Autocratic leadership is very similar to the authoritarian leadership style. In this leadership the rules and procedures that teams use quite rigid. That means there is a priority on consistency, with each team member performing their job function in a similar way. Here this article gives information about the main characteristics of autocratic leadership to better understand this topic. You can also check the advantages and disadvantages of autocratic leadership to know more about it.

Characteristics of Autocratic leadership:

1. The leader makes almost all of the decisions. Retains all power, control,  authority, and reserves the right to make all decisions.
2. The leader tells everyone what to do, dictate all the work methods and process, and enforce their own idea and judgment.
3. Group members are rarely trusted with decisions or important links.
4. Distrust of their subordinate ability and closely supervise and control people under them.
5. Little or no input from the group of the member.
6. Assume the employee motivation comes not through empowerment, but by creating a structured set of rewards and punishment.
7. Rules are important and tend to be clearly outlined and communicated.
8. Group leader dictates all the work method and process.
9. The Group of a member is always directly supervised by the leader.
10. Decisions concerning goals, projects, tasks, documents, processes and so on. They are created by the leader alone, there is little or no input from others.
11. Involves themselves in detailed day-to-day all activities, and rarely delegate or empower their subordinates.
12. The work tends to be highly structured and very rigid.
13. Get work done by issuing threats and punishment and evoking fear.
14. A leader independently presides over policies and processes.
15. Creativity and out of the box thinking tend to be disorganized.
16. The primary concern of autocratic leaders remains dealing with the work at hand and not on development activities.
17. You have to highly structured working environment.
18. Adopts one-way communication. They do not consult with subordinates or give them a chance to provide their opinion, no matter the potential benefits of such inputs.
19. You want to instigate rules and make sure everyone follows.
20. This theory is successful during emergency actions where is no chance of mistakes. Additionally, this is useful only in those areas where only orders and instruction are given. e.g. Military, Constructions, etc.

Explore more information:

1. Advantages and disadvantages of autocratic leadership
2. When should you choose autocratic leadership?
3. How does autocratic leadership affect performance?
4. Why is the autocratic leadership style most effective?
5. What are the benefits of autocratic leadership?
6. Advantages and disadvantages of democratic leadership
7. What are the benefits of democratic leadership?
8. What are the characteristics of democratic leadership?
9. When should you choose democratic leadership?
10. Why is the democratic leadership style most effective?
11. Advantages and disadvantages of free rein leadership
12. What are the characteristics of free rein leadership?
13. When should you use free rein leadership?
14. Why is the free rein leadership style most effective?
15. What are the benefits of free rein style leadership?
16. Qualities of a good leader
17. Function of leadership
18. What are the characteristics of leadership?
19. Importance of leadership
20. Advantages and disadvantages of transformational leadership
21. Difference between manager and leader
22. What are the attributes of a managerial leader?

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Divya Chauhan

Divya Chauhan is an expert writer with 10+ years of experience as a content writer. They specialize in making complex topics like IT, Health, and general topic easy to understand. Divya has written over thousands of articles to help people with their content. Prior to joining Way2benefits’s editorial team in 2020, Divya worked as a Professor of BCA college and freelancer blogger.

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