It was 5 degrees Fahrenheit this morning when I went out to clear snow. Our house stands at the end of a relatively long driveway, so I have about an hour alone with my thoughts every time I fire up the snowblower or grab a shovel. This morning I was grateful for the warm mittens my wife gave me over the holidays.
Pulling on those mittens and braving the cold got me thinking about the differences between gloves and mittens.
Let’s be honest: gloves are sexy. Gloves create a look. Gloves have a vibe. I mean, have you ever seen a movie or TV show where a driver, an assassin, or a master thief pulls on a pair of black, leather mittens right before they do something cool? No, you have not. That’s what gloves are for.
Mittens, on the other hand, will never be pictured under “sexy” in the dictionary. Mittens are what your mom pulls over your hands as the final protective buffer before letting you go play in the snow. Who cares if you can’t put your arms down with so many layers on? You wouldn’t be able to pick up anything with those mittens anyhow. Mittens are many things, but cool is not one of them.
When the temperature drops, however, I always reach for my mittens.
What can gloves and mittens teach us about highly effective teams?
Mittens always remind me of highly effective teams. With mittens, all fingers work together to produce and share heat in a single chamber. It is impossible for a finger to be “selfish” in a mitten. On highly effective teams, individuals share skills, resources, and support freely with each other because they are all committed to achieving the team’s collective goals. Highly effective teams encourage genuine collaboration, where it is known and accepted that the team must work together and leverage its collective capacity to achieve its goals. Team members hold each other accountable for their work and their responsibilities on effective teams, only drawing in the leader as the final arbiter of conflict or disputes when it is absolutely necessary.
[By the way, the thumb is the team leader in my glove and mitten metaphor.]
Gloves, by comparison, isolate fingers. With gloves, it’s every finger for itself. In the best of circumstances, teams that operate more like a glove rely on the individual contributions of each member and articulate how one person’s work depends on – or waits on – another person completing their work. In the worst of circumstances, people are out for themselves on teams that operate like a glove. And as long as an individual completes her or his responsibilities, there is very little incentive or opportunity for them to help out teammates who may be struggling. Sure, they may say things like, “What can I do to help?” But after people have been working in isolation for so long, there isn’t much that can be done when situations get tense and deadlines are approaching. After all, it is nearly impossible and always uncomfortable to cram two fingers into the same spot in a glove.
This is why, on most teams that function like gloves, offers of help and support are usually declined. It’s not that we don’t want to accept help from our teammates. But after working so long on our own and getting so deep in the weeds, the reality is that it would take more time to bring someone up to speed than it would to simply forge ahead, alone.
Once a finger is cold in a glove, there isn’t much you can do to warm it up.
Of course, we aren’t always confronted with the limitations of gloves. Everyone loves showing off their slick gloves with the smart fingertips when the weather is cooperating. But when winter storms roll in and you are facing long-term exposure to sub-freezing temperatures, you may wish you had a pair of warm mittens handy.
If you do not design your team around a culture of collaboration when things are going well, it will be nearly impossible to encourage collaboration when you need it most.
5 signs that you are working on a highly effective “mitten” team:
- All team members are present when projects are launched or updates are shared
- Team members have a variety of opportunities to ask questions, make suggestions, or identify potential problems before the work is started
- Each team member knows how individual contributions support the team’s overall goals, and also knows how and when to offer teammates proactive support throughout the process
- Team members hold each other accountable for commitments and behaviors; they are quick to offer encouragement and support and turn to the leader only as a last resort to resolve issues or overcome obstacles
- Team members are confident that everyone has the same information and equal access to the leader
What can we learn from gloves and mittens about leadership?
It makes a lot of sense to think of the thumb as the leader in this metaphor. The thumb is separated in both gloves and mittens, just as leaders may feel separated from the rest of the team at times. That is just a challenge of leadership.
But “glove” leaders are different from “mitten” leaders in a few key ways.
“Glove” leaders tend to reinforce individualistic and competitive mindsets on the team. They may help to carefully highlight each team member’s responsibilities, setting clear expectations and deadlines, but that can only contribute to the sense of isolation people may feel. When glove leaders check in with members of their team, they often do so through one-on-one conversations rather than bringing the whole team together. One-on-one conversations can lead to inconsistent messaging and finger-pointing.
“Mitten” leaders, on the other hand (pun intended), may check in with individuals periodically, but they are more likely to pull the whole team together to share progress, identify challenges, and develop plans for keeping the team moving forward together. When the whole team meets together, even briefly, the leader knows everyone is hearing the same message, and each member of the team has access to the same project update information. This approach increases consistency and creates opportunities for team members to ask questions and support each other.
5 signs you are leading as a highly effective “mitten” leader:
- Each member of your team can articulate the importance of a project and how it connects with the team’s overall values and goals
- You proactively seek out the input and questions of all team members, together, before committing to a course of action
- Teammates rely on each other in ways that show they genuinely value the contributions and perspectives that everyone brings to the team
- When team members approach you to resolve an issue or remove an obstacle, everyone connected to the issue or obstacle is present, and they can identify several steps they took to deal with it before coming to you
- Questions, challenges, progress and achievements are openly communicated with all members of the team present, and individual contributions are recognized as a way to highlight commitment to shared values, rather than the achievement of specific goals
