How to encourage people

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How You Can Encourage Your Employees to Lead

An important part of leadership is helping others step up into their leadership. Learn how you can encourage more people to be leaders.

If you want your employees to take the lead, you need to create a culture where leaders groom leaders.

Where people step up is when there is room to move up. To ensure that your organization is filled with leaders of leaders, you have to be the leader who not only encourages it but paves the way.

Here are 11 ways you can encourage your employees to take the lead:

1. Set the example. To cultivate new leaders, you have to lead by example. Your habits and actions will set the standard for others and show others how it’s done.

2. Recognize their strengths. Don’t do anything on your own if it can be prevented, but recognize your employees’ strengths and allow them to participate as much as they can. Don’t take their talents for granted. Make it a point to talk individually with each member of your team to discuss their interests, strengths and skills and encourage them to take charge.

3. Let others make important decisions. When you allow your employees to make important decisions, you are encouraging them to lead. When they are empowered to make decisions that matter and can affect the organization, they see themselves as leaders.

4. Give them more responsibility. When you give an employee more responsibility you are expressing faith in their abilities. The moment they take on more responsibility is the moment they can say, “Yes, I am stepping up.” To cultivate more leaders, give them more to be accountable for–and let them know the price of influence is responsibility.

5. Don’t impose fear. If you want to encourage more people to step up into their leadership, you have to lead without imposing fear. Great leaders inspire. Surround yourself with people of diverse perspectives, and establish a culture where they can disagree with you without fear.

6. Help them plan their future. To empower your employees, help them plan for the future. Get them to take responsibility for their own career opportunities through special assignments and special projects that take them down their chosen path.

7. Trust them. Trust is the glue that binds people together. To engage your people to lead begins by giving trust, and the only way to do that is to overcome the need to be in constant control. Ground your own leadership in trust and you set the example for those who come after to do likewise.

8. Help them grow. Don’t wait for prospective leaders to come to you–instead, you should approach them. Let them know what talent and qualities you see in them, and help them see how they can utilize their gifts for growth. The best way to engage more leaders is to show appreciation for who they are and help them stretch themselves. Show that you believe in them and give them opportunities to prove you right.

9. Push their limits. Sometimes people need a little push on their limits to avoid becoming stagnant. Without encouragement to stretch, people tend to stay in their comfort zone. It’s your job to induce them into the kind of discomfort that produces growth.

10. Respect them. People tend to step up to the plate when you show them respect. If you want to empower your people to lead, you must respect them for who they are.

The best leaders, go out of their way to boost their employees’ self-esteem. As John Maxwell stated, when people respect you as a person, they admire you; when they respect you as a friend, they love you; when they respect you as a leader, they follow you.

11. Praise and appreciate them. if the actions of your employee inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, they are your leaders. Appreciate them for who they are and praise them for their leadership. Let them know how much their influence and inspiration mean to you and how they influence others.

Helping to create new leaders is the ultimate expression of your own leadership. And it’s a legacy you can start building today.

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‘Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing’ (1 Thessalonians 5:11).

Are we continually building people up and encouraging them? I like to think I am but the truth is that while I often have kind and appreciative thoughts about the people around me, I don’t always share them. What about you?

I went to the funeral of a great friend’s mother the other day – a wonderful lady who I had got to know over many weekends spent at her home. After the service there were hundreds of us discussing her many great qualities and sharing with each other the positive impact she had on us. I wonder how many of us told her those same things when she was alive?

Pixabay

We don’t have to wait until someone has died to share our appreciation of them. They might need to hear our encouraging words today! Encouraging words can bring life, courage, hope and truth to the recipient. Even better – encouraging words inspired through the Holy Spirit can help people catch a glimpse of how God sees them and that can be amazingly powerful and life transforming.

Relationship researcher Dr John Gottman suggests that in healthy relationships there will be at least five positive interactions for every one negative one. That means if we ever criticise people or give negative feedback, we need to be at least five times as good at encouraging and speaking positively.

Giving encouragement doesn’t have to be difficult, time consuming or intense. The best encouragement is heart-felt, sincere and specific. It doesn’t have to be long-winded or complicated – sometimes a simple word given at just the right time is all that is needed.

So, whom could you encourage today? Here are seven suggestions of ways you could get started. There are plenty of other ways to encourage but these are all things I’m trying to put into practice this week.

1. Use birthdays to encourage people. Last week was my birthday. I had breakfast with nine women from church and towards the end one of my friends suggested that each person took turns encouraging me. I had no idea that she was going to do that and to start with I was rather embarrassed. But one by one they went round and spoke positively about what they saw in me. I was really touched by their kind comments and it made a huge difference to my week.

Birthdays are a great moment to stop and show our appreciation to people. We can let them know why they are special to us and describe all that we love about them. We can explain the impact they have on us and list their positive characteristics. We can thank them for who they are and all that they do.

