Public code walkthroughs gave all the developers a chance to see how other people's code looked. That gave the team members incentive to review their code before the walkthrough and see where they should improve it. The czar had to work hard to bring his components in on time, but we used his actions as a model for others. With objective release criteria, we had much less opportunity to blame each other for incomplete project pieces. We worked as a team to identify problems and come up with solutions.
Projects have royalty for a reason, maybe several.
Royalty are generally dedicated and talented employees. One common royalty scenario occurs when a technical founder creates a product and continues as a technical contributor on a future product release. The founder is used to making the decisions, not working with others. The founder may not understand how difficult he is to work with as royalty. When you move people from royalty positions to normal staff roles, you need to find alternative ways to reward them.