Who’s the best? This weekend we find out. The most watched American Football game of the season is here: The Super Bowl.
A lot is revealed about a person’s character when they know they’re in the spotlight. This season a trend emerged: Numerous players, upon scoring a touchdown, would turn their back to the audience and then use their thumbs to point at their name on the back of their jersey. As in, “It’s me. I did it. Remember my name.”
The purists – those who study effective teamwork and leadership – cringe at the sight.
There is hope, though. Despite this development, there remain the legends – those who upon scoring pick themselves up off the field…and then point at the teammate who made the success happen.
We’ll see which sort of players prevail come Sunday. It may be the “look-at-me” guys. Regardless, it’s the “give-my-teammate-the-credit” players I’ll always follow.
We are most effective as leaders when we point the praise beyond ourselves. Who’s getting the credit for your success today?
UPDATE (18 Feb 2014), shared by Jim Kelly, Oceaneering:
Craig –
Hope this finds you well – I couldn’t help but think of you Saturday morning after watching the USA Hockey team beat the Russians.
At 9AM Saturday morning, I was on the edge of my couch, half a cup of coffee left, still in my PJ’s – as I jump up from the couch when they won, I see Oshie point – I immediate yelled “Craig needs this picture! This is ‘Who are you pointing at?'” of course, I was alone in my living room, and my wife yelled down “Is everything alright?” as I’m running around looking for my iphone and pausing my DVR.
If you didn’t catch the moment, immediately after the game, where TJ Oshie had scored 4 goals in the sudden death shootout to win the game, he skated back to the bench to celebrate with his team by pointing to the US Goaltender Jonathan Quick recognizing his performance – Truly We, not Me.
See the picture below of Oshie after scoring – Quite a kid –
Cheers, Jim Kelly
TJ Oshie points at team, photo courtesy Jim Kelly