Wish father to follow leads of distinguished elite (6)
I believe the answer is:
desire
'wish' is the definition.
(desiring is a kind of wishing)
'father to follow leads of distinguished elite' is the wordplay.
'father' becomes 'sire' (synonyms).
'to follow' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other) (some letters go after or follow others).
'leads of' says to take the initial letters (I've seen 'leading' mean this).
The first letters of 'distinguished elite' is 'de'.
'sire' after 'de' is 'DESIRE'.
(Other definitions for desire that I've seen before include "Wish for strongly" , "Want to reside?" , "Concupiscence" , "Want strongly" , "Hanker after" .)