The sherpa is offered as a helpful metaphor amid the rich and diverse metaphorical landscape describing public administration at the interface between senior public servants and ministers. The sherpa model acknowledges the complexity and nuanced leadership now demanded in the Westminster tradition, offering fresh tools for practitioners to think more critically about their role and how they can improve leadership skills. It also offers theoretical ability to incorporate relevant but underdeveloped factors, such as the environment, into the administrative leadership equation, thus enlarging issues at stake and forces demanding scrutiny, if administrative leadership is to be better understood.