Leadership is a very important aspect of any business organization and that is the reason why leadership style plays a key role in deciding whether the company will be able to successfully manage and lead its workforce or it will lead to chaos and resentment among the employees of the company. Transformational leadership and autocratic leadership are two types of leadership that are prevalent in many companies however there are many differences between the two, let’s look at some of the differences between transformational leadership and autocratic leadership –
Transformational Leadership Vs Autocratic Leadership
Meaning
Transformational leadership refers to that leadership style in which the leader encourage or motivate its employees to take greater responsibilities which not only leads to their personal growth but also helps the company in achieving the long term goals of the company while autocratic leadership refers to that leadership style in which the leader takes all the decisions and employees are expected to follow the instructions of the leader without any questions.
Suggestions
In the case of transformational leadership suggestions from team members or employees are welcomed and if the leaders find the suggestion to be good then that suggestion is implemented thus motivating the employees to give more suggestions while in the case of autocratic leadership any suggestions from team members or employees are looked at with anger and resentment and thus employees think ten times before giving any suggestions.
Delegation
In the case of transformational leadership the leader delegates the work and encourages employees to take the decision independently which has its pros as well as cons because if the employee is good enough then delegation can be a good strategy while if the employee is not good enough then it can backfire and leads to losses for the company. In the case of autocratic leadership, there is no delegation of work as leaders consider others to be incompetent to take the decisions and all decisions are centralized which makes delegation of work a dream for employees or team members.
Decision Making
In the case of transformational leadership since the leader consults as well as delegates the decisions the time taken for decision is more but when it comes to autocratic leadership the time taken for decision making is short as all decisions are taken by the leader or people at the top level besides since no inputs are taken from team members the decision making is a fast process when one compares it with transformational leadership.
Work Culture
In the case of transformational leadership style, there is freedom and cordial working atmosphere as transformational leadership is guided by principles of trust and motivation but when it comes to autocratic leadership the work environment is that fear and punishment as autocratic leadership is guided by principals of strict control and giving orders to employees or team members. In simple words when it comes to working culture transformational leadership has an edge over autocratic leadership and employees or team members tend to prefer transformational leadership style over autocratic leadership style.
Vision
In the case of transformational leadership, the vision is long term in nature because the results of this type of leadership style are not visible in short term but once the employees start to realize and respect the leader they start to take responsibility as well as accountability and thus results start coming but when it comes to autocratic leadership the vision is short term as in the short term the results of fear and discipline are visible but in the long term the leader has no respect and patronage from the employees of the company.
As one can see from the above that there are many differences between the two and that is the reason why any company thinking of adopting any one leadership style should carefully read the above differences and then only should take any decision regarding which leadership style is best suited for the company.