Culture shapes how we feel, work, and succeed, says Natan Žabkar Nordberg. People thrive in different environments—some need autonomy, others structure. Trust must be given first, not earned. Leaders should guide, not control, fostering autonomy and safety.
Natan Žabkar Nordberg spoke about creating impactful software teams at QCon London.
Culture impacts everything – how we feel, how we work, and how successful we are, Žabkar Nordberg said. He suggested that people should figure out what culture works best for them, and then try to find that.
He gave the example of a person who thrives when given autonomy and space to figure out their path forward:
In a culture where everything is defined from the top down, with a manager constantly asking for progress updates and reviewing your work, you will likely feel incredibly stifled. You will not enjoy your job, and you will not bring your best. Satisfaction, energy levels, mental health, and productivity will all suffer.
When you are a person who prefers your job to be strictly defined, with clear boundaries, then you feel supported instead of stifled by a boss who checks in on you regularly. In the same culture, you will feel relaxed, happy, and content, which will in turn allow you to bring your best to your job and deliver to your strengths, Žabkar Nordberg said.
You do not want to have employees who will be extensions of yourself, Žabkar Nordberg said. Instead, you want people who will bring their own thoughts, their own solutions, and in many ways be different and better than yourself.
After you get those people, you need to create the right environment for them. This starts with trusting them to have knowledge, use their expertise to find the right solution, and know how to best organise their personal work and delivery, Žabkar Nordberg explained:
This does not mean that you cannot challenge them, but if you force your way on them you aren’t really giving trust, at best you are delegating with a lot of strings attached.
Slightly controversially, trust cannot be earned unless it is given first, Žabkar Nordberg said. You need to extend your trust first, so people have an opportunity to prove that they can be trusted, or the process takes much longer.
Instead of prescribing solutions, describe problems and let the people find the best way forward, with your support as needed, Žabkar Nordberg suggested. He mentioned “guided autonomy”; a general statement like “do whatever you can to help our company” is almost never an empowering statement. Choice paralysis kicks in; people either lack the context to make choices or need to spend a lot of time building that context up, and most people do not feel supported, he explained:
Provide guidance, step away, and let people have autonomy within those constraints. You might say something like “I would like you to focus on improving our customer retention. Be aware that legal regulations require all steps in our current onboarding journey to be present, but we have flexibility in how we execute them as the user experience is not prescribed”. This gives people guidance and focuses them, but still gives them the autonomy to bring their own experiences and find their own solutions.
We want people to show initiative and proactively bring their own thoughts, improvements, and worries. Clear communication and an understanding of how people work will help them do that, Žabkar Nordberg said. Psychological safety underlines trust, autonomy, and communication; it is required for them to work effectively, he concluded.
InfoQ interviewed Natan Žabkar Nordberg about culture and empowering people.
InfoQ: You spoke about finding the right culture, can you give an example?
Natan Žabkar Nordberg: The right culture for me personally is one that values unity and fairness for all, no matter if they are employees, customers, visitors or anyone else we interact with. It is one that embraces diversity and real connection, as I find differences fascinating and learn a lot from people who are different from me. It is a healthy balance of work and life, achieved while still encouraging growth. It is a company that improves speed through genuine change, not simply through pushing for more overtime. And possibly most important of all, it is a place that lets me be myself. For me that means being able to foster some friendships and being able to occasionally be silly and have fun. I spend too much time at work to constantly play a role.
Once I could articulate that clearly to myself, it was a lot easier to see what culture (and through that what company) fits me best. It also lets me clearly identify what I want to work towards personally, both in smaller (e.g. by being able to vocalise this to my coworkers, by encouraging behaviour that supports my preferred culture or calling out behaviour that doesn’t) and larger (e.g. having a chance to give feedback on the competency framework, pushing for teams to get some “silly time” together) ways.
InfoQ: How can you empower people and help them to show more initiative?
Žabkar Nordberg: I used to tell people “there is a project coming up, would you like to lead it?” This is my natural communication style. To me, it feels obvious, gives a clear call to action, but also isn’t too pushy.
Through the years, I found that this same sentence doesn’t work with everyone. Instead, with some people, I have to say “there is a project coming up – I would like you to lead it“.
What I would have naturally perceived as a push, some people perceived as an extension of trust in their abilities. Learn how the people around you think and communicate, and you will suddenly have a lot more initiative in your teams.
