What is Top-down Leadership?

Top-down leadership is the most common leadership style in organizations in the United States. It involves an “autocratic” approach in which major decisions on the direction, strategy, and actions of a company are made at the highest levels, with employees given tasks to complete.

It’s a straightforward management style with many advantages. The main one is that executives in a company have complete control over the decision-making process, especially if such a role is exactly what they have been trained to take on. The leadership style often works best in situations where employees have less competency in their work and need more direction, or where they lack the ability or desire to make decisions that impact company policy.

But it also has its drawbacks. Knowing both sides of the issue is imperative for those earning a degree in business or management.

Advantages of Top-Down Leadership

While there are exceptions, top-down leadership often works best in situations where an organization is mass-producing a product. In those work environments, less input may be needed for frontline employees. The leadership strategy allows top executives who have graduated from bachelor and master’s degree programs in management to put their knowledge to use. These graduates understand the responsibility that top-down leadership requires of them and are up to the task.

Top-down leadership works well with typical organizational structures as well. If the top echelon is focusing on the short-term and long-term strategies needed for success, then employees can focus on using their skills – often specialized in certain niches – to excel at their jobs without wasting time in meetings involving the direction of the company.

This leadership approach also offers clear lines of communication (although it requires great communication skills). Top executives create a strategy. They communicate this to managers who then carry out the tasks needed to achieve the strategy by assigning tasks to lower managers and frontline workers. At the lower levels, people focus on completing their portion of the task.

With strong, fair leaders, top-down leadership can still work well.

Disadvantages of Top-Down Leadership

Top-down leadership doesn’t typically fail because of an inherent flaw, but because the people involved – especially those at the top – are not well suited for the responsibilities top-down leadership requires of them. The strategy could fail because of:

• Poor communication skills
• An inability to innovate, such as using modern technology to create a data-driven company
• Lack of strategic vision
• An inability to adapt and change as needed
• Dismissing ideas that don’t come from themselves
• Playing it too safe
• Inconsistency in how leaders approach the job

Any of the above can lead to problems, and typically they come in toxic combinations. That’s why leaders, especially in a top-down organization, need education to hone the skills and knowledge required to succeed.

Even with large companies, employee feedback is important. This can become an issue if not taken into consideration. For example, process improvement methodologies rely on consistent feedback from employees who understand frontline issues better than anyone else.

Ultimately, top-down leadership can work if leaders prepare themselves to take on the challenges and incorporate some form of employee feedback. Sitting in a vacuum at the top of the organizational chart is not going to lead to success.

Incorporating some form of a bottom-up approach that includes employees in decision-making is a wave of the future for companies. But most can also expect elements of a top-down leadership approach to remain.