how do you think being a tribal leader works
Personally I think of it as a "representative/you're the guy we trust most" type of deal.
Most of the time, it just goes to the oldest in the tribe (Ex. Flain, Glomp, Magnifo).
Sometimes it goes to the mixel who's best able to protect them (Ex Flurr being able to spot nixels from far away, Jawg literally being a guard dog, Niksput being the only non robot in his tribe)
Other times, one just has leadership qualities the rest don't (Ex. Most of Series 7, 8, and 9, Telso, Kraw)
As of representative, they just have to be able to be able to do tasks with other tribal leaders (like the sandwich run). In the case of the Fang Gang and Spikels, there's both a leader and a representative (this defaults to the oldest). The representative default also applies to tribes without a defined leader, like the cousins, Lixers, and Trashoz.