Everyone wants to be indispensable to their team or organization. After all, no one wants to wake up tomorrow and say, “I want to go to a place and interact with a group of people whom I have little to no impact on.” Of course you do not want to be saying that. You want to matter and make a difference. You want to be indispensable.
But what is the one thing, that if you do it, will make you truly indispensable?
Jerick McKinnon
With 1:48 remaining in Super Bowl LVII and the score tied 35-35, the Kansas City Chiefs had the ball on the Philadelphia Eagles 10-yard line. Chiefs running back Jerick McKinnon then ran through an opening on the left side of the offensive line but slid down at the 2-yard rather than scampering into the end zone. Smart football observers knew why he did this. The Eagles were not the enemy at that time, the Chiefs were playing against the clock. They needed to run as much time off the clock as possible and then kick the game-winning field goal as time expired.
McKinnon’s decision says more about him as a person than it does about the Chiefs’s game strategy. In fact, it tells us why he is such a valuable member of the Chiefs’s squad. Read the tweet below and then we will discuss the one thing you can do which will make you truly indispensable to your team or organization.
Jerick McKinnon with the selfless mentality 👏
(h/t @Varsitycombine1) pic.twitter.com/xEZkuFw3tj
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) February 14, 2023
From the above tweet, we learn the following about Jerick McKinnon:
- McKinnon had his own personal dreams as a football player.
- Opportunities like the one McKinnon had do not come around often so you must take advantage of them when they do.
- McKinnon’s situational awareness and preparation shows he was the recipient of excellent coaching.
- The Chiefs have great communication as a team. Clarity is always in the eyes of the receiver of information, not the deliverer of it. McKinnon clearly knew his responsibilities on this particular play.
The One Thing You Can Do Which Will Make You Truly Indispensable To Your Team Or Organization
But the following lesson is what makes McKinnon, as well as potentially you and I, indispensable:
Though he had his own dreams, McKinnon placed the team’s goals ahead his own. Knowing opportunities like scoring touchdowns in the Super Bowl do not come along every day, he still put the organization’s needs ahead of his own personal desires and wishes.
McKinnon served others rather than serving himself. Simply put, he sacrificed to help his teammates become Super Bowl champions. That’s the one thing – sacrifice.
Sacrificing for the good of your teammates is the one thing you can do which will make you truly indispensable to your team or organization.
Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “A man cannot help another without also helping himself.” Jerick McKinnon would agree.
And because McKinnon chose to help others rather than himself, we will be talking about his sacrificial act for years to come. Also, the picture above will hopefully be hung in every gymnasium and used as a teaching lesson on what servant leadership truly looks like.
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