Matt Manfredi is an educator with a broad international background. Originally from Long Island, New York, he lived and worked there until 2010, when he decided to move abroad. Before starting his international career, Matt worked as a teacher in several schools in the United States, where he developed a solid foundation in teaching.

His first international experience was at NIST International School, a prestigious IB school in Bangkok, Thailand, where he worked for eight years. He then moved to China, where he worked for a year and a half. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he had to perform his duties remotely from Hanoi during the last six months of his contract.

After his time in Asia, he took on the role of Secondary Principal at Danube International School in Vienna, Austria. Later, he had the opportunity to work at Sandnes International School in Norway, where he has been the director for two and a half years.

Matt Manfredi has a strong academic background. He holds a School Management and Leadership Certificate from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Harvard Business School. Additionally, he earned a Master’s in Secondary Education from Dowling College and a Bachelor of Science from Excelsior University, among other qualifications.

His path to education was not conventional. Before becoming a teacher, he worked for six years in sales and marketing in the corporate world. It wasn’t until he was 28 that he decided to follow his true passion and dedicate himself to teaching.

With over a decade of experience in international education and academic leadership, Matt Manfredi remains committed to teaching and improving the educational institutions he works with.

A good leader will be number one, a human being first, and empathetic. I do understand anytime I talk to people, and you know, especially if it’s like a personal matter, I always I’m a human being first. And if I can help you as a human being, it doesn’t matter what my role is at the school. If I can help you as a human, I’ll help you. And you know, I truly feel my role is to help you find your best potential. Because everybody has it in them to be the best teacher, to be the best coach, to be the best leader. But if you need to make mistakes, you need to, but if you have a very high capacity to learn, you would become a strong, effective leader very quickly. If you don’t learn from your mistakes, it’s going to take a long time, and you may never get there.

Also, a leader should be close to the classroom. I don’t sit in my office and lock the door and bye, right? I go out into the hall, into the classrooms. And it’s funny, this morning, one of the students comes up and goes, What are you doing in the hallway?, I smiled and said, I’m looking at the school.

This question is always up in the air: Is a leader made or born? If a leader is made, what type of experiences do you believe are essential in becoming an effective leader?

I think they’re made—I think they’re made from experiences. A lot of the experiences I’ve had, especially when I was coming up, involved dealing with some not-so-great leaders. I could have gotten frustrated, shut down, and said, Well, I’m not going to do that. But instead, I flipped a switch in my head and thought, I’m going to learn from you. I’m going to learn what not to do when I’m in your position.

And it really, truly helped me. If a leader was negative or lacked empathy and basic human decency, I would take that in and tell myself, Okay, never do that. It turned out to be quite helpful. I learned both what to do and what not to do, and that shaped me into who I am today. And of course, I still make mistakes.

Whether you’re at the teacher level or even the student level, giving both students and teachers autonomy is key. It’s about not just bringing problems to the table but also bringing solutions. I believe that experience is what makes a good leader.

I truly believe that collectively, we are much smarter than we are individually. As a group, we should function as a strong, intelligent organization. If a teacher simply says, We don’t have this, we don’t have that, we don’t do this, we don’t do that, that’s just negativity. Instead, they should bring solutions.

By giving them the autonomy to create their own solutions—and letting them know that if they need help, I’m here to support them—we foster a problem-solving mindset. They can run their ideas by me, and together, we can move in the right direction. If they need specific resources or support, that’s where I come in—to help make things happen.

But above all, I believe autonomy is number one. It allows people to think for themselves and solve problems on their own. You’re not cutting them out or keeping them in the dark; you’re allowing them to take ownership and find solutions.

I totally agree. You mentioned something earlier that I think is really important: first and foremost, we are humans. To build a strong relationship between a leader and a teacher, for example, it’s crucial to create a safe environment—not just physically, but also psychologically. People should feel comfortable coming to you, sharing ideas, and brainstorming without fear of judgment. With this foundation in place, collaboration naturally grows, and as a teacher, you feel valued. At the same time, the other person benefits as well, creating a positive and reciprocal dynamic.

I’m going to agree with you agreeing with me—specifically about the importance of creating a safe environment, right?

