addition to their student loans. Before these kids figure out what credit is for, they’ve ruined it. Business people know that anyone can run a company without profit, but no one can run a company without cash. The same applies to life. We’ve all heard the cliché “Cash is king.” I actually believe and teach that “Cash is prince,” because “Cash flow is king.” Many young people fail to manage their cash flow properly and run out of money before the next paycheck, unable to meet their financial obligations. They miss credit card payments, car loan payments, or, worse, student loan payments. Soon threatening letters and phone calls begin, and inevitably collection…

Leadership is a concept, not a person.  It becomes a physical entity when one chooses to embody the characteristics of leadership in the way they influence, motivate, teach and train organizations to emulate their own example.  “We all know that leadership —  whether you are the CEO, or the manager, or the mom — is about the ability to influence the thoughts, emotions, and actions of other human beings” wrote Tony Robbins in a recent blog post. Leaders are not born, they are made.  Whether you are creating a leader at work or at home, no leadership ingredient is more important than mentoring. Mentorship is an ancient art. In earlier generations, young apprentices would be mentored by skilled craftsmen to learn a trade. They arrived eager to learn and left with the skills, expertise and experience to make a living. This art continues today in many trades and professions – including medicine. A mentor’s job isn’t to boss people around, to tell them what to do or how to do it; it is to pass on knowledge, skills and experience, and guide his mentees to their desired outcome. Put another way, a mentor doesn’t dictate how to get to the destination, but instead helps to read…

Wise women have observed that the qualities that make for a “good” boyfriend are not necessarily those that make a good husband. The wild, unpredictable heartthrob in a romantic comedy may be great for a few dates, but he’ll probably be an unreliable partner in life. In the same way, the quiet, compliant child who never does or says anything to displease you may be an easy 6-year-old, but she may not make a very strong adult. Allowing your children to speak their minds in a respectful manner encourages them to develop the thinking skills they will need for the rest of their lives. Don’t shut them down like a tyrant, but don’t let them become dictators. Remember that power cannot persuade the heart. A boss that rules with an iron fist will lose every employee who can find a better opportunity, leaving him with the “rubber stamps.” The parent who runs a house that way will either lose his child when she’s old enough to leave or will raise an adult utterly dependent on a stronger person to tell him what to do. You don’t have an obligation to give them the answer they think they want, but you do…

On August 27, 1976, when an almost 19-year-old man left his homeland of Greece to enroll as an exchange student at Weston High School just west of Boston, it was as though the young man were taking his first bold steps out onto a wire suspended a hundred feet above the ground. He had only one year to learn a language he did not speak and earn admittance to an American college or else he would be forced to return to Greece to work for his father’s company—a future that would be undoubtedly secure, yet dishearteningly dependent. Thirty-six years later he has founded numerous companies, is presently the CEO of Strategic Pharmaceutical Advisors (SRxA), an international consulting, marketing, and education firm, and considers himself more American than his American-born daughter. This story is neither atypical from that of millions of immigrants who chose to leave the comfort of home, familiar surroundings and support systems in search of the American Dream, nor different from every young person’s brave first steps out along that quivering, indefinite, yet ultimately rewarding wire of risk. On that August day, 36 years ago today, I took my first steps on that wire. That was the day…

In a recent TV interview on FOX 5 News WTTG Washington DC the anchor, Allison Seymour, asked me what fathers really want on Father’s Day.  I said that while ties, shirts and cuff-links always make a nice gift, what a father really appreciates more than anything else is a genuine note from his child. I referenced my daughter’s wonderful notes outlined in my book, and read an excerpt from her most recent one. She gave it to me on May 27, 2012, the morning of her wedding.  The note is titled My Chief Daddy Officer and she submitted it for publication a week earlier to an online magazine, hence the reason it is written in the third person.  I love every note she has ever written to me, but this one will always stand out in my mind.  I am sharing it with you here with much humility and pride. She wrote… “As a child, I never looked at my relationship with my Dad as ‘different’ – I just knew it as unique and special.  When I was 7 years old, my parents went through a tumultuous divorce resulting in my mother deciding to leave and move to Boston. Most kids by default would follow their mothers and though some may have had that same…

