Subscribe

The MANX LEADERSHIP Model

Schools spend a great deal of time teaching children how to learn. We give them metacognition and growth mindset, a shared language for the habits that help them get better. Leaders rarely get anything comparable. MANX is a way of thinking about how you lead that you can carry round the building, use in the five seconds before you answer a question, and share with the people who work alongside you.

It is built around four facets: the mind, the drive, the heart and the scale. The letters spell MANX because the model carries some of the Isle of Man in it, with small-place ambition, a strong sense of community, and a belief that you don’t need to be big to set the standard. The alliteration is deliberate too. A model you can’t remember in the corridor won’t help you in the corridor.

The tools will keep changing, and any leadership model that describes the tools will be out of date before it is printed. MANX describes the leader instead: the judgement, discernment, relationships and nerve that remain distinctly human, and the habits of mind that let you learn the next tool without losing hold of what the work is for.

The mind / DepthMeta-MasteryMastery of how you master things, so that whatever arrives next can be learned and led.Mirror Moments, Moral Muscle, Maieutic Minds, Mood Mapping, Margin Making, Magnetic Mission, Meaningful Motivation, Measured Mandates, Machine Mindedness, Measured Mistrust, Muscle Memory, Meaning Making12 componentsThe drive / MovementApplied AudacityStarting before everything is certain, finishing what others leave half done, and growing people beyond their own expectations.Anticipatory Action, Accomplishment Appetite, Adventurous Alternatives, Accountable Autonomy, Accelerated Aptitude, Audacious Aims, Assured Authenticity7 componentsThe heart / ConnectionNourishing NetworksThe relationships a leader works through, and the energy, belonging and care that travel along them.Noticing Needs, No-one Neglected, Nurturing Norms, Neighbourly Networks, Nurturing the Next5 componentsThe scale / People and AIThe Human MultiplierPeople and machines working together, with the X as a multiplication sign between them.Expert Exchange, Exponential Exploration, Exacting Execution, Extended Excellence4 components

MANX is what leadership looks like when mastery is applied with audacity, nourished through people, and multiplied.

Where the facets meet

Each facet on its own goes wrong in a predictable way. Knowledge without movement, pace that leaves tired people behind, warmth without direction, or the wrong things done faster. Together they check each other.

M + AKnowing when to move

Meta-Mastery tells you whether this is a one-way or two-way door. Applied Audacity walks through it.

A + NPace with people

Audacity sets the ambition. Nourishment makes sure people are still standing when you get there.

N + MCare with clarity

Reading people well and caring for them well are the same skill seen from two sides.

X + allMultiplying the right things

The Multiplier amplifies whatever the leader already is. The other three facets decide what gets multiplied.

Find your place in the model

3 minutesTry our interactive indicatorDiscover your leadership profile across all four facets and how the MANX model can help you take the next step.Start the indicator2 minutesName the moveEight real school moments. Can you name the MANX component each one calls for?Try the quizCover of MANX: A Leadership Thinking Model by Max KellyRead the bookThe whole model in sixty pages, with practical steps for every component.Get the book
Cover of MANX: A Leadership Thinking Model by Max Kelly
The book

MANX: A Leadership Thinking Model

Mastery, audacity, connection and the human multiplier.

These pages give you the outline. The book gives you the whole model. Every one of the twenty-eight components comes with the research behind it, three things to try on Monday morning, the ways it goes wrong when it’s overdone, and a question worth sitting with.

  • The full Feelforward move, and how the four facets check and strengthen each other
  • The MANX profile, a self-review across all twenty-eight components that you complete alongside a colleague
  • Guidance for using the model in leadership team meetings, appraisal, recruitment, induction and with governors

Get the book

Instant PDF download. Purchasers may copy the MANX profile for use within their own school or organisation.