Are you a supervising dad or a lead dad? If we’re honest, a lot of us think that provision, protection, and logistics (cutting the grass, checking homework) count as great fatherhood. But supervision keeps the house functioning; leadership shapes the people inside it.

In this episode, Michael Dorsey tackles the critical shift from managing your children to leading them. Successful professionally, many fathers default to their careers because work offers a clear scoreboard and a performance review. Fatherhood doesn’t have quarterly evaluations—just thousands of moments that quietly shape identity.

Michael shares the raw, life-changing moments with his son Mikey—from a crushingly honest critique about his health that made him confront his mortality, to a humbling reversed-role scenario where Mikey called out his integrity during a call with a bill collector.

Learn how to stop being just the "ATM" or "disciplinary backup" and start casting spiritual vision for your children. Learn how to cultivate spiritual sensitivity as their compass, so that when your supervision stops, your vision remains.

Key Takeaways:

Thesis: Fatherhood is not supervision; fatherhood is leadership.

Work vs. Home Competence: Why men default to work (the scoreboard) and accidentally supervise the home.

Patterns, Not Lectures: Children run a continuous audit of influence; they watch how you respond to pressure, handle success, treat their mother, and model integrity.

The Lying Miracle: Michael’s humbling moment with a bill collector and a lesson on modeling repentance.

The 10-Minue One-One: Why sometimes you only need 10 intentional minutes (no phone, eye connection, curiosity) to build trust.

Timestamps:

(0:00) Supervision is not Leadership: Shaping hearts vs. functioning houses.

(3:00) Why we feel more competent at work than at home.

(4:00) "Daddy, if you don't take care of this, you're not going to be around" (My son's heart-crushing mortality check).

(6:09) The Audit of Influence: Kids don't learn from your intentions, they learn from your patterns.

(10:00) The adoption miracle: When my stepfather made it permanent.

(13:47) Reversed Roles: Mikey calls me a liar (A lesson on modeling integrity and repentance).

(17:00) Cultivating Spiritual Sensitivity: Success without sensitivity is dangerous.

(22:40) One-Click One-on-One: The 10 intentional minutes to lead.

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What are your biggest parenting fears or regrets? Let us know in the comments—I read every last one.

#Fatherhood #Leadership #ParentingAdvice #FamilyPsychology #SpiritualFormation #GoodProvider #Integrity #Modeling