Welcome to ManxMaxim
Built for leadership.
Happens to do it in schools.
Tools to strengthen your leadership.
ManxMaxim brings together in-depth articles, regular blogs, podcasts and interactive diagnostics, with the MANX Model helping you turn reflection into action.
Explore a wealth of free content, go further with paid leadership toolkits covering everything from difficult conversations to essential school policies, or work directly with Max on the challenges that matter to you.
ManxMaxim is Max Kelly. A senior leader with substantial experience across multiple schools, and a record of turning strategy into results that hold.
Expand what leadership can be and become the leader the future needs.
For leaders navigating change, questioning established answers and taking responsibility for what comes next.
The MANX Leadership Model brings together four facets of leadership: M Meta-Mastery, understanding yourself; A Applied Audacity, acting with courage; N Nourishing Networks, strengthening others; and X The Human Multiplier, working with AI while keeping human judgement at the centre.
Explore the four facets below.
The mind / Depth
Meta-Mastery
Mastery of how you master things, so that whatever arrives next can be learned and led.
The tools will keep changing. The leader who knows how to master the next thing outlasts the one who mastered the last.
Explore Meta-MasteryMastery of Self
- Mirror MomentsHonest self-reflection and identity
- Moral MuscleValues that hold under pressure
- Maieutic MindsCuriosity which draws out and extends thinking and understanding
Mastery of People
- Mood MappingReading the room
- Margin MakingCreating space to think and grow
- Magnetic MissionVision and inspiration
- Meaningful MotivationWhat moves each person
- Measured MandatesDelegation with boundaries and trust
Mastery of Technology
Mastery of Leadership
The drive / Movement
Applied Audacity
Starting before everything is certain, finishing what others leave half done, and growing people beyond their own expectations.
Leadership is measured by what it sets in motion, and by what it sees through.
Explore Applied Audacity- Anticipatory ActionStarting ahead of the answer
- Accomplishment AppetiteThe hunger to finish
- Adventurous AlternativesBetter, smarter, quicker
- Accountable AutonomyFreeing people with clear ownership
- Accelerated AptitudeGrowing skills in the flow of work
- Audacious AimsAmbition beyond the shoreline
- Assured AuthenticityLeading as yourself in every room
The heart / Connection
Nourishing Networks
The relationships a leader works through, and the energy, belonging and care that travel along them.
AI connects information. Leaders connect people.
Explore Nourishing Networks- Noticing NeedsSeeing what each child and adult requires. Inclusion as a daily habit
- No-one NeglectedThe inclusion promise
- Nurturing NormsA culture where care is built into how things are done
- Neighbourly NetworksPartnerships with families, community and the island
- Nurturing the NextGrowing the leaders who follow you
The scale / People and AI
The Human Multiplier
People and machines working together, with the X as a multiplication sign between them.
Artificial intelligence accelerates the work. Human judgement decides what the work is for.
Explore The Human Multiplier- Expert ExchangeTask-based work goes to the machine, and human expertise goes where it counts
- Exponential ExplorationAccelerated learning and faster iteration, in the flow of work
- Exacting ExecutionOptimised output, held to human standards
- Extended ExcellenceQuality that reaches across schools, sites and the wider system
MANX is what leadership looks like when mastery is applied with audacity, nourished through people, and multiplied.
Read the bookThe whole model in sixty pages, with practical steps for every component.Get the bookWhat independent assessors found in Max’s schools.
Max Kelly's schools are outward-facing and forward-thinking. Their work as pilot schools for AI development reflects a careful, values-led approach that places wellbeing, safety and human intelligence at the centre.
We're treated as professionals and trusted to do our jobs in a way that best suits the children. We're not afraid to try new things because we feel safe to get things wrong.
The Executive Headteacher has established a culture where inclusion is everyone's responsibility rather than the remit of individual leaders or specialist staff.
Choose where to start
MANX
The leadership thinking model underneath everything here, with an interactive indicator to show you where to start.
Leaders
Leadership is the most important variable in any organisation. Thinking out loud about what great leadership looks like, and what it demands of the people who practise it.
Human Edge
AI is changing everything. The leaders who matter most will be the ones who understand what the tools cannot replace. Judgement, discernment, relationships, nerve.
Eduvators
Most schools are still preparing children for a world that no longer exists. Curriculum reform, system change, and what education needs to become.
Series
All of the writing here runs in sequences. Read an argument from the beginning instead of meeting it halfway.
Start here
The posts that explain the thinking
Years of extensive content is a lot to walk into. If you read nothing else, read these.
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Our schools. Their future. Your choice.
Eighty two candidates are standing in Thursday’s Isle of Man General Election. I read every manifesto I could find, and went looking for several…
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Keeping A Clean Sheet
Four games into the season my team have not scored a goal. Two points, seventeenth, after a three hundred million pound rebuild. But look…
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Singapore vs New York City: AI is coming but who has the right approach?
New York has banned generative AI for six hundred thousand primary and middle school children. Singapore is building it into the curriculum. Both this…
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The Cost Nobody Measures
At the O2 this week I watched Ariana Grande get lifted above twenty thousand people on rigging that gets load-tested and certified before every…
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Keep Moving
Tower Bridge looks ceremonial. A panel inside points out that if it stopped operating, London’s traffic would stop with it. Governing bodies look ceremonial…
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The Invisible Leaders
Front of house, PA to the head, finance, comms, safeguarding admin, the furious parent and the frightened one. That’s a school administrator on a…
Latest writing
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Our schools. Their future. Your choice.
Eighty two candidates are standing in Thursday’s Isle of Man General Election. I read every manifesto I could find, and went looking for several I never…
-
Keeping A Clean Sheet
Four games into the season my team have not scored a goal. Two points, seventeenth, after a three hundred million pound rebuild. But look at the…
-
Singapore vs New York City: AI is coming but who has the right approach?
New York has banned generative AI for six hundred thousand primary and middle school children. Singapore is building it into the curriculum. Both this year, both…
MASTERY, AUDACITY, CONNECTION AND THE HUMAN MULTIPLIER
MANX – A LEADERSHIP THINKING MODEL
A leadership thinking model for a world where the tools keep changing and the human work of leading matters more than ever. Four facets and twenty-eight components, each with the research behind it and practical steps for Monday morning.
This is the leadership model essential for all School leaders: developmental, easy to use and required reading for everyone who is serious about leadership.
More toolkits
The rest of the shelf
The First 100 Days
Twenty pages for anyone stepping into their first headship. The predecessor conversation, your first words to staff, and two printable templates.
THE DIFFICULT CONVERSATIONS TOOLKIT.
Preparation, scripts and templates for the conversations school leaders lose sleep over.
THE SCHOOL POLICY HANDBOOK
A comprehensive how-to on auditing, writing and maintaining school policies, including ten model policies to adapt. For leaders who know the folder needs sorting and want a method for doing it.
Coming next
Helping leaders who run schools. Delegation without abdication, building an operating model across sites, and developing Heads of School who can carry it.
One post, straight to you
New writing as it publishes, and first look at every toolkit before it goes on sale.
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