To examine tactical self-presentations (images persons display publicly) in task-oriented leadership situations, 128 subjects (56 male and 72 female) were assigned leadership positions in groups that did very well or very poorly. The leaders learned that either they or the group-at-large were responsible for the performance and that the other group members either did or did not know the precise locus of responsibility. As predicted, males emphasized self-presentations of competence and prominence relative to their socioemotionality (the appearance of being warm, approachable, and interpersonally oriented) when the others did not know of the leader's responsibility for success, but relatively de-emphasized the former attributes when the others did know. Males also displayed some compensatory self-presentations following a leader-responsible failure, though the effects were not precisely as predicted. In contrast, females' self-presentations did not follow predictions; they normally emphasized their socioemotionality over other attributes irrespective of the combination of treatment. These findings are consistent with prior research generally indicating that females are more interpersonally oriented in group settings, while males are more task oriented. (Author/LRA)