I’ve had plenty of closed-door conversations, whether with teachers, students, or parents. And in those moments, emotions vary—sometimes there’s sadness, sometimes there’s joy. But what matters is that people know they have a place to go. I make it clear: If you need to step into my office, shut the door, scream, or even curse—it’s okay.

Having a leader who remains emotionally stable is key. I try to embody that. I’m a big fan of The Godfather—Paul can tell you this because we’ve talked about it. It’s just business. Whether a parent is yelling, a student is acting up, or a teacher isn’t meeting expectations, I don’t take it personally.

I approach everything with stability. No matter what comes at me, I stay grounded. Am I surprised by things? Yes. Am I emotional? No. Do I react? Of course—but never with, Oh my goodness, we have to fix this right now! That’s just not how I operate. Instead, my response is: Okay, what do we need to do? Does anyone have any ideas? Then, we work through it together.

That sense of calm translates down to the teachers, the parents, and the students. No matter what’s happening, they look at you and see stability.

What skills should an impactful school principal possess?

I think you need to crave learning. Even now, last year, I set a goal for myself: to read 12 books in 2024. But when I looked at my list in January 2025, I had read 26 books—handbooks, paperback books, whatever—and listened to audiobooks on my phone. And I thought, Holy cow!

Did I memorize everything from those books? No. But I took pieces from each one and applied them to my daily practice, whether it was a fresh idea or an old idea repurposed. I’d think, Okay, that’s a good idea. We could fix that, or we could work with that.

The ability to learn quickly and never be satisfied is crucial. My worst moments as a professional have been when I felt stagnant, when I wasn’t moving forward in my environment. If the school isn’t moving forward, it drives me nuts. It’s almost like a fear—being stuck and not progressing.

That’s why I read voraciously. I’m constantly consuming new material and spending time alone reflecting.

Yes, I think we share this feeling. I need to face new things and new challenges because they truly make me a better teacher and a better person.

In Spain, for example, where I am from, teachers often work in the same place for 20 or 25 years. Sometimes I look at them and just have to say, Wow, and clap my hands because it’s incredible how they stay motivated after doing the same thing for so long. To me, that’s a skill—knowing how to keep yourself motivated.

I had a similar experience when I first started teaching in 1999. I joined a middle school and was teaching eighth grade American history five times a day in 42-minute periods. One day, I walked into the teacher’s lounge and saw these teachers who had been working for 30 years in that same building, teaching the same course. I thought, I could never do that.

I worked in one of the largest school districts, and my department chair would ask every year, “What do you guys want to teach? You can teach anything.” Over the course of five years, I taught everything my school had to offer. Then, I went abroad and did all these things, and I thought, Yeah, this is where I’m at.

I totally see that. You can view it as a skill—self-motivation. How do you motivate yourself? Can you motivate yourself to keep doing the same thing? It’s fascinating.

Applying different leadership styles in education can be key to achieving success. Hersey and Blanchard (1969), two of the most influential authors in this field, advocate for four leadership styles: Telling (Directive), Selling (Coaching), Participating (Collaborative), and Delegating. How do you balance the need to adapt as a leader to the varying situations that may arise in a school without falling into inconsistency?

I’m pretty consistent. I’ve never been a top-down person. You know, when running a weekly meeting, we have an agenda, and we list the names of the people who want to talk about each topic. I may guide the conversation, but I’m definitely listening more than I’m talking. My team is strong, and I have a lovely person from Spain who just joined us this year. I listen to what everyone says. If someone is stuck, I might say, “What I’m hearing is this, and it sounds like we should go in this direction.” But it’s rare that I’m the one steering the ship. If something needs to get done, like something legal or regulation-related, I’ll step in. For example, if we need to do a fire drill next Tuesday, I’ll make sure it gets done. That kind of stuff is simple, but when it comes to big ideas, like the next meeting where we’ll discuss staffing for next year, I like to push people to think outside the box. I told them, I want you to come up with your best blue-sky thinking—money’s no object, and we can do anything we want. Obviously, that’s not the reality, as we have to work within a budget and prioritize, but I want to see their vision for the place and what we truly need. I’m excited to see that.

