Insecurity often hides behind confidence in schools. The Power Games Model exposes the subtle power dynamics that shape leadership culture, from “Gatekeeping” to “Compliance Theatre”. Drawing on Glasser, Karpman, and Edmondson, this article explains why people play these games and how courageous leaders can stop them before they define the school.
The Quiet Games Behind Professional Faces
In most schools, people rarely speak about power. It hums quietly through every staffroom conversation, committee meeting, and leadership retreat. Sometimes it emerges as healthy influence that inspires others to act with conviction and shared purpose. More often, it surfaces as the subtle manoeuvring, withholding, and politicking that quietly shape school culture.
Picture a leadership meeting where an experienced deputy keeps correcting colleagues in front of the head, or a curriculum coordinator who insists that only they have access to the latest inspection documents. No rules are broken, yet something corrosive is taking place. These are the games people play, small but powerful rituals of control that protect insecurity while eroding trust.
In schools, these games do not begin with malice. They grow from fear: fear of being excluded, irrelevant, or exposed. In environments where accountability is intense and public, insecurity can become the hidden driver of behaviour. Leadership, therefore, is not merely the art of strategy or communication. It is the ability to notice these games, understand what fuels them, and lead people toward something braver and more honest.
Why People Play: Insecurity and Unmet Needs
Psychologist William Glasser offers a useful starting point. In his Choice Theory¹ he argued that all behaviour is driven by five basic needs: survival, love and belonging, power and achievement, freedom, and fun. When one of these needs goes unmet, particularly the need for power, people often resort to what Glasser called external control behaviour. They try to control others to regain a sense of worth and safety.
In schools, insecurity is often masked by authority. Titles such as “Principal”, “Head of Department”, or “Coordinator” create the illusion of confidence, yet beneath the surface, leaders may still be seeking validation. When systems are poorly designed or when recognition is scarce, people turn to control as compensation. They hoard information, resist delegation, or engage in the subtle art of impression management. These are not acts of malice but maladaptive attempts to meet the power need through control rather than contribution.
Glasser contrasted boss management with lead management². The boss controls people through rules, rewards, and fear. The lead manager connects people to purpose, builds ownership, and focuses on quality work. The first approach breeds insecurity and gamesmanship. The second dissolves it by aligning people’s internal motivation with the school’s shared mission.
How Games Take Shape: The Psychology of Power
The late Eric Berne, through Transactional Analysis (TA)³, described human interactions as transactions that occur between three ego states: Parent, Adult, and Child. When stress rises in schools, such as during inspections, budget pressures, or parental complaints, staff often regress to Parent–Child dynamics. The authoritarian head insists, “Because I said so,” while the defiant teacher responds, “You never listen to us.” These patterns lock people into roles that feel safe but are unproductive.
Healthy leadership requires Adult–Adult transactions that create open, rational, and mutually respectful dialogue. Achieving this maturity is difficult in hierarchies that reward obedience rather than reflection.
Stephen Karpman’s Drama Triangle⁴ provides another useful lens. In tense moments, people oscillate between Victim, Persecutor, and Rescuer.
- The Victim feels powerless: “Senior leadership never listen.”
- The Persecutor blames: “Teachers just don’t follow through.”
- The Rescuer over-functions: “Let me fix this for you.”
These roles feed one another and create cycles of dependency that prevent growth. In schools, a leader who continually rescues weak performance prevents others from learning accountability. The persecuting leader drives compliance but kills creativity. The victim finds safety in complaint rather than courage in action. Everyone stays busy, yet nothing changes.
Sociologists French and Raven⁵ described five bases of power: legitimate, reward, coercive, expert, and referent, later adding informational. Insecure leaders rely on coercive or informational power, enforcing control or hoarding knowledge. Confident leaders cultivate expert and referent power. They are trusted because they know, and they are followed because they care.
When legitimate authority is overused and expertise underdeveloped, games fill the void. The power struggle becomes the culture.
The Power Games Model
In my work with school leaders, I have observed recurring behavioural patterns that emerge when insecurity and power intersect in professional environments. I refer to these as The Power Games Model, an applied framework that identifies common micropolitical dynamics such as The Gatekeeper Game, Compliance Theatre, and The Hero Rescue.
The model is adapted from classic theories of leadership and behavioural psychology, including Glasser’s Choice Theory, Karpman’s Drama Triangle, and French and Raven’s Bases of Power, reinterpreted through the lens of contemporary school leadership practice.
These are the games that quietly play out in corridors, meeting rooms, and leadership teams. They can appear harmless, but they signal deeper organisational dysfunction.
| Game | What It Looks Like | Insecurity Beneath It | Power Base Used | Impact |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Gatekeeper | Withholds information or data to stay indispensable. | Fear of being replaced. | Informational. | Slows collaboration, erodes trust. |
| Compliance Theatre | Produces perfect inspection paperwork while classroom quality lags. | Fear of failure or exposure. | Coercive + legitimate. | Creates illusion of excellence. |
| Consult and Abandon | Invites feedback then ignores it. | Fear of being challenged. | Legitimate + impression management. | Staff disengage from vision. |
| Hero Rescue | Steps in late to “save” a project. | Need for recognition. | Referent + reward. | Disempowers others. |
| Meeting Maze | Endless committees to avoid commitment. | Fear of responsibility. | Legitimate. | Diffuses accountability. |
| Policy Literalism | Uses policy rigidity to block progress. | Fear of ambiguity. | Coercive. | Damages relationships. |
| Shadow Cabinet | Builds back-channel alliances. | Fear of exclusion. | Referent. | Fuels factions and rumours. |
| Data Gaming | Selective metrics to show success. | Fear of scrutiny. | Informational. | Distorts focus from learning. |
These games are rarely malicious. They are rituals of self-protection in systems that reward appearances over authenticity.