2. Write a handwritten card to close friends or family. Sometimes it is the people closest to us that we find hardest to encourage. Perhaps we believe that they know how we feel but it is always good to stop and remind them.

Handwritten letters or cards are a great way to let people know how we feel. They are a visual reminder that can be re-read when the person needs building up. Once a week why not think of one person that means a lot to you? Then buy them or make them a card that reminds you of them and write some encouraging words inside.

3. Notice strangers. Does the check-out girl, the school receptionist or your car mechanic need a word of encouragement today? If someone gives you a great smile, treats someone kindly, demonstrates great service or does something positive – however small – let them know. It might just make their day.

4. Celebrate people at work. Whatever your position at work, take time to encourage others. Work places aren’t always the most encouraging places but you can make a real difference with your positive words. Let your colleagues know what you appreciate about them and praise them when they do a good job. Even better, encourage them or build them up in front of others.

5. Choose someone at church to bless. Sunday services can be difficult times for many people. Look around and see if there is one person who could benefit from an encouraging word. Thank them for who they are and what they do. By noticing someone and expressing what we appreciate about them we are letting them know that they matter.

6. Use social media to build people up. It might not be the most obvious place for encouragement but it can be a great place to give positive feedback. Whether people seem to be celebrating or struggling in a post, take time to encourage them.

This week, spurred on by the encouraging words spoken to me, I asked if any of my Facebook friends needed a word of encouragement. For anyone who said ‘Yes’ I left a reply letting them know what I appreciated about them.

7. Ask God to use you to encourage someone each day. The greatest words of encouragement are the ones inspired by the Holy Spirit. Why not ask God to give you words, encouragements, verses, pictures, or impressions to share with people?

I recently attended a morning conference. The speaker runs a major Christian organisation and he was speaking to us on Kingdom living and encouraging us in the prophetic. He told us that as he was driving to the conference he had asked God if there was anyone he needed to share with that day. God promptly showed him a picture of a woman’s face that he was to speak to. Imagine my surprise when he told everyone there that the woman was me!

He spoke the words that he felt God had given him and I felt both touched and inspired. They were words I really needed to hear and were like water to a thirsty traveller in the desert.

After a week of being amazingly encouraged, I’m now more determined than ever to encourage others. Will you join me?

The Daily Helping podcast’s Dr. Richard Shuster recently asked me if the current polarization in both politics and social media is also making people less willing to hear opposing views at work. I responded that even before the digital age, like-minded people would gather around the proverbial water cooler and reinforce their positions.

But dealing with differing points of view is actually part of everyone’s jobs, and when something goes wrong between you and a colleague, or between your work group and another work group, you’re responsible for trying to work through it. It’s never just about you. As an employee, you have a mission: to help your organization do as well as possible.

Look for What’s Really Going Wrong

Most people who find themselves in conflict focus on what they don’t like about the person they’re upset with. They don’t usually wonder why a situation is a certain way. They’re more likely to assign blame to someone, saying things like, “Oh, Quincy’s a bad guy. He’s always annoying. He never delivers.” They get stuck thinking about the personality, style, or communication of the person (or people) they perceive to be the source of the problem or the cause of their negative circumstances.

But the majority of workplace problems are not actually about people, even when those involved have terrible styles and are bad communicators. The source of most problems is structural and has to do with the way something is set up. If we can identify a problem’s true sources, then we can teach employees new ways of responding or speaking or behaving — and the conflict itself will usually diminish or even vanish completely.

Step Back and Look Within

Rather than our simply taking offense to a situation, though, we often feel affronted by what somebody said to us or by how we perceive their behavior. This makes us more likely to be either on the defensive or the attack, rather than thoughtful and curious.

To shift that tendency, it’s important to be intentionally self-aware, so you can assess and moderate your own reaction. Notice what’s actually happening to you in the moment: “Oh, I took that as an affront. I feel my stomach turning over, my mind is like a rollercoaster, and I feel my pulse racing.” Then you can work to self-regulate by telling yourself, for example, “No one’s coming at me with a weapon. This is challenging, but the world is not coming to an end. Let me calm myself and think about what the best thing is to do.”

Keep Calm and Get Curious

Once you’ve regained your composure, you can try to get to the root of the problem by learning more about what’s going on with your opponent. Your questions should sound curious, neutral, and engaging rather than accusatory. For instance, “Why did you do that stupid thing?” sounds accusatory. But if you ask, “Could you tell me how you came to decide that your team should do A instead of B? It would be helpful to me to understand that,” most colleagues will be much less defensive and try to answer.

It’s particularly important in a group setting to share the evidence behind your concerns or position. That evidence might start with data about the thing you feel has gone wrong, its negative impacts on the organization, and the potential positive impacts if things change, so that you’re talking about the business situation as opposed to the people.

