The investigation considers the relationship between pre‐emptive behaviour in the mixed‐motive experimental game known as Leader, and the emergence of leadership roles in small groups. Forty male and 45 female subjects each played 100 trials of the Leader game against a non‐contingent other, before subsequently interacting in five‐person, sexually homogeneous groups engaged upon a number of mixed‐motive tasks. A relationship was established between pre‐emptive play in the game situation and nominations for leadership roles in the groups. Specifically, male task leaders were characterized by low levels of pre‐emption and female task leaders by high rates of pre‐emption.The results are interpreted within the context of differential structuring in male and female groups, with a more authoritarian rigidly defined role system in the former case. The investigation points not only to the potential usefulness of game pre‐emption as a leadership measure, but also to the links between behaviour in laboratory games and other less strictly controlled int