What is the Autocratic Leadership Style?
Autocratic leadership is also known as authoritarian leadership. This is a style of management where decision-making power is concentrated on one person. This type of leadership is often referred to as “the king” or “the queen.” An autocratic leader is different from a democratic leader because he will make decisions without consulting others and take the credit for success while blaming others for failures.
It may seem like this would lead to good results, but autocrats typically end up alienating themselves from those that they are leading as he or she is not a charismatic leader and eventually have no one left who will follow them. In addition, by not taking input from followers, autocrats are unable to understand what their followers need and suffer from poor decision-making because they lack information about the people in their organization. An autocratic leader thus fails to be a transformational leader. If you want your business to succeed then it’s important that you practice charismatic leadership and participative leadership.
Example of Famous Autocratic Leaders.
- Adolf Hitler.
- Napoleon Bonaparte.
- Queen Elizabeth I.
- Vladimir Putin.
- Genghis Khan.
Read along to know more about the traits these famous autocratic leaders had.
Autocratic Leadership In the Workplace.
An authoritarian leader has a different leadership style where there is a lack of communication between the leader and his/her followers. You will find that there is a great lack of open communication. If you listen to the leader and give him his/her advice, you will not receive a clear answer posing a challenge in the decision-making process. The leader may decide to change the course of action, but then make decisions without consulting with the team members. This leader may also use bullying or intimidating behavior to get others to comply with his/her policies and decisions thus affecting employee performance as they are not happy with their leadership behavior.
The most powerful leaders do not like to be called dictators despite their authoritarian leadership style. To them, it’s an insult. However, some leaders find themselves in such powerful positions that they need to use the authoritarian style as the best management style. Other powerful leaders trust their employees and choose to use the laissez-faire leadership method which often boosts employee morale.
Where is the autocratic leadership style used?
Authoritarian leadership style can sometimes be good. In times of crisis, the autocratic leadership style is often the only option. A successful leader must always be prepared to take responsibility for a situation and lead with decisiveness when under pressure from circumstances that may cause dissent among his followers.
Autocratic leadership style characteristics.
- An autocratic leader has the power to make all of the final decisions.
- They’re responsible for all decisions
- They want to be the one who comes up with all of the ideas in the office and discourages others from having their own.
- Establishes and enforce rules if you want everyone to follow along.
- They decide all the methods and processes for the company
Why is autocratic leadership style bad?
There are many negative effects and disadvantages to this autocratic style of leadership including a lack of creative solutions to problems and dissatisfaction from members who feel that you are not a good leader and they have no control over what happens within their team. The autocratic approach limits the creativity of the employees.
How do you deal with an autocratic leader?
Here are ways to deal with an autocratic leader who may be getting on your nerves:
Do not take things personally.
When you work under an autocratic leader, it may be difficult not to take their leadership style personally. This can lead many people who are accustomed to democratic leadership into becoming passive-aggressive and adopting the “work-to-rule” mentality where they only do what is asked thus affecting employee performance. The employee will work without any extra effort or enthusiasm in order to avoid being reprimanded for coming up short on meeting targets as a group member.
Take individual control of your attitude and try your best never let this get you down by always maintaining productivity at all times. If you are a servant leader working under an authoritarian leader do not forget to take individual control of your emotions that no one will notice how disgruntled and unproductive you really feel working with someone like this!
Focus on your task
In an autocracy type of leadership, the autocratic leaders are often confident and focused, so they will know exactly what it is that you need to do. When working for an autocrat, who has zero servant leadership, focus your time on completing the tasks assigned to you with little interference from your boss; this means following their orders without question or changing how things are done if needed as long as the end result meets their expectations.
Avoid fights
Professional leaders should maintain their composure when faced with an autocratic leader. This will make you stand out as a strong leader. You might want to scream, but you will benefit more from remaining calm and focusing on the task at hand. If this continues to be an issue then limit your interactions with these types of autocratic leaders as much as it is possible and practice making a quick decision that will yield positive results. This in turn will prove that you are an effective leader and a valuable member of the team ready to improve team performance.
Credibility
By being a reliable and hardworking worker, you’ll eventually earn the trust of your boss even though they do not offer much employee engagement to you or any other team member. You’ll be able to take on more responsibility with increased autonomy because they know that even if given free reign, you will provide transformational leadership to get things done effectively! they will appreciate your management style but will still not openly acknowledge it.
Conclusion
Whether you like it or not, the autocratic leadership style is the most widely used style in today’s society. As bad as it sounds, a transformational leader may have to employ an autocratic style of leadership to achieve success.
It seems as if there are two choices when it comes to how you get things are done: democratic and authoritarian. While democratic leadership may be fairer for those involved; a dictatorship can do what needs to be done quickly while still providing results that come close enough (or even exceed) expectations.
