Inclusion Will Save You What Ego Will Cost You

A Military Leadership Principle for Corporate Success

How a fundamental military leadership lesson can transform your organization’s culture, innovation, and bottom line

The conference room fell silent as the CEO finished speaking. “We’re getting results,” she said, looking around the table at her executive team. “Revenue is up 15%, we’re beating projections, and our market share is growing. So why do we have a 47% turnover rate? Why are our engagement scores in the basement? And why haven’t we had a truly innovative product launch in three years?”

This scene plays out in boardrooms across the world every day. Organizations that appear successful on paper but are hemorrhaging talent, struggling with engagement, and watching more nimble competitors eat away at their market position. They’re winning the battle but losing the war, and most don’t realize that the enemy is within – it’s their leadership approach.

The answer to this paradox lies in a principle I learned the hard way as a 28-year-old platoon leader in the United States Army: Inclusion will save you what ego will cost you.

This isn’t just another leadership platitude. It’s a fundamental truth tested in one of the world’s most demanding leadership laboratories – the military, where leadership failures not only impact quarterly earnings but also cost lives. And if this principle can transform a military platoon, imagine what it can do for your organization.

The Military Laboratory: Where Leadership Theories Meet Reality

When I took command of my first platoon at 28, I was responsible for 60 soldiers. These weren’t just direct reports who could find another job if things went south – these were men and women who might have to trust my decisions in life-or-death situations. Performance reviews or bonus structures didn’t drive the pressure to prove my competence and capability; it was driven by the fundamental responsibility of keeping my people alive while accomplishing the mission.

In the military, you can’t hide behind process improvements or blame market conditions when leadership fails. The feedback is immediate and unforgiving. A poorly led platoon doesn’t just miss its targets – it fails to function as a fighting unit. This creates a unique laboratory where leadership theories are tested against the most pressing reality of all: survival.

It was in this environment that I first encountered the concept of servant leadership. During a meeting with General Pototts when I was just 26, he told me that the secret to his success wasn’t his achievements but his ability to elevate the teams and organizations he led. “Servant leadership,” he called it.

Like many young leaders, I thought I understood what this meant. Serve your team. Put them first. Do everything you can to support them. What I didn’t understand was how badly I could misinterpret this concept – and how that misinterpretation mirrors the mistakes I see corporate leaders making every day.

Defining Ego in Leadership: It’s Not What You Think

When we talk about ego in leadership, most people picture the stereotypical narcissistic executive – the one who takes credit for others’ work, makes decisions to boost their profile, and treats employees as expendable resources. But that’s not the kind of ego that destroys most organizations. The most dangerous ego is far more subtle and often comes wrapped in good intentions.

My ego as a young lieutenant wasn’t about self-aggrandizement. It was about proving I was worthy of the trust placed in me. It manifested as:

• The Competence Trap: Feeling the need to demonstrate my knowledge and capability at every opportunity
• The Control Illusion: Believing that managing every detail meant I was serving my team
• The Indispensability Complex: Creating systems that required my constant involvement
• The Decision Monopoly: Making every choice to “protect” my team from the burden of thinking

Sound familiar? In corporate settings, this same pattern appears as:

• The executive who won’t delegate meaningful work because “it’s faster if I do it myself.”
• The manager who rewrites every report because “I know what the board wants to see.”
• The leader who attends every meeting because “important decisions might be made”
• The founder who can’t step away because “no one else understands the vision like I do.”

This isn’t malicious ego – it’s protective ego. It stems from a place of caring about outcomes, a desire to succeed, and often, a genuine effort to serve others. But as I learned in the military, this type of ego carries costs that only become visible when it’s almost too late to correct course.

The True Cost Analysis: What Ego Costs Your Organization

The praise came regularly during my first six months as a platoon leader. Senior officers would observe our training exercises and commend our execution. “Matthews, you have one of the best platoons in the battalion,” they would say. By every external measure, we were succeeding.

But beneath the surface, the costs were mounting:

Personal Burnout and Leadership Sustainability

I was the first one in the office and the last to leave. I couldn’t take leave because I was certain everything would collapse without me. The stress was affecting my health, my relationships, and my ability to think strategically. In corporate terms, I was the executive who bragged about not taking a vacation in five years, unaware that this wasn’t a badge of honor – it was a warning sign of organizational fragility.