With a group, it’s very helpful to position your questions in ways that show you’re not going after somebody, and that you’re looking for their voluntary participation. “I’d like to ask you about X. Would that be okay? May I raise the subject of this hard thing we were talking about on Tuesday? I feel like we didn’t quite resolve it, and I know it’s uncomfortable, but I’m hoping we can take another look at it.”

With a single person, you can be less formal: “Is it okay if we go back to X?” But it’s always good to ask permission. You never know what’s going on for them during the day, so it’s useful to try to feel it out rather than just jumping in with both feet.

Negativity Results in Lost Chances

Many years ago, I worked at a marketing agency where I had three colleagues who called themselves “the bad attitude kids.” They created the equivalent of an echo chamber, reinforcing each other’s beliefs about why other people were wrong or just plain stupid. The result of their joint, unilateral negative beliefs was that they got themselves excluded from productive discussions, as other colleagues decided not to bother with them anymore. They effectively took themselves out of the game.

When you look for the reasons and beliefs behind your opponents’ positions, you open the possibility of finding mutual interests and common ground. You don’t necessarily have to change your mind, but it helps to be curious about what they think so that you can than take the smartest action possible.

When an interviewer conducts a research interview with a respondent, the interviewer can persuade, cajole and, dare I say, make it difficult for the respondent to leave midway through an interview. When the questionnaire is being conducted online, the respondent only needs to take their mouse to the top right corner of the screen, click that little x and the interview is aborted.

Keeping respondents engaged

So, how can we encourage people to stay to the end of an online questionnaire? Psychology Today has given some ideas how we can get people to do things – effectively, what market research agencies want respondents to do. It’s important that your surveys are interesting to compete and not a chore but here’s some other ideas.

Words matter

Use nouns rather than verbs to persuade people. Charities have found that an invitation to ‘Be a donor’ works better than ‘Donate now’, so market researchers need to encourage people to ‘Be a participant’ or ‘Take an important role’.

We are good at adopting habits

Encourage people to make completing your survey a habit. Most humans are better at keeping up habits. If you have to take medicine, it’s better to be told to take it before your dinner rather than some time in the evening. Similarly, if you want people to complete a diary every day for a week, give them an anchor and some rules. If they are a panellist, try to send surveys at their most convenient time – maybe, Monday evening and encourage them to make a habit of doing it then.

Unexpected rewards

Carrots and sticks. We all like rewards and, indeed, survey respondents are often rewarded for their time and efforts. However, we are better with unexpected rewards. We are happier to receive $1 for completing 5 tasks with an occasional bonus of $10 rather than receiving $2.50 for completing every task. Or, perhaps, an occasional bonus for a completing a survey will help.

Set simple challenges

Mastering skills. When completing a questionnaire, respondents are more likely to do something that it is challenging that takes longer than something that is easier and takes less time. Yes, it sounds counterintuitive but that’s the way it is. Rating scales exemplify this. If they require some interaction – dragging to a pile or some reactive process will gain more attention than a boring grid.

We all like to be congratulated

Praise and encouragement. It’s been shown that a simple screen half way through a questionnaire encouraging people to go on and complete the rest of the survey has a beneficial effect. A message such as “Hey, you’re doing well – you’re over half way through. Thanks!” sounds a bit crass, but it has a positive effect.

Summary

None of this gets away from the fact that your survey must interesting, relevant and clear to follow etc. Surveys need to stand out as your survey is competing against others to be completed. However, a bit of psychology can always help.

Many businesses have the luxury of selling familiar items to customers. If you sell coffee, pizza, running shoes or automobiles, for example, people already have a clear idea about what they like. You may be introducing new features and styles, but the basic concept is familiar to everyone. However, you may be introducing something completely new to the marketplace.

As someone who sells mobile marketing services, I have to deal with this issue regularly. While everyone is familiar with mobile devices, many people don’t know about mobile marketing via text messaging. This creates a special challenge, one where I not only have to convince people that I’m the best at what I do, but that what I do is relevant and valuable to them in the first place. This has led me to ponder the question: How do you get people to try something completely new? Here are five tactics that I’ve found helpful.

Compare It To Something Familiar

When you want to explain a new product or service, it helps to compare it to something that’s well-known. For example, when I discuss or write about text message marketing, the most natural comparison is to email marketing. Everyone knows about email, so I use that as a frame of reference. The same is true for physical products or even foods. Consider how Steve Jobs and Apple introduced the iPad, which turned out to be one of the company’s most successful products. Some of the original promotions of the iPad presented it as a device that’s a cross between a smartphone and a laptop.

Focus On The Unique Benefits

No matter what you’re selling, you have to convey the features and benefits. When it’s something that not everyone knows about, it’s even more important to emphasize the advantages. Give people a good reason to try your product. Does it solve a particular problem that other products can’t solve? I often point out that text messages have a much higher open rate than emails. This addresses a common problem among marketers — getting people to read their ads.

