Business executives routinely describe their work in military terms. They give “marching orders,” discuss the perils of “losing ground” to the competition, and work to “rally the troops.” They invoke quotes from Patton, MacArthur and Washington. They recognize that there’s much to learn from warriors.

But the lessons go both ways. At a time when Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is driving for the adoption of a “warrior ethos,” it occurred to me that there is much to learn from warrior CEOs.

A reminder of this was when Anna Wintour stepped down as editor-in-chief of Vogue. Her announcement became global news. She’s been such a powerful force for so long that some people asked how the institution would carry on without her.

The short story is it won’t be the same. They’re retiring the position entirely. The role will be replaced by a “head of editorial content” who will report to Wintour in the role she’ll retain as global editorial director and chief content officer for all of Condé Nast.

That’s what can happen when you’re irreplaceable in your field. It’s the equivalent of a team retiring a star athlete’s number. Of course, that kind of change can’t always happen in places like the military, but the point remains: Excellent leaders make a mark that lasts even after they step down.

I work with both the military and the private sector to build cultures that perform. The parallels between Wintour’s formidable leadership style at Vogue and “warrior ethos” in the DOD are striking — not because fashion has anything to do with warfare but because excellence operates under universal principles.

Whether people love her or hate her, Anna Wintour is a warrior in Prada. She has to be, because the C-Suite does not have the same explicit power as a military officer. Executives must create influence — power without force — so compellingly that compliance becomes devotion. Wintour was a master at this, building a culture where people would walk through fire for her nod.

Leaders who become household names share one trait: a distinctive leadership philosophy socialized through intentional language. That’s what makes them endlessly quotable. Wintour has dozens of famous quotes, as do other famous paradigm shifters such as Henry Ford, Steve Jobs and Ben Franklin. We know their thinking not simply because they were famous, but because their use of language cemented their philosophies into the American consciousness.

Her philosophy was the endless pursuit of the extraordinary. Many of her most famous quotes speak to this idea. Asked about her reputation during a “60 Minutes” interview, she said that if she comes across “sometimes as being cold or brusque, it’s simply because I’m striving for the best.”

But she didn’t just say it — she lived it. Culture is spread through observation and copying. Great leaders execute every action aligned with their worldview.

The uninformed think “culture” is soft. Wintour knows it’s a weapon. At Vogue, she didn’t just tell people what to do; she taught them how to think. She created a language of excellence that became self-reinforcing. She built behaviors that became instinctive.

Vogue employees tell tales of long hours, endless rewrites, and dramatic changes in order to make the product the best it could be. Some call this toxic. But the most transformative work cultures aren’t built on comfort. They’re built on creative tension and expectations so high they feel unreasonable — until they become normal.

Counterintuitively, it was her “unreasonableness” — her expectations so different from the norm — that made certain types of people flock to work for her. She made them want to put in the hardest effort possible to deliver.

This is what I believe Hegseth is advocating for when he talks about instilling a “warrior ethos.” To win the next fight, the military needs to instill a new culture in the bureaucracy, in which people police themselves and high standards become sacred.

Though she doesn’t express it this way, Wintour has long advocated for a warrior culture in the unlikely arena of fashion and lifestyle. She didn’t just preach excellence. She embodied it, demanded it, and remained constantly at war with mediocrity.

The lesson here is that great leadership is completely transferable, and similar lessons apply to vastly different theaters. Whether in couture or camouflage, people in charge have the opportunity to create philosophies so compelling that their subordinates transform themselves to be better at what they do. Great leaders don’t just set standards, they create new mental models that persist in their absence. These cultures make certain behaviors inevitable.

When you build that, you make your organization — and even an entire industry or military force — stronger and better for the long term. So ultimately, you can’t really be replaced. You become legendary. And the ethos you instilled becomes memorable. And as long as the people who take over keep passing along what you taught them, that ethos can last generations.

Jason Korman is CEO of Gapingvoid Culture Design Group. He has been published by Newsweek, MIT Sloan Management Review, Barron’s, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, the New Yorker and the London School of Economics.