All this management bullshit might work if your reports were mindless and we didn't live in the age of the Internet; unfortunately in IT, they probably aren't and, well, we most certainly do.

Aping emotions, and playing psychological games (like playing dumb, and pretending to be a friend for the purposes of eliciting information) is a dangerous game in our industry because as soon as your reports detect you are behaving in this way the relationship will go south, fast (and permanently.)

Playing mind games like these will cause you to exhibit behaviors more typically associated with psychopathic individuals - and you will set yourself up for having them played back against you.