With a new product, you have to be extremely clear and thorough about explaining it. If it’s a physical product, images and videos are powerful. For more technical products or services such as apps or advertising platforms, however, only convey the essential facts. Infographics, bullet-pointed lists, and explanatory videos can all help here.

Reduce Risk

People tend to be risk-averse when it comes to trying something new. You should do everything possible to make the experience painless. Here are some possibilities.

• Free samples/trials: New foods and beverage creators commonly give out free samples. These services offer free trials.
• Guarantees: A strong guarantee takes the stress out of trying a new product. If customers know they can get a refund, there’s no risk involved for them.
• Introductory pricing: The next best thing to giving something away is offering it at a discount.
• Flexibility: Give customers a wide range of choices for trying your product or service. If it’s a service, forcing people to sign a contract for a year is likely to scare them away. Let them try your product for a short time or in small quantities. A good example of this is a gym offering a cheap, seven-day membership.

Get Social Proof

If people aren’t familiar with something, it’s extra important to build social proof for it. This can be in the form of reviews and testimonials. Potential customers are often more convinced by comments from other customers than by what you, the business owner, say about your product. For some products, influencer marketing is a good way to introduce a new tool. Getting someone well-known in a field to vouch for your product makes people more comfortable about trying it. In this case, choose someone who’s influential among your target audience and provide him or her with a sample.

Appeal To The Allure Of The New

People have a paradoxical reaction to newness. On the one hand, they have a resistance to trying something unfamiliar. On the other hand, our culture celebrates newness and being among the first to try something. The above points are ways to minimize fears about the new. You can also tap into the appeal: Phrases such as “Be one of the first,” “Get in on the ground floor,” or “Be part of the leading edge” all express the attractiveness of the latest trends.

When you’re introducing a new product, service or business model, you have to be creative and determined to break through people’s resistance. At the same time, you can make the newness of your product a virtue, marketing it as the latest and most advanced solution or trend. It often takes extra effort and determination to get people to try something new, but the rewards can be tremendous if you succeed.

Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invitation-only, fee-based organization comprised of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs 45 and younger. YEC members…

Most leaders acknowledge that people are an organisation’s most important asset. The challenge for all leaders, however, is whether their behaviours and attitudes towards their team reflect that belief.

In business, people should be treated as assets not costs. Assets help generate income and profits and so they are looked after and subject to ongoing investment. Costs, on the other hand, reduce profits and so should be kept to a minimum. Believing that people are assets means recognising how important they are to an organisation’s success and therefore how important it is to look after them and invest in them.

One major form of investment in people is to provide training and development opportunities to help them develop their skills and behaviours so that they can contribute even more to a team’s success.

Leaders should carefully reflect on the level of personal support that they offer to people in their team. They should challenge themselves by asking questions such as:

• How available am I really for people to talk to me and seek my advice and encouragement?
• Do I really have an open door policy where I welcome people or is the policy little more than a platitude?
• Am I readily available to give people the support they need, when they need it?

The importance of an open door policy

However, being available and having a genuine ‘open door’ is one thing, but is it enough? The potential problem is that it puts the onus onto other people to make the effort to go and see their leader wherever he/she may be. Some people may be put off doing so because they do not want to bother their leader with what they feel may be a relatively trivial matter, while others may be concerned about interrupting their leader at a busy time.

Therefore, leaders need to make themselves more accessible to people within their team and make the effort to go to where their team are and not wait for their team to visit them. Leaders should visit different parts of the organisation, meet people, and not just the favoured few, taking time to find out how people are getting on, how they are feeling and offering words of encouragement and advice. Leaders should never underestimate the importance of personal visits to motivate people and they should make sure that everyone knows that they matter and that their contribution is important.

How to motivate people effectively

The better that a leader understands the people within his/her team the more effective he/she will be in motivating individual team members. Getting close to people and treating them as individuals can have a significant effect on their performance and behaviours. To effectively motivate others involves finding out what people want, and do not want, from their job and so it involves spending time talking with them and listening to them, not just once but often as motivators are likely to change. Typical motivators concern rewards, recognition, challenging and interesting work, and being part of a motivated team. Once a leader finds out what will improve a person’s motivation, then he/she can do something about it.

For some people, it is important that they are openly acknowledged by their leader. For others, just to know that the leader is there and willing to support them and stand by them if things get difficult is encouragement enough. In whatever way leaders offer support, their focus should be to provide a positive example to promote a culture of mutual support within their team.

Showing support

The emphasis is on support. Leaders should try to avoid telling people what to do or how to do it and so avoid creating a subordinate relationship. Leaders should encourage their team to think issues through for themselves, but make it clear that they have their leader’s support. They should accentuate the positive and encourage people to think along the lines of what can or should be done rather than on what cannot or should not be done.

Leaders should make it clear that their team have nothing to fear because fear encourages people to behave passively, to hide mistakes, to blame others and so discourages openness and honesty. The increased levels of motivation and self-esteem felt by people who have successfully completed tasks and projects based on their own initiative rather than carrying out someone else’s instructions is highly significant.

