The Advantages of Autocratic Leadership
Usually, autocratic leadership isn’t well regarded by team members. This is because the leader usually makes decisions they consider correct, according to their criteria, and don’t take the opinions of the rest of the team into account.
However, the group needs to feel they’re being listened to and the leader knows that their own decisions won’t always be correct. In other words, you don’t only need to be an active member of a team but also to be taken into account. Thus, autocratic leadership is authoritarian by default.
Characteristics of autocratic leadership
Clearly, autocratic leadership doesn’t work for everyone. However, it can be beneficial in certain working environments. Continue reading to discover some characteristics of this leadership style and its advantages.
Rigidity and structure
Autocratic leadership can be very beneficial for those who tend to disperse or who tend to relax relatively easily. This type of leadership forces you to maintain a certain work pace. Although some think it may backfire, the truth is that it tends to improve productivity and performance. It’s a different way of leading a team that can yield good results.
No contribution from group members
This can happen sometimes because team members tend to passively communicate. However, it’s common for a leader to prioritize their ideas and decisions and not take into account those of the rest of the team.
This may seem negative but it can be a good option at times. Just think about the moments when you have to make quick decisions and there’s no time to discuss them with your team. Autocratic leadership works well and streamlines processes in these cases.
The leader takes care of the most important things
Another characteristic of autocratic leadership is that the leader rarely leaves important tasks in someone else’s hands. This can be positive, as the leader takes care of the bulk of the work and prevents stress and pressure from building up in the group. This allows everything to flow much faster.
Clear communication
A very positive aspect of autocratic leadership is that communication is very clear. The group members know the rules to follow, the deadlines to meet, and how to do things.
Thus, these leaders avoid mistakes by establishing clear guidelines that everyone can follow. The best trait of a leader is effective communication and that they clearly state what they expect. Undoubtedly, this is a rather advantageous characteristic of autocratic leadership.
Autocratic leadership
As you can see, the characteristics of autocratic leadership are diverse and can be of great help in certain situations. Therefore, this type of leadership is very effective in the following situations:
- Small groups that lack leadership.
- Very stressful situations and goals.
- Repetitive work.
In all of these cases, this leadership seeks productivity and focus on specific tasks. However, there’s no room for creativity. For this reason, autocratic leadership isn’t compatible with creative work areas but rather with those that are repetitive.
Finally, you can adapt the different types of leadership to each work team. Authoritarian leadership isn’t always detrimental. Even though it’s much more strict and limiting for the work team, it’s the most effective type of leadership because it works.
All cited sources were thoroughly reviewed by our team to ensure their quality, reliability, currency, and validity. The bibliography of this article was considered reliable and of academic or scientific accuracy.
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