I’ve always approached things this way: if I didn’t know how to do something, I would look at who does it the best and ask how they do it. I’d break it down—whether it’s 20,000 hours of practice or having a great teacher, or moving to Spain to learn Spanish. Tell me how to do it, and I’ll try to emulate that in our daily practice. For example, when I talk to Paul, I ask, How does your school do this? He might say, Well, it’s kind of like this, but I don’t think we do it the right way. I’ll ask, Well, tell me how you’re doing it, and then I’ll think, Okay, don’t do it that way. Do it this way. I’m always asking questions and seeking information, which helps us move in the right direction. It may not be as fast as I want, but at least we’re moving forward.

Lately, I’ve been deeply curious—not obsessed, but genuinely interested—about how effective we are in what we do, how well we lead, and how efficiently we carry out our tasks. Too often, we continue doing things for a long time without stopping to reflect: Are we truly on the right path?

I lead a language department at my school with a team of seven teachers. To ensure continuous growth, I send out a monthly survey, giving my team the opportunity to share feedback. This is something I take very seriously. In addition to organizing professional development sessions every month, I always ask for suggestions on how we can improve after each meeting.

Believe me, the feedback I receive—whether positive or constructive—often makes me pause and reflect on how I can become a better leader.

That’s why I’d like to ask: In your school, do you assess your effectiveness as a leader? If so, how?

Do you have a similar approach?

Yes. So, actually, a couple of times a year in Norway, as if you’re running a company— even though we’re a school, we operate like a company— it’s very much about health and wellness for your employees. Besides providing a physically safe environment, the goal is to make sure everyone feels good about coming to work and that work brings them some joy.

As part of that, I am mandated to meet with every employee at least once a year, if not twice. And it’s not just about answering questions; it’s a dialogue. We talk about things like, What excited you this year? Did we do anything that really thrilled you? Or what can I do to help you meet your goals? What more can I do? And is there anything you want to tell me in this safe space—anything you’re having a problem with?

I have over 30 employees, and what I try to do is stay connected with each one of them—whether it’s a conversation in the hallway, at their desk, in the lunchroom, or next to the copier. I’ve found that staying connected like that avoids a lot of issues. They’ll tell me exactly how they feel about something. So, initially, you build trust, and once you have trust between two people, you can say anything.

Yep, you can tell me: Matt, that was an asshole move. I’m fine with that. Tell me what was wrong with it, and I’ll try to fix it for next time. But I also know it’s not a popularity contest. You can’t please everybody, right? So, you’re moving in one direction, and one teacher’s upset, and then you’re moving in another direction, and now you have different teachers who are upset. Change is uncomfortable sometimes.

it’s just balance again, right?

Yes, I view the school as an organism, and I talk to them about this all the time. If one part of the organism isn’t functioning correctly, it will affect the rest of the school. Yes, we need to stay healthy. So, if it means you offload your concerns and I listen, and we can do something about it, we will. But if you’re just complaining without trying to find solutions, that’s a different conversation.

I really admire the job of principals because, when we think about a school structure, we often imagine the principal at the top, followed by coordinators, teachers, and others. But it doesn’t seem that way. I see the principal in the middle of a big wheel, with different people trying to collaborate or express their views, and as a principal, you have to deal with everything. You have to manage the owners, the teachers, the parents, the students, and the office staff—all while being at the center of it. That’s why I truly appreciate a good principal. Sometimes, having a good principal is even more important than having more money, or anything else, because this person really impacts your daily work. And, you are in the middle…

I’m going to agree with you. Even though, on paper, I’m at the top and my coordinators are below, it’s very much a flat structure. I go to teachers for solutions. I bring them in and say, I need your best thinking on this. I don’t want them to tell me what to do, but I want to hear what they’re thinking. How do we solve this? By involving them, they start to feel valued. I’ve told everyone in my organization, I can’t do this without you. You could probably do this without me, but I can’t do this without you.

In the field of education, a significant percentage of professionals are resistant to change or unwilling to explore alternative teaching methods. As a leader, what strategies or approaches do you use to handle these situations, which ultimately impact learning and the school community?

