Some of you may have heard about autocratic leadership or even facing it first-hand. Well, it can be said easily, but not many people understand what it truly means. If you have just heard about this term and curious what it means, then you are on the right track. Find out what the autocratic leadership means, including what autocratic leader have in common and its examples.
Authoritarian leadership style can be defined as a style of leadership in which someone (a leader) takes all the control to direct the team and to solve a problem. Aside from that, another acceptable point that used to describe autocratic leadership style is the leader’s tendency to not listen from his/her subordinates.
Is an autocratic management style bad for the company? Well, VeryWell Mind mentioned this type of leadership can be quite negative to know and to experience. However, during a certain occasion, authoritarian style of leadership can be beneficial, especially if a certain problem requires an urgent solution.
Now that you have understood the autocratic leadership definition, let’s understand what autocratic leader definition and what such leaders have in common.
Autocratic leader can simply be described as leader who applies such an autocratic leadership way to lead the team. What are the features of such leaders? Here are some features you may find it in yourself, or in a colleague.
- Important decision making – Leader with authoritarian leadership type tends to make all the crucial decision all alone.
- Say no to other inputs – While making the decision, such leader tends to be neglecting other people’s input.
- Dictating leader – Regarding all the working methods and processes, you take all the control. That leaves other people no space to interrupt with their suggestions.
- Hard to trust – Autocratic leaders find it hard to trust the teammates, especially with important decisions.
- Structured – Another trait from such leaders is the structuredness of one’s working flow. As if leaving nothing’s to err, autocratic leaders make the plan thoroughly and trying to be spotless as possible.
Examples of Autocratic Leadership
If you are trying to find some autocratic leadership examples, you can actually find it in many renowned leaders. Some of the famous ones will include Adolf Hitler, Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong-un, Elon Musk from Tesla, and even the previous president of United States—Donald Trump.
The Positive Side of Autocratic Leadership
While it can be tricky to deal with such leaders—just as mentioned in many authoritarian leadership examples, it can be beneficial for the team to have an authoritarian leader.
When it comes to quick decision making, autocrat leader can be the one to trust on. This is because this kind of leader typically is someone who already prepared for any unpredictable occurrence and has plans for it.
Compared to democratic leadership style which tends to be listening to other people’s opinion, autocrat leaders will cut the time used for gathering opinions—since they tend to make the decision themselves.
So, those are some information regarding the authoritarian leadership as well as several autocratic leadership example (autocrat leader) you may find it interesting. The bottom line is this kind of leadership can be negative for some people. But in fact, this kind of leadership is beneficial on some occasion.