In this episode of the Distributed podcast, host Jack Hannah is joined by Benji Weber, Cofounder & CTO at Geordie AI, to discuss leadership and autonomy in engineering teams. Benji shares his unique perspective on how managers can empower teams to take control of their work. They explore how the paradox of giving control plays out in practice and what it means for team ownership and performance.

Highlights:

- How managers can create environments that foster ownership

- The challenges of balancing control with autonomy in fast-growing teams

- How Benji empowers teams through curiosity and gentle nudging

In this episode, we cover:

(00:00) – Introduction to Benji Weber

(01:23) – Benji’s take on professional pride and leadership

(03:54) – Mindgard’s small team setup and remote-first approach

(04:55) – Balancing in-person work with a remote-first culture

(06:12) – The paradox of giving control to teams

(07:07) – Coercion vs. nudging in leadership practices

(08:39) – What it looks like to empower teams through curiosity

(10:56) – Creating an environment for teams to own their work

(14:17) – Tackling organizational reliability challenges with team autonomy

(16:22) – Fostering agency in teams through self-discovery and retrospectives

(18:15) – Why pair programming can be a powerful tool in small teams

(23:46) – Approaching continuous integration and the value of real CI

(26:43) – The trade-offs between consistency and flexibility in team practices

(29:38) – Finding the right balance between synchronous and asynchronous work.

Where to connect further:

Connect with Benji Weber on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjiweber/) and on his website (https://benjiweber.co.uk/)

Follow Tuple: https://x.com/tuple

Want to hear more? Check out http://distributed.fm

Connect with Jack Hannah: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-hannah/

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