How Ego Affects Leadership Decisions and What Exceptional Leaders Do Differently
- Jonathan Cleck
- 11 minutes ago
- 5 min read
The human ego. It’s one of life’s great double-edged swords. You’ve seen the results of it when it’s at its best. It’s what drove Michael Jordan to be of the winningest competitors the modern professional sports era has ever known. It’s what allowed Frank Lloyd Wright to openly proclaim his own genius above all other architects, leading him to redefine modern architecture with iconic, organic masterpieces. It’s where Steve Jobs found the audacity to reject market research and believe consumers didn't know what they wanted until he showed them, leading to global revolutions in personal computing, animation, music, and telephonics.
However, when left unchecked, the ego is one of the most quietly destructive forces in any organization. Not because leaders are malicious, but because ego operates in the background of almost every decision, every interaction, and every moment where a leader chooses comfort over clarity.
I’ve been fortunate to work in communities with some of the most driven, hardcharging, unrelenting go-getters on the planet. From the SEAL Teams to the FBI to those entrepreneurs with the courage to take on the challenges of starting a new business in a crowded marketplace, You have surely worked alongside some of these individuals. You know can probably put a name to that individual from a prior experience. The one who lights up when they are told what can’t be done. The one whose default setting is “Think I can’t? Hold my beer.”
Those are inspiring moments to witness… when the ego is a driving force that lifts a team up. Unfortunately, the ego is also often the driving force behind talented leaders derailing otherwise promising teams. In these instances, the ego became the barrier rather than the motivator. It led the leader to diminish the potential of the team, not through lack of skill or effort, but through an unchecked ego that made it impossible to hear what the team was actually telling them.
Understanding how ego affects leadership and decision making is not a soft conversation. It is one of the most practical things a leader can do for their organization.
What Ego Actually Does to Leadership
When ego negatively shows up, it rears its head as certainty when humility is needed. It is expressed as defensiveness when feedback arrives. It makes it harder to admit when we are wrong, harder to seek other opinions, and harder to recognize that the smartest person in the room is not always us.
This is particularly common in leaders who rose through the ranks as technical experts and now manage people. The transition from individual contributor to leader is difficult, and ego often fills the gap. A leader who was once the most knowledgeable person on the team can struggle to accept that the role has changed, that their value now lies in developing others rather than having all the answers.
When ego goes unchecked, the effects are gradual but predictable. Productivity drops. Team morale erodes. The organization does not collapse overnight. It dissolves incrementally, one unchecked decision at a time.
What SEAL Team 6 Can Teach Us About Ego and Team Knowledge
There is a story that I’ve heard from the planning of the 2011 Bin Laden raid that I find to be a powerful illustration of ego-free leadership that is synonymous with the culture of the SEAL Teams.
When the Team came together and asked what could go wrong, the squadron commander did not go solely to the most senior people in the room first. He first went to the most junior operator and asked for his perspective on the worst case scenario.
That junior operator offered his prediction: the worst thing would be that one of the helicopters could crash. On a clandestine mission to capture the world’s most wanted terrorist hiding in in plain sight in a metro suburb of a supposed US ally…a helicopter crashing could be expected to set off a chain reaction of diplomatic and military emergencies. So yes, a helicopter crashing could be argued to be one of the worst scenarios the team could face.
Weeks later, on that operation, that exactly what happened. One of the two helicopters did crash while hovering over the bin Laden compound. However, because the team had prepared for that exact contingency, they executed without hesitation when it happened. One of the most high-profile military operations in U.S. history succeeded in part because a leader brought an ego-free style of leadership and asked the least experienced person in the room to share their perspective. And the team took that input and incorporated it into their contingency preparedness planning.
The lesson here is not that junior people always have the best answers. The lesson is that knowledge – knowledge that has value to the entire organization – is embedded at every level, and leaders who only draw from the top are leaving critical intelligence on the table.
3 Ways Managers Can Address Ego on Their Teams
1. Make seeking input a leadership standard, not an exception
Build a deliberate practice of asking the most junior or least obvious voices in the room for their perspective before making key decisions. Don’t wait for those junior representatives in the room to speak – leaders must specifically seek out that input, encourage those voices to weigh in, and ensure that those ideas are attributed to the junior member(s). Over time this signals that input is valued at every level and creates a team culture where people speak up rather than wait to be asked.
2. Invite others to check your ego
The most effective leaders actively create conditions where their team feels safe to push back, challenge assumptions, and flag blind spots. This does not happen by accident. It requires a leader who explicitly signals that dissenting perspectives are not just tolerated but genuinely desired.
3. Separate your identity from your expertise
For leaders who grew up as subject matter experts, the hardest shift is accepting that their value as a leader is no longer tied to being the most technically knowledgeable person. The ability to draw out the best thinking from a team is a far more valuable leadership skill than having the answer yourself.
The Bottom Line
Putting your ego second to the collective knowledge of your team is not weakness. It is what exceptional leadership actually looks like. The leaders who get heralded are not the ones who had all the answers. They are the ones who created the conditions for the right answers to surface.
If you can ask yourself before every major decision whether you are leading with the organization's best interest or your own comfort, and honestly answer that question, you are already on your way to putting your team first and (the negative parts of) your ego last.
Ready to build a team culture where ego takes a back seat?
I work with HR leaders, managers, and executive teams to develop the kind of leadership that builds trust, drives performance, and earns lasting respect.
Explore leadership training and keynote speaking services: https://www.jonathancleck.com/services
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