Risk is inevitable; irresponsibility isn’t.

One of the biggest tenets of the investment philosophy that Marks helped create at Oaktree Capital is that they do not base their decisions on macro forecasts. Why? Because he strongly believes that no one knows what is going to happen more than anyone else, and, even more, no one knows what the impact of what is going to happen will be. 

He gave the example of the 2016 election. There was an 80% probability of Hilary Clinton winning, which meant a 20% chance of her losing the election, which she did. It was predicted that if Trump won, the stock market would collapse, yet the opposite happened: it went straight up. 

You don’t know what’s going to happen. “Experts” don’t know what’s going to happen. And risk is omnipresent in life. So what do we do about it?

We run on disciplined systems. To build and sustain extraordinary businesses, extraordinary lives, and extraordinary families. This is how we responsibly position ourselves to handle risks and roadblocks as they emerge along the way. 

Culture vs. Climate

At DLP, we run on a disciplined system known as the Elite Execution System and remain diligent about prioritizing our core values, especially the 20-Mile March, which means that we put in the same consistent effort day in and day out, despite headwinds or tailwinds. 

Climate is the feel. It’s a daily decision that lives in how our leaders show up. It’s what our team members experience when they walk in every day, the emotions they have, their experience of being part of this company. It’s the weather that swirls the root system of our culture. 

• Do people trust leadership?
• Are people energized?
• Are teams aligned?
• Is there hope?
• Is there fear? 

Strong and healthy cultures can survive a difficult season; temporary storms do not define the ecosystem. Culture is what drives long-term performance, while climate drives short-term performance. This part is important: leaders steward both, but never sacrifice culture to improve climate. 

Gaps between culture and climate are closed or widened daily by the decisions of leaders. 

There are five dimensions of climate every leader controls:

1. Trust
2. Clarity
3. Psychological Safety
4. Recognition
5. Accountability

Each of these sounds pretty important, doesn’t it? 

That's why investing in leadership development is one of the areas in which the entire senior leadership team and I pour so much of our time, energy, and resources; it’s central to building an Extraordinary Enterprise.

This year, much of the training we’ll do to equip and empower leaders will be based on Liz Wiseman’s great book, Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter. Over the last year, we’ve adopted key lessons from her earlier book, Impact Players, which is all about how you show up in your job, as a leader or otherwise. Part of our culture is about hiring, retaining, and empowering these people; the kind of people who make work light for others and who look for opportunities hidden within the toughest challenges; the ones that ask, “What more can I do?” and never say “That’s not my responsibility.”

In Multipliers, Wiseman focuses on what makes someone an impactful leader; someone who can multiply the impact of their team, without adding headcount. She explores why some leaders seem to drain capability from teams while others amplify it. Based on a study of more than 150 leaders, she identified two distinct leadership styles: diminishers and multipliers. 

Diminishers: Leaders who believe intelligence is rare and fixed, relying only on their own smarts. 

Multipliers: Those who believe intelligence is abundant and can be cultivated, getting twice the capability of their people. 

The 5 Disciplines of Leadership: Diminishers vs. Multipliers

Wiseman outlines five key disciplines that differentiate Multipliers from Diminishers.

01. The Talent Magnet   

(DISCIPLINE: Managing Talent)

• The Diminisher Approach — Empire Builder
  Hoards talent, uses people for personal gain, and underutilizes skills, causing stagnation.
• The Multiplier Approach — Talent Magnet
  Attracts high-caliber people, deploys them to their highest use, and removes barriers so they can grow.

02. The Liberator

(DISCIPLINE: Creating Environment)

• The Diminisher Approach — Tyrant
  Creates a tense, high-stress environment that induces fear of judgment, stifling people's best thinking.
• The Multiplier Approach — Liberator
  Generates an intense but safe environment that demands people's best work while giving them the freedom to think.

03. The Challenger

(DISCIPLINE: Setting Direction)

• The Diminisher Approach — Know-It-All
  Gives directives, showcases their own knowledge, and tells the team how to do things, limiting the organization's vision.
• The Multiplier Approach — Challenger
  Defines opportunities, asks hard questions, and challenges people to push beyond what they think is possible.

04. The Debate Maker

(DISCIPLINE: Making Decisions)

• The Diminisher Approach — Decision Maker
  Makes centralized decisions inside an inner circle, leaving the organization confused and slow to execute.
• The Multiplier Approach — Debate Maker
  Drives sound decisions by convening rigorous, data-driven debates, ensuring everyone understands the rationale.

05. The Investor

(DISCIPLINE: Executing Results)

• The Diminisher Approach — Micromanager
  Drives results by managing every detail, intervening frequently, and creating an organization dependent on them.
• The Multiplier Approach — Investor
  Gives away ownership, invests in others' success, holds people accountable, and provides backing instead of taking over.

Multipliers are the leaders we are building at DLP; those who achieve superior results, doubling an organization’s intelligence and capacity without adding headcount. 

Leadership decisions are the biggest risk in your organization. 

The biggest risk that any organization faces is knowing which leaders to empower. Identifying the leaders who are, or could become, multipliers for your organization is crucial. It’s yet another example of why, despite 14 consecutive years of recognition by the Inc. 5000 as one of America’s fastest-growing companies, our senior leadership team, including me, remains connected to the front line—and we’ll run like that forever.

Wenner Family BHAG Progress

Our family's big, hairy, audacious goal (BHAG) is to experience 1,000 extraordinary days in 100 different places before our eldest son, Donny, goes to college.

 We started working towards this goal in May of 2022, so we’re 4 years and 4 months in and right at 471 days as of September 30th. With 4 years and 8 months remaining, we’re right on track to achieve 1,000.