The Cost: When Learning Takes Second Place
The hidden cost of these games is not just professional frustration; it is educational stagnation. Every minute spent managing egos is a minute not spent improving teaching and learning. When people fear making mistakes, psychological safety, a concept championed by Amy Edmondson⁶, collapses. Innovation requires risk-taking, but in low-trust environments, risk becomes too expensive. Teachers teach defensively, leaders manage for optics, and schools lose the curiosity that fuels learning.
Power games also corrode well-being. The emotional labour of impression management is exhausting. Staff either conform, withdraw, or leave. Students sense the dissonance: adults preach growth mindset while modelling fear of feedback.
Educational leadership, at its best, is adaptive rather than technical, as Ron Heifetz and Marty Linsky argue⁷. It requires mobilising people to face challenges that have no simple answers. Power games, by contrast, are avoidance mechanisms. They allow leaders to appear decisive while evading the deeper work of change.
Changing the Game: Leadership Without Control
To dismantle power games, leaders must first examine their own sources of power and insecurity. The shift begins internally.
- Move from external control to lead management (Glasser)⁸
Replace “Do as I say” with “Let’s define quality together.” Clarify the why, provide structure, but allow genuine choice. People who own their work have no reason to play for control. - Create Adult–Adult norms (Transactional Analysis)⁹
Establish meeting agreements that promote open questioning, shared accountability, and respectful challenge. When emotional regression occurs, such as a defensive teacher or authoritarian principal, name it and reset the tone. - Build transparency into systems
Publish decision logs, criteria for promotions, and data definitions. When information is public, the gatekeeping game disappears. - Foster psychological safety (Edmondson)¹⁰
Begin meetings with brief reflections such as, “What is one risk you took this week?” or “What mistake helped you learn?” Leaders who share their own missteps model courage. Vulnerability, as Brené Brown¹¹ notes, is not weakness but the birthplace of trust. - Redesign accountability
Shift from compliance metrics to improvement narratives. Let inspection frameworks map to authentic learning outcomes rather than the reverse. - Coach through insecurity
Recognise that game-playing often masks fear. Use coaching conversations to surface triggers: “What are you protecting?” or “What would happen if you shared control?” Build self-efficacy instead of policing behaviour. - Encourage distributed leadership
Rotate chairs in meetings, delegate ownership of initiatives, and value expertise wherever it resides. When everyone leads something, no one needs to dominate everything. - Align incentives with values
Boards and proprietors must reward collaboration, transparency, and staff growth rather than inspection results. Systems that reward control will always breed control.
A Reflective Checklist for School Leaders
- What games do I notice in my team, and which might I be playing myself?
- How often do my meetings end with clear ownership rather than vague consensus?
- When I feel threatened, do I seek to connect or to control?
- Which of Glasser’s needs am I neglecting for myself and for others?
- Does our culture reward candour and experimentation, or performance and safety?
- How do we model vulnerability without eroding authority?
Reflection is uncomfortable, but discomfort is the doorway to growth. Leadership maturity is measured not by how well we hide insecurity but by how bravely we confront it.
From Performance Theatre to Learning Truth
In the theatre of education, appearance can be intoxicating. Perfect inspection reports, glossy newsletters, and slogans about excellence can conceal environments where staff feel voiceless and students sense the pretence. Real leadership dismantles the stage and lets the learning speak for itself.
Power will always exist; it is necessary for direction and safety. The question is whether it is used with people or against them. Schools that move from control to collaboration rediscover their moral centre: learning that is genuine, relationships that are adult, and leadership that is courageous.
The games we play are not the problem.
Our refusal to name them is.
Endnotes and References
- Glasser, W. (1998). Choice Theory: A New Psychology of Personal Freedom. HarperCollins.
- Glasser Australia. (n.d.). “Lead Management.” https://glasseraustralia.com/lead-management/
- Berne, E. (1961). Transactional Analysis in Psychotherapy. Grove Press.
- Karpman, S. (1968). “Fairy Tales and Script Drama Analysis.” Transactional Analysis Bulletin, 7(26). https://karpmandramatriangle.com/dt_article_only.html
- French, J. R. P., & Raven, B. (1959). “The Bases of Social Power.” In D. Cartwright (Ed.), Studies in Social Power. University of Michigan.
- Edmondson, A. (1999). “Psychological Safety and Learning Behavior in Work Teams.” Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(2). https://hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=2959
- Heifetz, R., & Linsky, M. (2002). “A Survival Guide for Leaders.” Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2002/06/a-survival-guide-for-leaders
- William Glasser Institute (UK). (n.d.). “Choice Theory in Action.” https://wgi-uk.co.uk/choice-theory/
- Simply Psychology. (n.d.). “Transactional Analysis (Eric Berne).” https://www.simplypsychology.org/transactional-analysis-eric-berne.html
- Edmondson, A. (n.d.). “Psychological Safety.” https://amycedmondson.com/psychological-safety/
- Brown, B. (2018). Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts. Random House. https://brenebrown.com/book/dare-to-lead/
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