“Why Top Talent Leaves: Top 10 Reasons Boiled Down to 1” by Erika Andersen, Contributor, appeared on Forbes.com on Jan. 18, 2012. My comments, which were called-out by the author appear at the bottom of this page. Eric Jackson, a fellow Forbes blogger I follow and find both funny and astute, wrote a really spot-on post last month about why top talent leaves large corporations. He offered ten reasons, all of which I agreed with – and all of which I’ve seen played out again and again, over the course of 25 years of coaching and consulting. The post was wildly popular – over 1.5 million views at this writing. So why do we find this topic so interesting? I suspect it’s because we’re genuinely curious: What would make a very senior executive – someone who most certainly has been courted by his or her organization and then paid huge sums of money to join – decide to pack it in? Is it greed (an even richer offer down the street)? Hubris? Short attention span? Or do 1%ers actually leave jobs for the same reasons as the average Joe or Josie? According to Jackson (and, again, I agree with him) top talent…

Let me address what I believe to be a prevailing myth in parenting today: that to truly empower your child you must prematurely become his or her “buddy” or friend. I say prematurely because I believe that our children can become our dear friends when they are fully grown adults. Indeed, this is one of the greatest rewards of successful parenthood. But in the meantime you do not need to be your child’s buddy to empower him. In fact, you may unwittingly do just the opposite.  The Buddy System of parenting did not exist in the culture in which I grew up. I got to know it as I watched the parents of some of my daughter’s friends, and frankly, I found it disturbing.   The essence of parental mentorship is modeling and teaching how to be a responsible adult. If you become your child’s buddy too soon, you will in effect lower yourself to her level. You will not be modeling adulthood, but instead will be acting like a child yourself. How is this possibly helpful? As the parent, you must be their trusted, honest—often constructively critical but never judgmental—mentor to whom they can feel comfortable to turn with any issue.…

Over 2,500 years ago, Socrates demonstrated a way by which teachers, employers and parents could instruct and empower their students, employees and children at the same time. The Socratic method of teaching requires debate. It forces both student and teacher to back up their hypotheses with supporting evidence, and trains the mind to search for inconsistencies. It demands much more in-depth thinking than the “instruction and regurgitation” method popular in schools today. It does not require that the teacher and student disagree: indeed the teacher will often take the opposing position in a debate to help the student develop a more firm sense of her point of view.  The benefits of applying this method in business are obvious. When we employ it in parenting, we are showing our kids that we believe our point of view can stand on its merits, not just our authority. This becomes increasingly important as our children grow older. In the spring of Persephone’s junior year of high school, she had a boyfriend whom I’ll call Troy. Troy was not a bad kid, but he was not particularly motivated. He was a couple of years older than my daughter, and was taking a few classes at the…

I share this story with the deep belief that if Greece is to regain its own economic sovereignty, its best chance for doing so is my creating jobs in the private sector through organic growth.  The engine for such growth is Entrepreneurship. This is a significant step for my native land. Turmoil Breeds Opportunity: Greece Entrepreneur Week ATHENS, GREECE, February 27, 2012 In the face of economic, social, and political turmoil, Entrepreneur Week initiated its first parlay into Europe with Greece Entrepreneur Week (@EWgreece) to educate more than 650 aspiring and early-stage entrepreneurs. The event was planned purposefully in just 20 days to provide the framework of entrepreneurship as a viable long-term solution for solving the financial crisis. “Greece has a robust and proud culture. It’s time we wake up to the new reality of doing business and operate from a stance of strength through global collaboration, networking, and interconnection. It’s imperative we embrace a new way of thinking and building relationships. For too long Greece has been an insular economy. CoLab, exemplifies the abundance of entrepreneurial opportunity we have here. The first two spaces we launched sold out in less than three months each and we are now expanding geographically outside of…

Bill Gates said of the information technology revolution, “There’s a basic philosophy here that by empowering…workers you’ll make their jobs far more interesting, and they’ll be able to work at a higher level than they would have without all that information just a few clicks away.” We can readily see how this philosophy is applied in the business world. Empowered employees aremore invested in their jobs and bring their best to what they do. Good managers understand that imaginative problem-solving is far preferable to mindless compliance. The principle can be a little trickier to apply to parenting. What does it really mean to empower your child so that he or she is deeply invested in your family? You are not going to hand the car keys over to your 10-year-old, nor are you going to hand your teenager a wad of cash and tell her to spend it on whatever she likes. Empowering your children means giving them the wisdom and skills they need to make good decisions for their current stage of life. If you do this for long enough, they will be ready to make decisions as an adult.  In fact, the process of parenting can be seen as the transition from taking…

Only weak leaders view questions as an attack on their authority, and it is their loss as well as their employees’.  Noting that weak leaders are no leaders at all, the fact remains that stifling creativity and discouraging alternative perspectives on problems leads to the kind of myopic decision-making that drives entire industries out of business. Embracing the ingenuity of your employees brings out their best and the best for your company. The same is true at home. Two-way communication with our kids not only strengthens our relationships with them, it also nurtures their imagination and confidence. If we think their viewpoints are important, they will too. By discouraging questions and squelching independent thought, we are telling them that they do not have anything valuable to contribute A boss that rules with an iron fist will lose every independent-thinking employee who can find a better opportunity, leaving him with the “rubber stamps.” In the same way, the quiet, compliant child who never does or says anything to displease you may be an easy 6-year-old, but she may not make a very strong adult.  The parent who runs a house that way will either lose his child when she’s old enough…