When things go wrong, and on occasions they probably will, then leaders need to openly support the people concerned. They must have the courage to stand up for each person in their team, to support them when they make mistakes and show real loyalty to them.

Leading By Example

To find out more about leadership, read our eBook “Leading by Example”.

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People will again be encouraged to go back to the workplace in a government ad campaign starting next week.

Employers will be asked to reassure staff it is safe to return by highlighting measures taken to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

Business leaders have warned of damage being done to city centres as people stay away from offices.

And Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said some things were “impossible” to do remotely.

But Health Secretary Matt Hancock said he cared more about how employees performed than where they were working.

Ministers in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are still advising people to work from home if possible.

The campaign, which will launch as most schools in England and Wales reopen, will predominantly be promoted through regional media, BBC political correspondent Iain Watson said.

Meanwhile, nine in 10 UK employees who have worked from home during lockdown would like to continue in some form, according to a survey.

The research by academics at Cardiff and Southampton universities – which involved thousands of people between April and June – suggests the majority of people working from home are as productive, if not more.

Whitehall sources insist the campaign will not suggest those who continue to work from home are at any greater risk of losing their jobs.

Labour’s shadow business minister, Lucy Powell, said no one should be forced “to choose between their health and their job” and the government should “categorically rule out” any campaign suggesting people could be out of a job if they refused to return to the office.

She said her government had been holding talks with business leaders about the possibility of a phased return to office working but it was still too soon for people to go back to the office as normal without the virus spreading.

Frances O’Grady, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, said: “The prime minister needs a credible plan to help more people travel and work safely, not a scare campaign.”

The messaging comes as head teachers say they are ready to welcome young people back to school in England and Wales full-time next week, which should make a return to the workplace more feasible for many parents.

‘Ghost towns’

The employers’ organisation the CBI has warned city centres could become “ghost towns” if the prime minister does not do more to encourage staff back, with businesses relying on passing trade from office workers.

Some prominent Conservative MPs share these concerns and have urged ministers to deliver a clear and consistent message that it is safe to return.

But Mr Hancock said getting staff back to work was a “matter for employers” and, when asked about the Department for Health, that his main concern was how employees performed.

“Some of them have been working from home, some come in sometimes, some are in full-time – and what matters to me is that they deliver and, frankly, they’ve been delivering at an unbelievable rate,” the health secretary told Times Radio.

• JOBS: Can my boss force me to go to work?
• FACE MASKS: When should you wear one?
• SCHOOLS: Which are re-opening, when?
• LOOK-UP TOOL: How many cases in your area?

Mr Shapps told BBC Breakfast his own department was encouraging people to return to the office but it was “a gradual process”.

Where it is safe to do so, the transport secretary said people should go back to their workplaces, adding that there were some things which were “impossible” to do remotely.

“But I suspect we’ll see more flexible working than we’ve seen in the past and it will be for employers and employees to work out the right balance in their particular cases,” he said.

Mr Shapps said employees with “legitimate concern” over whether their workplace was “Covid-secure” could raise this with the Health and Safety Executive but most employers had worked hard to make them safe.

He acknowledged the return of pupils to school and parents to work tended to “create pressures” on the public transport system.

“We’ll be watching those very carefully and looking to, for example, in some cases run additional services where we see those problems bubble up,” he said.

Can employers force staff back to the office?

In the overwhelming majority of cases the return to office work – or the continuation of home-working – will be a matter of discussion between employers and employees. Businesses will heed public health and government employment guidance, carry out risk assessments, meet employees’ concerns and make any reasonable adjustments to facilitate a return to a safe office.

Much will depend on the nature of the business and the specific employee role, but there are two principal grounds on which employees can challenge an employer’s demand that they return to the office.

Firstly, if the employee is disabled or has a condition which puts them at a higher risk of contracting Covid-19, or suffering more severely if they do contract it, they could challenge the demand as discriminatory under the Equality Act. Age could also play a part here as older workers could argue they are more vulnerable to the virus.

Those workers, who tend more often to be female and are caring for others who are especially vulnerable to the virus, could bring indirect sex discrimination claims if compelled to return.

Secondly, the Employment Rights Act protects employees who reasonably believe there is a “serious and imminent” risk of danger in returning to work. This could include risks in getting to and from the workplace.

If meaningful work has been carried out at home during lockdown, it will be difficult for employers to resist requests for flexible working. However, employees must be mindful of their duty to carry out any demands from their employer which are legal and reasonable.

Between 27 July and 9 August, 39% of the workforces of businesses still trading were working remotely, according to the Office for National Statistics.

The industries with the largest proportion of employees working remotely were education and information and communication, where the figure was more than 70%.

Figures from investment banking company Morgan Stanley suggest the proportion of UK office workers operating in their normal workplace is less than half that of other major European countries.

