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“.