I can use a sports analogy: look at some of the best athletes in the world. Every single one of them has a coach, trainer, or instructor—someone who’s always fine-tuning their game. If you’re not challenged enough, you can fall into bad habits. Maybe your mindset is, ‘This kid doesn’t belong in my class,’ but you know what? We don’t have another classroom for them, and it’s your job as a professional to figure out how to meet their individual needs. I don’t push it in their face like that, but I approach it as a coaching conversation. So, if I go into a classroom, I’ll ask three questions: What went well? Even better if? And then I wonder, ‘Are they excited about this, or are they just doing it because I was in the room?’ If you ask these enough, patterns start to form. If you get your team on board, at least for me, my coordinators doing the same thing I’m doing—it becomes less confrontational and more improvement-oriented. And once again, going back to coaching: the best in the world have coaches, even the best.

I completely agree. There are times when I can be a bit too critical, not just with other teachers, but with myself as well. I think there’s a psychological tendency to prefer staying in a comfortable, safe space. However, sometimes when we look beyond our usual perspective, we can encounter things that truly challenge our thinking. It’s something I continue to struggle with every day.

Yes, I agree. It is about to be less confrontational and more improvement-oriented. 

It’s crucial to keep things in the form of a question. When you see something and think to yourself, Oh my goodness, that’s awful, try rephrasing it as a question instead. Encourage them to think through the situation. For example, when you raised your voice at that student, did it help? Did they suddenly become the best student in the class? Probably not.

Yeah, that’s one of the aspects of effectiveness. Sometimes we do things because we’ve been doing them for many years, but we don’t stop to ask ourselves, ‘Is this actually working?’ Or is it something we do simply because it’s part of the culture, either from the country or the school?

Another thing that I find really interesting is how you can identify future leaders, like coordinators. For me, it’s especially fascinating because I started here at the school as an assistant teacher, and two years later, I became a coordinator. I’m really grateful because someone saw potential in me that I might not have seen in myself. It doesn’t really matter whether I had that potential or not, but what matters is that someone gave me the opportunity. If I could ask you, Matt, what skills or qualities do you look for to identify a good leader?

I think number one is self-efficacy. People who are never satisfied with the status quo and are always trying to become better, whether I’m asking them to or not. I’ve told you I value autonomy—I give you autonomy. But if I see you working hard to improve, for example, if you don’t know how to teach a fifth grader with dyslexia, and you go out and take a free online course and then share what you’ve learned with the teachers around you, that’s the kind of initiative I value. It’s the complete opposite of saying, I don’t know how to teach a kid with dyslexia; I’m not trained for that.

Or you might hear, hire somebody else, an assistant, or get them out of my class. And you’re like… that’s not a solution. So yes, people who take ownership of their professional environment and run with it.

So, self-efficacy would be number one: I’m not even telling the person they should improve, but they’re trying to improve because they’ve done it themselves. Yeah. I was like, Oh, I can take that, I can take that, I want to learn about that. That’s the kind of person I want to be a leader. Leading by example: if you don’t know something, go find it out and don’t wait for somebody to tell you.

 To wrap up, just three final questions: Is there something happening in education right now that particularly excites you?

So, AI (artificial intelligence) would be the simplest thing to come up with, because since AI started being used and we figured out how we could incorporate it into education, I’ve seen the potential. But if you look at my path with technology, I’ve been in education for 25 years. When Google first came out, Google Drive, Google Docs, Google Sheets, all that stuff—Google didn’t even have a place to ask questions. It was all like forums, where users figured out the answers on their own. So I was a very early adopter of Google, and there was nothing I had to go learn that I couldn’t figure out myself by just playing with it. I’m finding that AI is very much the same. If you continue the dialogue, if you know the right questions to ask or how to ask them, you get so much more out of it than I believe just listening to someone. Don’t tell Paul this, but he’s very much into bringing it into education. Why? Because there are probably millions of teachers out there who are scared to death of AI, try it, and won’t let their students use it. It’s fear, right? But if you just give it a chance and have conversations with it, it can do cool stuff and make your work and personal life a lot easier. You just have to be able to put aside your fears and embrace that change.