A BBC study found 50 major UK employers had no plans to return all staff to the office full-time in the near future.

One of the main reasons given was that firms could not see a way of accommodating large numbers of staff while social distancing regulations were still in place.

In May, Boris Johnson said people who could not work from home – such as those in construction and manufacturing – should return to the workplace.

Then in July, he told people to “start to go back to work now if you can” and has repeated the plea since then.

On Thursday, the UK recorded its highest number of new daily Covid-19 infections since mid-June – but there was also a new low in the number of people being treated in hospital.

Here are 5 Best Ways encourage people to exercise

Are you concerned for a beloved one’s health or are you trying to influence people to adopt a healthier lifestyle and want them to start exercising but don’t know how to get them interested? Well, here are 5 ways you can encourage people to exercise.

1. Show the Benefits: People are influenced by words. If explained properly and shown the pros of exercising and the change it will bring to one’s lifestyle, one might give a thought to it and quite probably will adopt the practice.
2. Give company: Often people don’t exercise because of the boredom of doing it alone. If you want someone you know to exercise regularly, accompany that person to the exercise sessions and it might change their mind about exercising regularly.
3. Free and Healthy: Many times an individual wants to exercise in a suitable environment such as a gym or a workout club, but can’t afford the admission fees. Thus if you take an initiative to provide that individual with free vouchers or buy membership fro him or her as a gift it will be a great surprise for them and would really encourage them to exercise.
4. Rewards and penalties: If none of the above work, prepare a reward and penalty system for them. Urge them to start exercising and assure them a reward of their liking after successful and honest dedication towards exercising along with serious penalties which would stop them from giving up on exercising out of laziness.
5. Start small: If nothing works, start small; that is make them do activities that are similar to exercises, such as walking to a nearby destination instead of using a vehicle, using steps instead of an elevator or a lift. This will shape their mindset to exercise and then encourage them to seriously consider exercising daily, which they probably will do now.

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• Even after Dhoni’s retirement, he will always be a star from a small town like Ranchi who made it big in the industry.

OPPO ropes in ace cricketer MS Dhoni , to inspire millions of people to try and be extraordinary and achieve their dreams.

The association aims to inspire people to achieve more through their passion and push the envelope in a quest to #BeTheInfinite. MS Dhoni is an epitome of infinite possibilities created with dedication, persistence, and hard work – a message that has been in sync with OPPO’s purpose of being all along.

MS Dhoni’s life is not just about adoring fans, cheering crowds, record-breaking performances, winning moments, and holding trophies but also acting as an inspirational figure for people to be the best version of themself. Being a cricket enthusiast from Ranchi, he didn’t give up on his passion for cricket and became one of the most successful skippers for the Indian Cricket Team. Dhoni’s journey resonates with thousands of people who are trying to explore the best version of themselves and #BeTheInfinite with their passion. Dhoni not only showcased his skills in the game to the world but also the infinite ways of outperforming oneself in every situation. He thrives to excel both inside & outside the field. He stood out on top through sheer persistence and dedication for Team India. He has been an inspiration to many, to go beyond their limits to achieve their goals. OPPO is collaborating with him to reach out to such people across India.

Commenting on the collaboration, MS Dhoni said, “I am very excited to be a part of a project which aims to inspire people to push their limits and follow their passion. It is a pleasure to collaborate with OPPO as they have been at the forefront of pushing their limits in technology and innovation.”

OPPO’s latest #BeTheInfinite campaign, in association with MS Dhoni, aims to signify that through dedication, hard work, persistence, and will, anyone can achieve their dreams.

6 min read Max Koh

I work at a university and my team is currently recruiting students for our UX research. Unfortunately, we don’t have a lot of money budgeted for remuneration. We have held workshops where we provided pizza and soda, but this doesn’t work when we have individual students come in for usability tests or interviews. Do you have any suggestions for strategies that we could use to recruit students without using traditional monetary remuneration?

Really great question! Recruiting participants can be one of the most frustrating parts of UX research and the user testing process. Not only is it difficult to actually source people in the first place, but it’s hard to find times that suit everyone’s schedules, and even encourage people to take part in the first place! If you have limited resources, it can only make the whole situation much more complicated. Fortunately, there are a few ways that you can get those results rolling in with limited spend.

Whether you’re at a university like yourself, a non-profit organization, student researchers in a lab, or even a company working with a small budget, there are workarounds!

Run a competition or prize draw

While this option still involves spending some money, the amount is much less than rewarding each individual participant. As a bonus, it’s also up to you to pick the prize. Whether it’s related to whatever it is you’re testing, or perhaps the industry you’re in, pick something that will pique the interest of your target demographic. As a university, you could maybe supply a voucher for the local campus bookstore as your prize (we all know how expensive textbooks can be!). Maybe you could even offer some sort of workshop or book — something that might draw in your demographic.