Stifled Innovation and Lost Opportunities

My soldiers – many with 10, 15, or even 20 years of experience – were executing my plans, rather than contributing their ideas. I had combat veterans who had learned lessons in Iraq and Afghanistan that could have revolutionized our training. Still, my ego-driven need to control every detail meant those insights never surfaced.

In your organization, this might look like:

• The sales team that never shares market intelligence because “management has already decided on the strategy.”
• The engineers who stop suggesting improvements because “leadership always goes with their ideas anyway.”
• The customer service representatives who see problems brewing but know their feedback won’t be welcomed

Creating Organizational Fragility

The most damning cost was that I had created an organization that couldn’t function without me. If I were called away for another assignment, if I were injured, or if anything disrupted my constant involvement, the platoon would struggle to maintain its performance. I had built a house of cards that looked impressive but would collapse at the slightest disruption.

This is the corporate equivalent of:

• Teams that can’t make decisions without executive approval
• Organizations that grind to a halt when key leaders travel
• Companies that struggle through any leadership transition
• Departments that collapse when a single “indispensable” person leaves

The Innovation Death Spiral

Perhaps most critically, my ego-driven leadership was killing innovation at its source. When every idea has to come from or through one person, you’ve essentially capped your organization’s creative potential at the limits of that individual’s imagination and experience.

I had 60 soldiers with diverse backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives. That’s 60 different ways of seeing problems and solutions. But my need to control meant we operated with just one perspective – mine. In mathematical terms, I had reduced our innovation capacity by 98.3%.

The Inclusion Advantage: How Military Transformation Applies to Corporate Success

The transformation began when I finally accepted a hard truth: my leadership approach was the problem, not the solution. With the help of my platoon sergeant, we transitioned from directive leadership to inclusive leadership. The results were immediate and dramatic.

Inclusion Drives Innovation Naturally

When I started bringing my squad leaders into planning sessions, something remarkable happened. A sergeant who had been quietly executing my orders for months suddenly spoke up: “Sir, have you considered doing it this way? When I was deployed to Afghanistan, we learned that this approach leaves us vulnerable here, but if we adjust like this…”

His idea was better than anything I had developed in isolation. Not because he was smarter than I, but because he had different experiences and perspectives. When we implemented his suggestion, our training effectiveness improved by 40%.

In corporate settings, this translates to:

• Product ideas coming from customer service representatives who talk to users daily
• Process improvements suggested by front-line workers who live with inefficiencies
• Market insights from sales teams who hear unfiltered customer feedback
• Innovation emerging from every level of the organization

Closing the Leadership-Frontline Gap

One of the most persistent challenges in organizations is the disconnect between leadership’s perception and frontline reality. Leaders make decisions based on reports, metrics, and filtered information. Meanwhile, employees grapple with the messy reality of how those decisions unfold.

Inclusive leadership closes this gap. When I started including soldiers from different levels in planning sessions, I discovered:

• Training schedules that looked good on paper were causing childcare nightmares for single parents
• Equipment requisitions I thought were unnecessary were critical for mission success
• Policies I believed were helping were hindering performance

The corporate parallel is powerful. How many times have executives made decisions “in the best interest of employees” only to have those same employees ask, “Who was in the room when they decided this?”

“Innovation Doesn’t Discriminate”

This became my mantra, and it should be yours. Innovation doesn’t care about your title, your tenure, your education, or your background. The next breakthrough idea for your company is just as likely to come from an intern as from your most senior executive. But it will only emerge if you create an environment where all ideas are welcomed and valued.

In the military, we had a saying: “Good ideas have no rank.” This principle transformed our platoon from a well-executing unit to an innovative, adaptive force. Soldiers who had been silent for months began contributing ideas. Training effectiveness improved. Morale skyrocketed. And most importantly, we became an organization that could thrive with or without any single leader.

Practical Implementation: From Military Principles to Corporate Practice

The shift from ego-driven to inclusive leadership isn’t just a philosophical change – it requires practical, systematic adjustments to how you operate. Here’s how to implement these military-tested principles in your organization:

Moving from Buy-In to Built-In Participation

Most leaders understand the importance of buy-in. We’ve all sat through presentations about getting stakeholder alignment and building consensus. But buy-in is a transactional concept – you’re trying to sell someone on an idea that’s already been formed.