I think that this has also happened historically in teaching. When we first had the internet, I remember that teachers were afraid of computers. Then they started using them, but they were really afraid of translators, for example, in English. So it’s something that, as I said, sometimes teachers are resistant to change. And yes, AI is going to be a big thing in a couple of years.

We have a university professor on our school board, and he studies innovation. He originally trained in economics but is now a professor of innovation. The school was an early adopter of AI, and what they’ve done with their university students is tell them, ‘We want you to use AI, but just know that our expectations for the level of work have just increased. By using AI, you’re going to produce better work.’ This could lead to better innovation. So, just the idea of saying, Use AI, go crazy. Cite whatever you use, but it’s going to raise the caliber of work we expect.

I’ve been thinking about this for a long time. For me, the key is not to depend on it, because when we depend on it, that’s when we get into trouble. If we don’t know how to, for example, write an essay because AI is grading for you, that’s a problem. But if you use AI to get feedback on the things you’ve written, it’s amazing. However, I think that so far, students, and sometimes even teachers, think that AI means cheating. No, it’s not about that. It’s a long journey that we need to take, but again, I think that teachers, we have to be ready because this is not something that is going to disappear in two years. It’s going to be here forever, fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your mindset, but it’s going to be here, so we have to be ready.

What book are you reading right now that you would recommend to teachers or to everyone?

I’ve been doing this for 25 years and I have a teenage daughter who’s 16. I thought I knew a lot about how the teenage brain works, but after reading The Teenage Brain: A Neuroscientist’s Survival Guide to Raising Adolescents and Young Adults by Frances E. Jensen, it filled in so many gaps. It provides strong strategies for teaching teenagers, parenting them, and even just talking to them. It helps in understanding what’s happening in their bodies because we went through it, but it’s long gone.

Yes, sometimes it’s about understanding that they are facing changes in their brain and hormones. It’s not something they do just to get attention; it’s something that goes beyond that.

Even the chemical differences between you and me—I’m much older than you, so I’m not putting you in the same category—but when you and I wake up in the morning versus when a teenager wakes up, the chemical imbalance is different. Everyone’s like, ‘Oh, you’re so lazy.’ But you’re not lazy; it’s just that their body’s not ready to wake up chemically. There are quite a few things here, like The Anxious Generation, by Jonathan Haidt. That was very, very good one.

So I have about a dozen books, but I’ll try to find the best ones for you. Anything by Simon Sinek is great. I also took a course through Harvard Graduate School of Education called Differentiated Instruction Made Practical, by Rhonda Bondie. The book is brilliant because it allows you to create classroom routines. When teachers think of differentiation, they often think of things like a speech, a podcast, or an essay. But it’s much more than that. You can differentiate time, place, space, pace—everything. This book is really helpful in getting you to think laterally when it comes to differentiated instruction, allowing you to meet the individual needs of the most students. I thought it was a game changer for me.

Whereas, if you think about some teachers who say, ‘Oh, we’re doing this again,’ this book gives you cool ideas to add to your teacher’s toolkit.

And lastly, could you recommend someone interesting or influential in the field of educational thinking? 

I have some interesting people around the world, close friends who are just passionate educators. One that comes to mind immediately is Keitsa Brisson. I worked with her in Vienna. She’s an elementary principal at the American School of Uruguay. She has been in education for over 20 years, and I have so much respect for her. 

We’re friends, and we have a great working and personal relationship. But I sit back and think, ‘Damn, this girl is good!’ The things she would do—the conversations she would have with parents, with teachers. The preparation, her ability to communicate in writing—everything was spot on. She also has a great sense of humor and is very down-to-earth. She’s wonderful and a joy to work with. She loves kids, and I mean “loves” them—whether they’re little ones or older students. I don’t think I’ve met anyone so passionate about their work as she is.

Thank you! I will definitely contact her.

Well, that’s all from my side. I would like to thank you again for such an interesting conversation. I really gained some valuable insights from you.

Thank you. Francisco, it was a pleasure. I truly enjoyed it. Thank you. Thank you.