Whether you run a company or a department of one, you know it is impossible to have uniform opinions about everything. So why would we expect our kids to think exactly like we do? Sometimes the most heartfelt discussions with your kids reach an impasse. I have at times failed to convince my daughter of something and she has failed to convince me. I don’t mean that we refused to give in to the other out of stubbornness; we legitimately did not see eye to eye. And we learned together that this was OK. It was more important to me to raise a daughter who could think for herself than to agree all the time. What is not OK during a disagreement is to storm out of the room. My daughter tried this a few times when she was younger. We would reach that impasse in our discussion and she would get up and walk away. I was irritated with her behavior to no end, but instead of yelling, I explained to her in a stern but polite way exactly how I felt: “I expect you to treat my opinion with the same level of respect as you want me…

Whether in the board room or in the living room, effective communication is a dialogue, not a monologue. Unfortunately, when more than one person is involved in a conversation, there is the potential for misunderstanding. Confusion and miscommunication can range from humorous to disastrous. The best way to guard against this is to think deliberately about how we communicate, being mindful of our tone of voice, our choice of words, our body language. We must also think about our audience and prepare accordingly. Why is it that some of us will spend hours perfecting a sales pitch, but spend little thought on how we interact with our children? Certainly, our livelihood may depend on that sale, but much of our home’s harmony depends on our ability to communicate effectively with our kids. This does not mean that family life is not full of spontaneous exchanges that we do not think about at all, just like our interactions at work. It just means that our communication will only get better if we take time to examine it critically from time to time. Consider this proven sales technique. You have delivered your sales pitch flawlessly and it is time to close and…

On a recent flight from Los Angeles to Washington, I looked out the window and this was my view  from 30,000 feet.  I could hear my daughter’s voice in my head saying “here you go again doodle with your 30,000-foot deal.”  Incidentally, I’m doodle to her in case you were wondering.  I smiled! As a business person, a parent, and a pilot, I can assure you there is nothing like looking at your world from above to evaluate or set the proper course.  Here is why.  Think back to your last flight. You were probably cruising at an altitude of more than 30,000 feet, looking at the world from nearly six miles above sea level. I suspect however, that you were impressed not by how high you were flying, but by how far you could see.  Take another look at the picture and see for yourself. The beauty of looking at the big picture is the long and wide view that allows you to see things invisible at ground level. Business leaders routinely step back from daily operations to look at the big picture or the “30,000-foot view” in order to effectively guide their organization. Parents need similar perspective. They are the managers and…

This is indeed a question that could have puzzled William Shakespeare, and it has certainly crossed the minds of most parents and employers alike.  Conflict is inevitable for every boss and every parent. Though we must always keep our emotions in check, we must also try not to take things too seriously. Bear in mind that occasional disagreement is not the end of the world: in fact, it is healthy and normal, and if guided properly, it may result in a learning situation. Logic, a cool head, common sense, and a hefty dose of humor go a long way in resolving conflict at work and at home. The goal is to maintain civility and respect for all parties involved, so that you encourage communication. An extreme to being an unapproachable parent, is prematurely trying to be your child’s friend. Too many parents are so concerned with their children liking them that they shy away from giving clear instructions or enforcing rules which all children want and need. Think about how this plays out in a typical office environment. A boss who is so eager for all his employees to like him will rob himself of his ability to lead and will…

On a recent vacation I was walking through the courtyard of the hotel and came across this hammock.  While it may be just a hammock to most, it brought to mind an event that happened nearly 10 years ago and made me smile. One summer afternoon when my daughter was in high school, I saw her and her boyfriend (who was not my favorite person) innocently lying in the hammock in our backyard.  From a few yards away, I immediately exclaimed at the top of my lungs “No two persons will ever be horizontal at any time under this roof.” As soon as this brilliant statement left my mouth, I continued in the same loud voice “This is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard myself say!” and we all laughed out loud.  Since then, every time I saw her lying on the couch alone watching TV she would mimic my voice, repeating my earlier admonition, and we’d both laugh. Of course, we must be careful to laugh with our children, not at them.  We do not want to hurt their feelings, and every parent knows the unbelievable fragility of children’s emotions. Conflict is inevitable for every boss and every parent.…