Last night, my son was watching a hockey game on T.V. — the Buffalo Sabres versus the Seattle Kraken to be exact. It’s NHL Fights Cancer Month, so purple is the color of everything and they do a lot of messaging around this cause. They interviewed the head coach of the Buffalo Sabres, Don Granato, who is a cancer survivor himself. During the interview he said something so simple, yet so poignant, about his players: “You can look at it different ways, but they’re people, and the people factor is strong with me.”

What is “the people factor?” I think we lose sight of this regularly, I know I do! We get behind our causes, our beliefs, and our righteousness; we are filled with emotion, and we forget that we are interacting with people. We say or think things like, “get over it,” or “it’s a business decision,” or “toughen up,” all the while disregarding “the people factor.”

My guess is that Granato, having faced a life-threatening illness head-on, gets “the people factor” more than most. Where do we need to revisit our firm stance with someone and apply “the people factor?” What we see, at first glance, isn’t “the people factor.” I believe, “the people factor” is when you can see the pain, the wounds, the scars, the sorrow, the anger, the fear, etc. that isn’t visible to the naked eye. THAT’S the people factor. It’s always there and if you can “see” it, then you get “the people factor,” and you should be a leader.

Let’s GO! WE GOT THIS!

BETH