Despotic Leadership
Despotic leadership creates brittle organizations that collapse rapidly when challenged.
The 'selfish alpha' is not just morally inferior - it's evolutionarily unsuccessful.
In species with limited cognitive capacity and simple social structures, dominance often equals physical superiority. A dominant rhesus macaque monopolizes 75% of mating opportunities through aggression and intimidation. Subordinates show chronic stress responses - elevated cortisol, suppressed immune function, reduced fertility.
Despotic leaders show chronically elevated cortisol (200% of baseline), highly variable testosterone with spikes during challenges, suppressed immune markers (40% reduction in lymphocyte count), accelerated telomere degradation (1.5× normal aging rate), and reduced heart rate variability. Average despotic tenure: 2.5 years before overthrow or exhaustion. In olive baboons, despotic alpha males spend 30% of their time in aggressive displays or fights.
Business Application of Despotic Leadership
Despotic leadership creates brittle organizations that collapse rapidly when challenged. Enron's 47-day collapse, VW's Dieselgate ($33B+ costs), and GE's $500B value destruction demonstrate that fear-based hierarchies fail because no one defends a despot when weakness appears - they attack.