This is a unique book on parenting. Chris Efessiou, a highly successful entrepreneur and executive, believes that the personal strengths and interpersonal skills essential to effective leadership also apply to being an effective parent. I’ve always believed this, and in his book, CDO – Chief Daddy Officer, he makes a strong case.
I love the way he gets right to the point, illustrating his message with stories from his experience of raising his daughter. There’s so much to say that parents need to hear, and in this brief book he covers most of the major topics. And they do, indeed, have parallels to being a manager: goal-setting, planning, authority, communication, empowerment, team building, and accountability.
His writing is clear and straightforward, and it contains a lot of wisdom I haven’t seen in other parenting books. Here are some of my favorites:
“Saying ‘Because I told you so’ too many times is like saying, ‘Ask someone else’ or ‘Find out some other way.’ It is a fact of life that children will then ask someone else or find out another way, and at that point you will have lost your opportunity to influence your child.”
“The problem is that too many of us do all our parenting when there is a disagreement or conflict.”
“How often during the course of a week are we taking the time to instruct our children in an important skill or value?”
“Some parents have confused the need to encourage with the idea of getting rid of standards of behavior or performance altogether.”
“If a teenager gets yelled at for missing curfew one weekend and has it overlooked the next, she will not realistically know what is expected of her, no matter what the ‘rules’ are.”
“Above everything else, listening and observing your children shows them you respect them.”
Good stuff! This is a fresh “loving father” perspective on parenting, with hundreds of useful insights. I found that I agreed with the author 100%. If you’re actively parenting a child now and want ideas that work, I strongly recommend that you read this book.