Depending on your budget, you could include more than one voucher, or maybe even work with some departments at the university to see what else they could offer up. Could there be a way for students to receive some extra credit from participating somehow? Can the study fit in with their current course (for example, approaching the class of an anthropology course so they can see what real studies look like in the field).

Each person who participates in your study can receive an entry in the prize draw. To start recruiting even more participants, you could perhaps offer a bonus entry to those who refer another friend to your study.

There are a number of online random generators to help you pick a winner out of your participants — especially useful if you’re running remote user testing. Alternatively, you could ask participants to write down their name and contact information and put it into a hat for you to draw on the day. Make it fun!

While it’s only one prize that’s up for grabs, it will still help to encourage participants a lot more than no reward at all.

Find participants who are engaged, and keep them that way!

Try to track down people who care and may have an opinion about whatever it is you’re researching. For example, if you’re trying to improve the IA of the university’s website, you could check in with people who have talked to your help centre about problems navigating your site. Maybe you could even target university forums or student groups.

Another alternative is to insert an invitation to your study as an intercept snippet on your site. This is a little popup invitation that you can place on any page of your site. It’s super handy for grabbing the attention of potential participants. Installing an intercept snippet code for your study is incredibly easy. Simply head to the ‘Recruit’ tab of any of your Treejack, Questions, OptimalSort or Chalkmark study, and you can find a handy little intercept snippet tool that allows you to customize and copy your snippet code.

Once you have a few participants expressing interest in your study, make sure you keep them engaged. People can be extremely forgetful, so send a couple of reminders that the study is happening soon — whether your study is in person or just online. Keep in mind that any communication surrounding your study is really important. Don’t send too many reminders, and keep language positive so that participants know how they’re helping you. For example, “Help make our website easier for you to use — take our survey now!”.

Make sure your study is inviting

Ever opened up an online survey only to find the questions are each about a paragraph long? Or maybe you agreed to participate in a card sort but got lost in all the jargon?

Keep the design of your study simple. If it’s online, try to take away the hassle and limit the number of steps required for people to participate. There’s nothing worse than volunteering to take part in a study, only to find you have to create various accounts for online tools, register and confirm your email address, then fill out loads of forms. Questions and tasks should be easy to understand and follow, and instructions should be clear and helpful. Don’t make people think too hard or you could see a higher abandonment rate!

Be flexible and ask people to select from some slotted times that you’ve scheduled. It’s much easier to book something this way, rather than asking them when they’re available. Make sure you provide a few slots — the more flexible you are, the more likely you’ll have people participate.

Use a recruitment service

Recruitment services are extremely hassle-free, however they do cost a little bit of money. They’re fantastic if you’re pressed for time, or if you need to research people in other countries.

Our integrated recruitment panel allows you to search for participants that fit a certain criteria, including age, location, gender, occupation, and education level. The best thing about using this recruitment service is that it’s quality guaranteed, and you get the number of responses that you pay for — something that you don’t always get when you source participants yourself!

Reach out to local businesses

You’ll never know an answer unless you ask. So, ask a few local businesses in the area and see if they’d like to provide any sort of incentive that you can give your participants. For example, vouchers or gift cards to a cafe or bar on campus. Anything that is free to you and beneficial to both participants and the nearby business could do the trick!

Hang around your campus cafe

If your campus has a cafe or popular coffee cart, go hang out there and talk to people. These spots are a great source to find participants, and you’ll see all types of students and staff members there. Simply approach people in the queue and offer to buy them a coffee in exchange for 15 minutes of their time. You’d be surprised at the number of strangers who will say yes just to score a free cup of joe.

With remote user testing tools, you can quickly set up your study on your or your participant’s laptop right in the cafe. Even better, you can give your newly recruited participant a QR code to complete the study on their smartphone and it’ll be done in minutes!

As you can see, recruiting participants doesn’t have to be costly. There’s always a way to find people to take part in your study, but the first step is to just ask.

This article gives you some tips for both attracting participants to your study, and encouraging participants to complete the whole study. We suggest you:

• offer incentives to participants
• use positive, action-focused language in your promotion
• make it easy for participants to complete your study
• hold their interest for the whole study
• keep them honest (well, at least keep your results honest!).

Offer participants an incentive to complete the study

An incentive to entice people to give up their time. This incentive doesn’t need to be large (or monetary) but it will need to be attractive to your desired audience. A voucher to a Star Trek convention is not going to appeal to everyone and those Trekkies are unlikely to accurately represent your website audience, which could bias your study results.

Sometimes simply appealing to people’s good nature is enough, especially if you have an active community who values what you do and would benefit from you doing it better. Other times you’ll want to offer good-as-cash-vouchers or a chance to win the latest device.

Use positive, action-focused language in your promotion

When you ask people to complete your study, be positive and give people a good reason to do so. Start by clearly explaining how participants will be helping, and include a clear call to action.

‘Help make our website easier for you to use — participant in our study now!’

