Sunday, August 30, 2026 · 7:00 PM ET
Leading at Home
What leadership actually looks like when the people you're leading are your own kids.
James J. Washington runs an emergency shelter for homeless veterans and men in Genesee County, Michigan — seven days a week, three shifts a day. He chairs Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Flint. He is finishing a doctorate in leadership, and he has spent twenty years leading and coaching other leaders.
He and his wife raised five children: three daughters and two sons.
He opened the first Porch Light Dads expert session by taking the word everyone uses for the job and stripping it down. Leadership, he said, is not a title, a position, or a pedigree. It is influence — which means every father in the room already has it, whether he has noticed or not.
What he said
- Leadership is influence. “Not a title, not a position, not a pedigree.” Which means you already have it.
- “I’m responsible as a leader to you, but not for you.” Pour in, give what you have — then let them carry it.
- Five principles he says are not open for debate: character, integrity, humility, honesty, compassion.
- Kids audit behavior, not speeches. They “lay back in the cut” and watch how you handle a crisis.
The whole session is in the archive.
The full hour, including the Q&A, sits in the member archive. Watch it when the house is quiet.
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