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Leadership Style2

Autocratic Leadership

Choosing the Right Style for the Situation

In business, a leadership style called
"transformational leadership" is often the most effective approach to
use. Transformational leaders have integrity, they inspire people with a shared
vision of the future, they set clear goals and motivate people towards them,
they manage delivery, and they communicate well with their teams. (You can find
out more about transformational leadership at the end of this article.)

However, leadership
is not "one size fits all" thing; often, you must adapt your style to
fit a situation or a specific group. This is why it's useful to gain a thorough
understanding of other leadership styles; after all, the more approaches you're
familiar with, the more tools you'll be able to use to lead effectively.

Let's take a deeper
look at Autocratic Leadership style .

Autocratic Leadership

Autocratic leadership is an extreme form of transactional
leadership, where leaders have complete power over their people. Staff and team
members have little opportunity to make suggestions, even if these would be in
the team's or the organization's best interest.

The benefit of
autocratic leadership is that it's incredibly efficient. Decisions are made
quickly, and work gets done.

The downside is that most people resent being treated this
way. Therefore, autocratic leadership often leads to high levels of absenteeism
and high staff turnover. However, the style can be effective for some routine
and unskilled jobs: in these situations, the advantages of control may outweigh
the disadvantages.

Autocratic leadership
is often best used in crises, when decisions must be made quickly and without
dissent. For instance, the military often uses an autocratic leadership style;
top commanders are responsible for quickly making complex decisions, which
allows troops to focus their attention and energy on performing their allotted
tasks and missions.

http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_84.htm