Game in the Brain

So my recent model of Leadership is that Its an Influence Skill – through Behavior or Through Signaling (See Signalling Theory) in Behavior. Most influence skills use Communication – information that causes the Target to Act in a certain way. Conveying information is not just through verbal or written information – it could be through non-verbal or through creating Context (vs manipulating or controlling context).

I’ll give you incentives or penalties to influence your Actions. Pursuasion and Transactional Communication.
I’ll appeal to your own inertia to act or not-act. Emotional Appeal.
and in Leadership and in Diplomacy – we use Non-verbal Context. The difference between diplomacy and leadership is that Leadership has a NARROWER set of actions it can influence but it is more subtle and harder to argue against when it hits all the right cords. 

I’ll go and say all the Mysticism and Symbolism we attach to Leadership is SUBJECTIVE, we put things there that matter to us. Projecting/Transfering our values into the Leader’s behavior and actions is how this bias shapes the Target of Influence. I will follow someone who I believe shares my Values, and that person shares my values through the Actions she/he takes.

Using this Model – I can start to Classify Actions that Signal and Transfer our values to the Persons whose behavior is influencing our Opinion of them. These Actions

• Active Listening 
• Feedback and Alignment of Expectations.
• Engagement – using Personalizing of Motivations. Allowing for personal motivations to augment rational motivations. Using Active Listening and Feedback to discuss how personnal motivations relates to Actions we want to pursue.