Drawing on affective event theory, the current research intends to examine the link amongst despotic leadership, project success, psychological empowerment and psychological safety. A total of 706 supervisors and their staff of three project-based information technology (IT) companies located in Lahore took part in a time-lagged survey. The subjects of the study were selected through convenience sampling procedure. The theorized relationships were analyzed utilizing structural equation modeling. Findings uncovered that despotic leadership significantly affected project success. Furthermore, psychological empowerment mediated the association of despotic leadership and project success. However, the mediation of psychological safety was not significant. The research implications are deliberated.