Inclusion is different. When you bring stakeholders into the decision-making process early, buy-in becomes automatic because they’re not buying into your idea – they’re invested in our solution.

Practical steps:

1. Expand Your Planning Team: Include representatives from different levels and departments in strategic planning
2. Rotate Meeting Leadership: Let different team members lead meetings to bring fresh perspectives
3. Create Idea Channels: Establish formal ways for ideas to flow up, across, and throughout the organization
4. Celebrate Diverse Thinking: Publicly recognize ideas that come from unexpected sources

Early and Often Feedback Mechanisms

In the military, we have After-Action Reviews (AARs) – structured debriefs that occur immediately after every operation. Everyone, regardless of rank, can share what worked, what didn’t, and what we should do differently next time.

Corporate application:

• Weekly Team Retrospectives: Not just project post-mortems, but regular check-ins on how the team is functioning
• Skip-Level Meetings: Leaders meeting with employees two levels down to hear unfiltered feedback
• Anonymous Idea Submissions: Sometimes the best ideas come from those who aren’t comfortable speaking up
• Real-Time Feedback Tools: Don’t wait for annual surveys to understand employee sentiment

Creating Psychological Safety

This is where vulnerability becomes a leadership superpower. When I first told my platoon, “I don’t have all the answers, and I need your help,” I worried it would undermine my authority. Instead, it strengthened it. My soldiers didn’t need a leader who knew everything – they needed a leader who valued what they learned.

Building psychological safety:

• Admit When You Don’t Know: Model the behavior you want to see
• Ask Questions More Than You Give Answers: Shift from sage to guide
• Protect Risk-Takers: When someone’s idea doesn’t work, celebrate the attempt
• Share Your Failures: Make it safe for others to do the same

The Vulnerability Requirement

Perhaps the most challenging aspect of inclusive leadership is the vulnerability it entails. You have to be secure enough to:

• Let others’ ideas shine without needing credit
• Admit when someone else’s approach is better
• Change course based on input from “below”
• Measure your success by your team’s growth, not your achievements

This vulnerability isn’t weakness – it’s the ultimate strength. It says, “I’m confident enough in my leadership that I don’t need to prove it every moment.”

ROI of Inclusive Leadership: Measurable Military Results Applied to Business

The transformation in my platoon wasn’t just cultural – it was measurable:

• Training Effectiveness: 40% improvement in assessment scores
• Innovation Metrics: From zero soldier-initiated improvements to 3-4 per month
• Readiness Rates: 25% improvement in equipment and personnel readiness
• Retention: Dramatic improvement in re-enlistment rates
• Leadership Development: 80% of squad leaders promoted within 18 months

But the most telling metric? When I took a two-week leave, the platoon’s performance improved. They had learned to think and act independently, to support each other, and to innovate without waiting for permission.

In corporate terms, these military outcomes translate to:

• Increased Innovation: More ideas from more sources leading to competitive advantages
• Improved Retention: Employees stay where they feel valued and heard
• Enhanced Agility: Organizations that can adapt without waiting for top-down direction
• Stronger Succession Planning: Leaders developed at every level
• Better Decision-Making: Decisions informed by frontline reality, not just executive assumptions

Your Transformation Starts Now

The principle is simple, but the implementation requires courage: Inclusion will save you what ego will cost you. This isn’t about abandoning leadership or abdicating responsibility. It’s about expanding your definition of strength to include the wisdom to tap into the collective intelligence of your organization.

Whether you’re leading a team of 5 or a company of 5,000, the principle remains the same. You can achieve short-term results through ego-driven, controlling leadership. But sustainable success – the kind that builds organizations capable of thriving in any environment – requires inclusive leadership.

The military taught me this lesson in the crucible of combat preparation. Your crucible might be market competition, technological disruption, or cultural transformation. But the solution remains the same: Create an environment where every person can contribute their best ideas, where innovation can emerge from anywhere, and where leadership is about empowerment, not control.

Are you ready to save what your ego might be costing you?

Lavar Matthews is a leadership transformation expert who helps organizations build inclusive cultures that drive innovation and sustainable success. His military-tested principles have helped Fortune 500 companies, startups, and nonprofits transform their leadership approach and unlock their teams’ full potential.