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# how to share the chocolate muffin

Nadine argues that solo leadership isn't brave, it's an outdated bottleneck. Discover how strategically sharing the chocolate muffin of authority prevents burnout and builds resilient teams.

- **Speakers:** [Nadine Broghammer](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/@nadine-broghammer)
- **Event:** World Congress 2026 Europe - Virtual Stage
- **Published:** July 2, 2026
- **Duration:** 26:49
- **URL:** https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/2047-how-to-share-the-chocolate-muffin

## Summary

Nadine, an Agile and DevOps coach, explores the metaphorical "chocolate muffin" of leadership, arguing that the traditional model of isolated, hierarchical command is no longer viable. In today's PUMO world (Polarized, Unthinkable, Metamorphic, Overheated)—a successor to VUCA and BANI—solo leadership frequently results in burnout, complexity overload, and reactive decision-making. "Leading alone in this PUMO world is not brave. It's outdated." Instead, the emotional and cognitive load must be actively distributed across the team to navigate constant change and avoid the pitfalls of pseudo-harmony and organizational bottlenecks.

Transitioning to shared leadership requires making internal and external role tensions transparent, such as the friction between acting as a guiding coach versus an intervening technical expert. By shifting the critical question from "who is in charge?" to "who is best placed to lead this decision right now?", authority becomes contextual rather than strictly hierarchical. Methodologies like Teal organizations, holacracy, and the "advice process" provide robust structural frameworks for this transition. Additionally, practical exercises like delegation poker allow teams to map out and systematically elevate decision-making power from a single manager to the collective.

While embracing co-leadership inherently invites more friction, these conflicts serve as valuable systemic signals rather than individual weaknesses. "Sharing the muffin is not soft, it's strategy." To initiate this cultural shift, leaders should implement targeted rituals—such as maintaining decision logs, rotating meeting leads, and conducting routine ownership check-ins. Treating persistent ownership gaps as deliberate opportunities to mentor co-leads ultimately builds a more resilient, engaged, and self-organizing system capable of thriving amid modern unpredictability.

**Keywords:** PUMO framework, VUCA and BANI, co-leadership strategies, agile coaching, contextual decision-making, role-based ownership, teal organizations, holacracy structure, delegation poker, advice process, cognitive load distribution, rotating meeting leads, organizational complexity, shared leadership rituals, decision logs

## Chapters

1. **The organizational trap of solo leadership models** (00:01) — The misconception that leadership requires a single individual taking all rewards and responsibilities inherently harms modern teams.
1. **Navigating the complexities of a PUMO world** (02:09) — The progression from VUCA to a polarized and overheated environment requires entirely new approaches to team guidance.
1. **The emotional and systemic costs of hierarchy** (06:10) — Isolated leadership models cause severe leader burnout while creating organizational bottlenecks that slow down critical decision making.
1. **Balancing internal role tensions and team expectations** (10:01) — Recognizing the conflicting inner roles between acting as a coach, an expert, and an enabler prevents team misunderstandings.
1. **Shifting from hierarchy to contextual decision making** (13:39) — Moving away from hierarchical authority by asking who is best placed to lead a specific situation yields faster execution.
1. **Exploring real-world frameworks for shared team authority** (17:19) — Organizations can distribute accountability using structural approaches like holacracy, teal organizational practices, and the advice process.
1. **Using delegation poker for team decisions** (20:34) — Teams can systematically move decision-making authority away from central management and into the collective by utilizing structured delegation tools.
1. **Evaluating the tradeoffs and benefits of shared leadership** (21:40) — While shared leadership increases overall engagement and reduces cognitive load, it initially introduces necessary friction and organizational conflict.
1. **Practical rituals and steps to establish team co-leadership** (22:55) — Actionable strategies like mapping meetings, naming domain co-leads, and treating conflicts as organizational signals help gradually decentralize authority.

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