Leaders, Check Your Ego at the Door
Leadership, at its core, is about service. It’s about the team, the mission, the goal. But leaders beware: great leadership has a formidable adversary: ego.
Ego doesn’t just compromise strong leadership; it hijacks it. Before long the leader isn’t the one steering the ship. And, often, the leader doesn’t realize this until it’s too late.
Ego Is the Enemy of Growth
An out-of-control ego is like a slow gas leak—it dulls awareness, clouds judgment, and eventually, wreaks havoc. Leaders who let ego take the wheel stop learning. They stop adapting. They surround themselves with yes-men and sycophants or condition their team to perform the same service through positive and negative feedback. They assume they’re always the smartest person in the room, and soon enough, they are—because the smart people have either left or adopted a strategy of silence as a survival technique.
The best leaders? They do the opposite. They ask questions instead of assuming they have the answers. They listen more than they speak. They don’t hoard victories or delegate blame. They understand that credibility isn’t built through bravado but through knowledge, competency, and a willingness to admit when they’re wrong.
The High Cost of Ego in Leadership
We recently featured a quote on our social media platforms by Dr. Travis Yates, “You don’t work for bad departments; you work for bad leaders.” More often than not, ego plays a role in this. Unchecked ego doesn’t just make bad leaders; it makes bad teams. It creates environments where people are afraid to speak up, afraid to challenge, afraid to fail. It stifles innovation, crushes morale, and leads to decision-making based on personal interest rather than unit and organizational success.
From air disasters to building mishaps, history is littered with cautionary tales. The leaders who refused to listen to warning signs. The ones who dismissed advisors because they didn’t want to hear bad news. The empires—corporate, political, even military—that crumbled under the weight of one person’s unwillingness to check their own ego at the door. Law enforcement is certainly not immune.
The Cure? A Dose of Perspective.
So how do we guard against this? Strangely enough, through leadership
We need command-level leaders who understand that part of their job is developing and refining the leadership skills of their direct reports. Part of this responsibility includes listening to unofficial communication channels for potential problems. This must be a proactive effort.
We must also create a culture where our formal leaders never forget that leadership is rented, never owned. It’s granted by those you lead, and it can be taken away just as quickly.
Our people should be taught to seek out dissenting opinions. They should welcome hard truths. They must credit the team for wins and shoulder the burden for losses. They remind themselves, daily, that their job isn’t to be admired; it’s to make those around them better. One of our favorite quotes comes from adventure racer, Robyn Benincasa, “…you don’t inspire your teammates by showing them how amazing you are. You inspire them by showing them how amazing they are.”
Because the real test of leadership isn’t how much power you can accumulate or authority you can wield. The real test of leadership is whether you can bring your people and organization to the next level.
So, leaders, take a breath. Take a step back. And before you walk into that next meeting, ask yourself: Am I leading? Or am I just looking for applause?
If it’s the latter, do everyone a favor—start listening instead.
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Andrew A. DeMuth Jr. is the founder of Leading Blue, a firm that provides leadership training for law enforcement and the private sector. He served more than three decades in law enforcement with four different agencies in a variety of leadership roles. During his career, he served as an investigations commander, range master, agency training officer, press information officer, and director of the youth police academy program. He spent the last nine years of his law enforcement career managing CODIS, the New Jersey DNA program overseeing the processing, compliance, and training of more than 500 participating law enforcement agencies and correctional facilities. Today he serves as an adjunct professor for two institutions and speaks on leadership and training topics throughout the country and is the author of A Highly Effective Training Technique Few Are Utilizing.
Leaders, Check Your Ego at the Door
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