A call for elegant leadership

by Metropol | January 21, 2026 8:33 am

Effective leadership is built in the micro-moments and requires intentional self-reflection, writes leadership educator Kris Cooper.

Leading is rewarding, but it’s also a tough gig. How often have you, or others, lamented a lack of leadership? Or worse, witnessed or complained about poor leadership? A lot?
Because criticism is common, those with the courage to embark on leadership roles often do so with awareness that they might be judged as inadequate. This is despite seemingly infinite information available about leadership. The thing is, information builds only our knowledge. The ideas, theories, models and research help us know more, but we still don’t know what to actually do.

Then, when we do try something new, our sense of identity wobbles. We often don’t know how to reconcile who we are in exercising leadership with who we feel like we are beyond those actions. Who are we being?

These gaps between the knowing, doing and being of leadership is what motivated me to write Elegant Leadership, which offers a methodology for clear, simple and fit-for-purpose leadership. Rather than fuelling knowledge, this book fuels action and reflection on how the action is unfolding.

The idea is to find a balance between pleasing people and needing to be right. To achieve this, Elegant Leadership facilitates goal-setting and regular reflection in the quest for self-awareness and insights into what works best in a given context. After all, what is elegant in a manufacturing firm in 2025 is different from the accounting firm next door, and even what might have been considered elegant in the same firm in 1995.

It’s often in big moments and difficult times that we lament the lack of leadership or cite poor leadership. The good news is that effective leadership is built in the micro-moments and is usually judged based on small actions that accumulate over time. Then the big moments don’t feel so big, and we have the trust of our people to make what might be difficult calls.

To practise this type of elegant leadership, try these tips:

Work on building your self-awareness. Ask others how your leadership efforts are landing.
Consider context. Now, with some awareness of how you’re going at the moment, consider the context you are operating in. What does that context invite in your leadership? What will ‘good leadership’ look like?
Reflect: ‘Do I err towards pleasing others, or needing to be right? What’s my nudge towards the elegant balance point?’
What’s your particular goal? Choose one thing at a time to focus on.
Be intentional about what you will do in a day to exercise your chosen focus (not what you will avoid doing). Keep it small and connected to just one keyword of Elegant Leadership (there are dozens in the book; start with the Core Concepts).
At the end of the day, reflect again: ‘How did it go? Was I being more intentional? How did that work for me and others? Did I make progress on my goal? What will I do tomorrow?’

WIN!

Kris Cooper is a distinguished fellow of Human Resources Institute NZ. We have two copies of her book Elegant Leadership to give away. Email deputy.editor@metros.co.nz, with ‘Elegant Leadership book’ in the subject field and a quote from your favourite leader. Entries close 5 February and winners will be contacted that day.

Source URL: https://metropol.co.nz/a-call-for-elegant-leadership/