MANX - A Leadership Thinking Model

MANX: A Leadership Thinking Model

Mastery, audacity, connection and the human multiplier

We spend years teaching children how to think about their own learning, through metacognition and growth mindset. Leaders rarely get anything comparable. Competency frameworks tell you what a leader should be able to do. They say far less about how to think while you're doing it, in the corridor and the difficult meeting, and in the five seconds before you answer a question.

MANX is a leadership thinking model built for that. It has four facets and twenty-eight practical components, and it's written for a world where the tools keep changing and the human work of leading matters more than ever.

M - Meta-Mastery. The mind. Mastery of how you master things, so that whatever arrives next can be learned and led.

A - Applied Audacity. The drive. Starting before everything is certain, finishing what others leave half done, and growing people beyond their own expectations.

N - Nourishing Networks. The heart. The relationships a leader works through, and the energy, belonging and care that travel along them.

X - The Human Multiplier. The scale. People and AI working together, with judgement kept firmly in human hands.

What's inside

• A full chapter on each facet, grounded in research from education, psychology, organisational behaviour and the emerging evidence on people and AI.
• All twenty-eight components explained in depth. Each one covers why it matters, practical steps for Monday morning, the ways it goes wrong, and a question worth sitting with.
• Feelforward, the model's signature move for reading the room and responding at corridor speed.
• A printable MANX self-review profile for you and your team.
• Guidance on using the model in leadership meetings, appraisal, recruitment and work with governors.
• Full references.
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Written for leaders at every level of a school, from the governing body to the newest subject leader, and for anyone leading across more than one site. The examples come from schools, and the thinking travels well beyond them.

About the author

Max Kelly is Executive Headteacher of three primary schools on the Isle of Man, with significant experience of executive headship. He is an inclusion and leadership consultant working with schools across the UK, Northern Ireland, the Middle East and China, and writes as Manx Maxim.

61-page PDF, instant download.