When sharing power leads to taking it back: A shift from empowering to directive leadership

Abstract Leader behaviour shifts across days, and empowering acts may shape leaders' subsequent self‐regulation. Using a leader‐centric, within‐person lens, we test whether daily empowering leadership is associated with self‐regulatory demands and when such demands arise. Drawing on control theory, we argue that power sharing requires continual calibration to keep autonomy and accountability aligned and may coincide with higher day‐level regulatory strain indexed by leaders' self‐reported ego depletion. We further propose that this strain is more likely when subordinates are low in proactive personality, and that strain is associated with greater directive leadership the next day as a structured response. We tested these expectations in a 10‐day experience‐sampling study of 129 supervisor–subordinate dyads (719 observations) in a military setting. Multilevel lagged analyses showed a conditional pattern consistent with next‐day strain and the subsequent shift towards directive behaviour. These findings clarify when empowerment becomes harder to sustain and how leaders adapt by increasing structure.