The world has witnessed several leaders in action over the course of history, each with their

own distinct leadership style. These styles can broadly be classified into five categories,
namely:
1. Authoritarian leadership
2. Participative Leadership
3. Delegative Leadership
4. Transactional Leadership
5. Transformational Leadership

We will be looking at Authoritarian and Delegative leadership more closely and lay out the
advantages and disadvantages of both these styles.

A. Authoritarian Leadership:
Authoritarian leadership styles allow a leader to impose expectations and define
outcomes. It is a leadership style wherein a single individual has total control over
the decision making process and over their subordinates. An authoritarian leader
usually takes minimal inputs from their team members.
Advantages Disadvantages
1. Time spent on making crucial 1. A very strict leadership style can
decisions can be reduced. sometimes lead to subordinate
2. Chain of command can be clearly dissatisfaction.
emphasized. 2. It kills team member creativity and
3. Mistakes in the implementation of innovation.
plans can be reduced. 3. It reduces group synergy &
4. Using authoritarian leadership collaboration.
style creates consistent results. 4. Group input is reduced dramatically.

B. Delegative Leadership:
Delegative Leadership on the other hand is a “hands-off” style of leadership where
the leaders allow the team members to make decisions. It focuses on delegating
initiative to the subordinates.

Advantages
1. Experienced employees can take
advantage of their competence and
experience.
2. Innovation & creativity is highly
valued.
3. Delegative leadership creates a
positive work environment.
Disadvantages
1. Chain of command is not properly
defined.
2. Delegative leadership creates
difficulty in adapting to change.
3. Lack of accountability among team
members

To highlight the uniqueness of these two styles of leadership, let us look at an example.

Suppose, a team is hit with a crisis of a large magnitude and the situation is extremely time
sensitive. In such a situation, an authoritarian leader can efficiently lead the team out of the
crisis when the team members themselves are unsure on how to proceed further. Given
that time is an important factor in such a situation, an authoritarian style is a huge
advantage as it streamlines all decision making. Especially in times of crisis, having a strong
leader can boost team morale and in fact improve outlook, lest the team panics.

However, for a crisis of such a magnitude a single person’s efforts alone may fall short of
achieving the goal because you would need a 360-degree perspective on matters. The entire
team’s input becomes extremely critical in such instances. It also gives the subordinates a
chance to rise to the occasion and exhibit their leadership skills.