Empowering Others To Achieve The Extraordinary

The Harvard Business Review Editor’s Blog recently posted an article (“Pixar’s Collective Genius“) highlighting the achievements of Pixar’s co-founder, Ed Catmull.  The article highlights several qualities that has helped make him successful at “empowering others to achieve the extraordinary”:

• Redefining the vision.  After successfully creating the first full-length computer-animated feature film in Toy Story, “he set himself a new goal: to build an organization that could continually produce magic long after he and Pixar’s other co-founders were gone.”  Rather than draw lines in the sand, develop a “silo” mentality, or developing other “turf-building” habits, Catmull looked beyond his achievements and focused on a sustainable, long-term success that would succeed him.
• Delegating Power.  The irony of leverage for law firm partners.  Catmull delegated authority to the directors of films and allowed those entrusted with performing the freedom to perform.  Asking law firm partners to delegate work, on the other hand, is asking them to reverse years of drive and ambition – in many instances the very things that helped make them partner.  However, the facts are indisputable – proper leveraging of associates increases profitability and the long-term sustainability of your firm.
• Fighting success syndrome. Once a business succeeds in achieving its goals, the natural tendency is complacency.  This is the gift for competitors that helps avoid domination of the marketplace.  However, there are those who dominate – those who don’t accept complacency like Catmull, who “personally ensures that post mortems of productions are taken seriously. And he regularly reminds employees–especially young new hires–that Pixar has made plenty of mistakes in the past and still doesn’t have it all figured out.”  Law firms can fight “success syndrome” through the establishment of processes that not only gauge client satisfaction, but gauge associate satisfaction through “upward reviews“.

Does Your Law Firm Have a “Level 5″ Leader?

In a recent entry posted to the Harvard Business Review’s Editor’s Blog, Diane Coutu wrote of a deceased Columbia University professor who she describes as a “Level 5 leader”:

“that rare person who can successfully combine drive, intelligence and humility to attract followers and to encourage them to perform to do the best of their abilities.”

Why is such a combination so rare?  From the standpoint of any practicing attorney, humility isn’t common.  Yet in the context of a leader, humility isn’t so much in how you practice but in how introspective you are.  Those who spend time congratulating themselves for their achievements are not preparing themselves for future success.  With this in mind, how can managing attorneys become level 5 leaders?

At first glance, most successful partners have two of the three characteristics off the bat.  Drive and intelligence are hallmarks of any successful lawyer.  Where the disconnect occurs is how they apply their drive and intellect.  Good lawyers use these qualities to represent their clients.  Good managers use these qualities to “attract followers and to encourage them to perform to do the best of their abilities”. 

To be an effective leader should require total dedication.  Yet for many firms, the managing attorney is also a leader in productivity.  I have talked to many managing attorneys who are also one of the highest producers in their firms.  To expect them to succeed both as managers and practicing law is not a recipe for success for at least one of their responsibilities.

For firms who can’t afford to have a partner dispense with their billable productivity while managing the firm, consider among other things the following ways to encourage positive results from your managing partner:

• Choose a managing partner who can develop consensus.  Many managing attorneys state that they spend as much time building consensus as they do all the other responsibilities of managing the firm combined.
• Choose a managing partner who has a vision of where they want the firm to go.  Managing partners must not only drive the vision, they must also develop and nurture it.
• If possible, don’t choose a managing partner from your top producers.  To be effective, the managing attorney will have to reduce their workload.  Taking a high producing attorney away from the field will have an immediate negative impact on the firm.  Attorneys aren’t the most patient of people and seeing a reduction in productivity isn’t the best way to support a new managing attorney.
• Encourage “upward reviews“.  Getting the best from others may hinge on keeping an open ear to their needs and concerns.  If there are grumbling associates that are either afraid or disinterested in sharing their concerns, they can be like a cancer that becomes hard to eradicate.
• Measure performance.  The way to judge how well a managing attorney is focusing their drive and intelligence to encourage those to perform to the best of their abilities is by setting standards and holding everyone, including the managing attorney, accountable for their results.

As noted in the first comment of the blog entry, “such leaders {don’t} focus on {themselves} too much, but on defining a vision, articulating it, and then actualizing it.”  I believe that these qualities aren’t as rare as Ms. Coutu suggests.  On the contrary, I believe most firms have people in their own firm who, with the right support and responsibilities, can develop into such a leader and can provide a great service to the firm.

The devil is in finding them.