What tends to happen when you create an egalitarian work environment is that you get all types of indirect and extremely valuable benefits. Yes, worker-owners take great pride in the work they do and this ensures higher quality and greater quantity. However, the workers are also happier, less prone to illness, and thus costs are reduced and lives are enriched. If something isn't working well, be it as simple as the quality of the broom the janitor is provided to do their job, the managers hear about it quickly and informally. Since those managers are well aware that even the janitor has a vote on who remains a manager, they respond appropriately and without unnecessary delay to all of the legitimate concerns of the worker-owners.
Leadership is necessary in any system.
The typical capitalist system believes that leaders have unique skills and should be highly rewarded. In the Mondragon system, this myth has been effectively exploded. First, administrators are responsible to the worker-owners and are sacked if they do not function effectively. Secondly, the administrators are provided guidance by democratically elected councils of worker-owners. One of my concerns when I was studying them was whether or not such councils were really effective.