Fatherhood is the most important leadership role you'll ever hold, and nobody trained you for it.

So you do your best. And some nights you look at your kids and wonder if your best is enough.

I've been there. I've got four kids, and there was a stretch when they got an irritable, distracted, impatient version of me. I wasn't failing them on purpose. I just had nothing left to give.

Here's what I've learned since:

1. Be present, not just around. They know when you're only half there.
2. Model the man you want them to become. They'll become who you are, not who you tell them to be.
3. Discipline without losing the relationship. Fear wins arguments and loses kids.
4. Let them struggle. Rescuing them tells them you don't think they can handle it.
5. Tell them who they are. If you don't, the world will.
6. Build something together. Men open up sideways.
7. Father from a full tank. You can't give them what you don't have.

Get this wrong and you raise kids who can't wait to get away from you. Get it right and you become the father they remember and respect.

Pick the one that stung and start there this week.

Watch the full episode

– Ryan Michler