Leadership is a trait that few people possess and that is the reason why good leaders are difficult to find and companies all over the world are willing to pay anything for getting a great leader in their organization. Different leaders have different leadership styles, autocratic leadership is one of those styles where the leader takes control of all things and very little is delegated to lower levels when it comes to decisions also autocratic leader does not seek advice from group members and take decisions on the basis of his or her own judgment. In order to understand it better let’s look at the advantages and disadvantages of autocratic leadership –
Advantages of Autocratic Leadership
Quick Decision Making
The first and foremost advantage of this type of leadership style is that it helps the company in making a quick decision as the decision is centralized with the leader. Under this type of leadership style there is no delay as the decision rests with a single authority and in times of crunch situation where a quick decision is needed autocratic leader proves to be advantageous for the company.
Strong Leadership
Another advantage of autocratic leadership is that since the leader is strong he or she does not give any chance to other people who are higher up in an organizational hierarchy like the general manager, project manager, and so on who may try to influence certain decisions so as to benefit themselves. Hence in a way under this type of leadership style chances of people using their powers for personal gain are less.
Complete Control
Under this type of leadership style, there is complete control by the leader over the group or team members of the company and hence the chance of inefficiency is far less under this type of leadership as compared to other forms of leadership as employees are always vigilant because of strict control and supervision of the leader.
Disadvantages of Autocratic Leadership
Thin Line between Leader and Dictator
There is a very thin line between an autocratic leader and a dictator, the moment that thin line is crossed and the autocratic leader becomes dictator then it will lead to many problems and company employees will feel suffocated and frustrated as the dictator tend to impose his or her opinions and decisions on the people working under him or her whether its right or wrong.
Lack of Consultation
Under autocratic leadership, all decisions are taken by the leader and there is no consultation by the leader with group members which in turn leads to a lack of creativity as well as the personal bias of the leader creeping into the decision-making process which in turn will lead to a loss for the company as decisions will not be on the basis of merit but on the ego of the leader.
Lack of Freedom
In this age when young people are at the forefront of everything and we all know that young people want freedom and hate too much interference autocratic leadership will not work as young and talented people will become frustrated quickly with constant supervision and leave the company leaving a vacuum which in turn will affect the company performance as employees are one of the major pillars on which company performance is dependent.
As one can see from the above that autocratic leadership has both advantages as well as disadvantages, however, a good leader should imbibe the advantages of autocratic leadership and avoid the pitfalls of autocratic leadership so that he or she can both be successful as well as a respected leader in the eyes of the people under his or her command.