Don’s Thoughts

Not a general. Not a servant. The Son of God and most consequential leader in human history, cleaning the road dust off the feet of twelve men who would, within hours, abandon Him.  

That choice, to serve rather than be served, to give rather than preserve, is the defining act of servant leadership. Easter reminds us that servant leadership isn’t a management style, or a chapter in a business book. Servant leadership is a conviction. It’s a daily decision about who you are when no one is watching. 

At DLP Capital, servant leadership is one of our foundational core values. This time of year, I feel compelled to go back to where it comes from and ask myself honestly whether I am actually living it. 

Whatever your faith tradition—or none at all—I believe the lessons Easter can teach us about servant leadership are worth sitting with this week.

Lesson 1: Leadership’s Defining Moments Are The Hardest

That scene in John 13 can teach us more about leadership than most business schools. Jesus, knowing that He was about to face betrayal, arrest, torture, and death, rose from the table and served. He didn’t run. He didn’t try to protect himself. He didn’t deliver a vision statement—He picked up a basin.

He knew Judas would betray Him. He knew Peter would deny Him. And He washed their feet anyway.

That is a different kind of leadership than the world teaches. The world teaches leaders to protect their leverage, manage their image, and reserve their energy for the moments that matter most. Jesus modeled something else entirely: that the moments that matter most are often the ones no one else would choose. That leadership is about running headfirst into what others are running from.

More than running headfirst into difficult situations, it’s about doing so to benefit and protect those you lead over your own self-interests. I’m not a perfect leader. There are decisions I’ve made in 20 years of building DLP Capital that I would take back. But the decisions I am most proud of all trace back, in some way, to one question: Am I leading for myself or for the people in front of me? 

Lesson 2: Sacrifice is not a Strategy, It’s a Foundation 

Before the cross, there was a garden. Here, knowing exactly what was coming, Jesus prayed: 'Not my will, but Yours.' 

There are moments as a leader when your will and the right decision aren’t the same. In some cases, they might even be in direct opposition. When the financially safer choice is not the one that serves your team. When the easier path doesn’t serve your clients or your mission.

At DLP, we talk about being stewards. The capital we deploy, the communities we build, the team members who trust us with their careers—we hold all of it in trust. 

Stewardship is the business language for what Easter embodies in full: that nothing we have is ultimately ours to hoard. The question is whether we lead accordingly.

Lesson 3: Resurrection and the Long Game

Easter does not end at sacrifice, it ends at resurrection. The same is true of leadership.

Every great leader I have been privileged to know embodies this one quality: the willingness to let something die in order for something better to rise. An old strategy. A comfortable assumption. A version of the company that served you well but can no longer take you where you need to go.

The leaders who drive extraordinary results are the ones willing to be wrong, to be corrected. Resurrection is not passive, it requires surrender first. And the leaders who understand that—who are not afraid of the death of their ego—are the ones who ultimately build something worth building.

Servant leadership is not soft. It is, in my experience, the most demanding form of leadership there is. It often costs something—it’s supposed to.

Leadership Lessons from The Energy Bus

One of the books I’m reading alongside the team as part of our leadership book club, Driven for Greatness, is Jon Gordon’s The Energy Bus. If you haven’t read it yet, I highly recommend adding it to your reading list. Here are some of the key takeaways from the book. 

Leaders Are The Driver—Period. 

Nobody drifts to extraordinary. Every great outcome traces back to a moment when someone made a conscious decision to take the wheel. Jon Gordon puts it plainly: you, as a leader, are the driver. 

This is harder than it sounds. Most leaders believe they are driving when they are actually reacting. Adjusting to the conditions, responding to pressures, letting the road determine the pace. Real leadership means staying in control of the wheel, laser focused on the destination, when the road gets hard. This has been the key to 13 consecutive years of recognition on the Inc. 5000 for DLP. 

A Drive Without Purpose is the Greatest Risk

The most dangerous moment for leaders is the loss of purpose. When people forget why they are on the ride, no amount of talent or strategy keeps the bus running. 

Every leader faces moments where the easier path is to slow down, pull back, or quietly pivot away from a commitment that has become inconvenient. The ones who build long-term success aren’t those who avoid those moments, but those who have a purpose clear enough to outlast them. 

The question isn’t do you have enough drive—most high-performers do. The question is whether your drive is anchored to something durable enough to sustain it when the quarter is difficult, when the team is stretched, when the results have not yet caught up to the effort. 

Purpose is not a soft concept: it is the fuel that keeps grit from burning out. 

Invite People On Your Bus—and Love Them

One of Gordon’s most counterintuitive principles is this: the best drivers are not the ones who command passengers, they invite them along. Shared vision is not a mandate, it is an offer, made with enough clarity and conviction that the right people choose to get on. People perform differently when they are passionate about where they’ve chosen to be. 

This applies equally to teams and to the people you serve. The most durable relationships are built on alignment around a shared destination, not just a short-term mutual benefit. Invite people into your vision and make it real enough that they want to drive forward with you. 

It’s not just enough to invite them onto the bus. You also need to care deeply for your people, building genuine relationships and trust. This is a fundamental part of our culture at DLP. The advice I always give new leaders (and sometimes remind seasoned leaders, as well) is this: people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. Understand who your people are, not just as your team members but as people. If you aren’t doing this already, you’re missing the biggest piece of the loyalty puzzle: empathy.

The 20-Mile March Steadies the Bus

Jim Collins introduced the 20-Mile March as a metaphor for disciplined consistency: the commitment to advance at a steady, deliberate pace regardless of whether conditions invite speed or demand caution. Jon Gordon’s Energy Bus runs on the same principle—and so does DLP.

The bus does not stop because the weather is bad. It does not race because the highway opens up. It moves steadily towards the same destination, despite prevailing conditions. This is the leadership discipline most undermined by success. When things are going well, the temptation can be to accelerate beyond a sustainable pace. When things are difficult, we can find ourselves wanting to pause or pivot—but both impulses break the march. The competitive advantage is not speed or caution: it is the quiet compounding of consistency year after year while others react to the moment. 

The leaders who last are rarely the most brilliant or the most aggressive—they are the most consistent. 

Exciting Updates for the Extraordinary Impact Family Event

Extraordinary families want to make an extraordinary impact—and we want to help. For this Summer’s Extraordinary Impact Family Event, instead of a traditional ticket price, a minimum $500 per family (up to 6 people) is collected by DLP Capital and donated in full to the DLP Positive Returns Foundation (PRF).

During the event, your family will learn about each partner and choose how your donation is directed among PRF-supported organizations, including Hope International, the Tebow Foundation, and others. You can use the code “PRFDONATE” during registration to unlock the donation package and then during the event, you’ll have the opportunity to learn about each organization’s mission, connect to the impact they’re making, and decide as a family where your donation goes. 

Involving our children in philanthropic decisions has been one of the most meaningful things Carla and I have done, which I talked about in last month’s Building an Extraordinary Family Webinar. If you missed it, the full session is now live. I encourage you to watch with your entire family and look forward to more meaningful conversations like this together in July. 

Wenner Family BHAG Progress

396 days of 1,000 in 100 different places before Donny goes to college.