Make it easy for participants to complete your study

Once participants have clicked on your link, get straight into it. Get them started on your study while they are still interested. Most people will be put off by complicated instructions, so keep it simple. Let them know how much time you think the study will take, and how their contribution will help improve your website. If you want to ask demographic questions, asking them at the end will save people having to do it before starting the study.

We include simple and effective default messages and instructions in your studies. So if in doubt, keep the default text or model your text on them.

Hold participants’ interest for the whole study

Respondents are smart, get bored easily, and are time poor. Keep the test short and sweet. Here’s some tips for each kind of study.

Treejack

Aim for a maximum of 8 to 10 tasks per participant which can be completed in 6 to 15 minutes. Write clear tasks that are easy to understand and act on.

Chalkmark

Also aim for a maximum of 8 to 10 tasks per participant which can be completed in 6 to 15 minutes. Include simple, clean graphics, and write clear tasks that are easy to understand and act on.

OptimalSort

Holding participant interest in a card sort is a little different — it matters more how long you can hold their attention than how many cards you give them to sort. Some cards are much easier to sort than others so you might get away with 80 or 90 of those (for example, a closed card sort for brand values into 3 groups: ‘We are’, ‘We’re not’, ‘We should be’ is easy).

But if the concepts are more difficult to grasp or group then you might want to keep it down to around 40 cards.

Keep participants honest (well, your results at least)

We can’t really keep people honest, but you can delete the responses of people who don’t take your study seriously. There will always be respondents who have completed the study just to get a shot at the prize. When you analyze the results their answers are usually easy to spot. Often they’ve completed the study rapidly and their answers don’t make sense, and are radically different from other responses. Delete their data and discount them from the prize pool.

Even the most dazzling study about the most exciting topic will have some respondents drop off before they’ve completed it, but if you’re seeing a drop off rate greater than half then you need to look into it. A high skip rate per task in a tree test could be telling of the test difficulty and a sign of confusing website architecture. Keep going you’re doing the right thing by testing.

Recruit participants with Optimal Workshop

If you’d like to take the hassle out of finding those participants yourselves — we can help.

We’ve got a couple of options for end-to-end recruitment:

• In-app recruitment
• Custom recruitment packages tailored to your project and study.

We promise quality results and can, in most cases, recruit participants matching your exact requirements. Get in touch with our customer success team to learn more.

You spend hours creating linkable blog posts, valuable resources and juicy articles all so that your customers will find something to dig into and engage with. You know that producing great content is one powerful way of increasing your own authority. But you don’t want the interaction to just stop there. Oh no! You want your customers to share your great content with their own network because doing so gives your content legs and increases the brand exposure for your business. But what are you doing to make it easy for your customers to share your brand? Are you putting obstacles in their way or are you instead breaking down those walls and giving them the sharing tools they’re looking for? That’s the question.

Below are five ways to increase user spread of your content.

1. Use Twitter Buttons

Twitter continues to be one of the most popular ways for Web users to share and pass on content in their networks. Users like sharing content on Twitter because it’s fast paced, it allows them to play the role as discoverer, and they can use it to start their own conversations. However, you need to encourage them to share it. In order for the typical user to share your resource on Twitter, they need to find it, use a link shortening service to shorten the link, and then go back to Twitter to tweet it out to their network. That may be too many steps for them. To help encourage spread, embed a service like TweetMeme on your site to allow people to tweet your post directly from that page. You can add the TweetMeme Retweet functionality to your blog via their widget or WordPress plugin. Once it’s there, it’s one click to increased brand and content exposure.

2. Add the Facebook Like Button

The Facebook Like button is another way you can encourage users to share your content and was created to replace the Facebook Share button (though some people prefer to use both). The way this works is that when a user clicks the Like button on your site, a story appears in the user’s friends’ News Feed with a link back to your Web site. This serves as a powerful testimonial for your piece and gives that person’s network a chance to read the post and possibly become a member of your community. To add the Facebook Like button to your Web site, simply use the Facebook Like button configurator or use the Facebook Like Button Widget Plugin. We’re starting to see more and more users adopting the Facebook Like Button as Facebook continues its fight for local and social domination.

3. Sharing Plugins

Social sharing plugins give site owners another effective way to encourage users to share their content. By adding the plugin to your Web site, it allows visitors to quickly and easily post your content to their favorite social media Web sites. The advantage to using one of these plugins is they capture a greater number of sites so that you can use one plugin instead of multiple site-specific ones. Many will also offer an option to e-mail a post for users who aren’t yet comfortable on sites like Twitter and Facebook. Some examples of basic sharing plugins include:

• Sociable
• ShareThis
• Add To Any
• Social Dropdown
• GetSocial [a little more intrusive than the others]

4. Make it easy to save your logo

This is a great piece of advice I’ve stolen from the super smart Andy Sernovitz and now live by. If you want people to share your content and your brand, then make it easy for them to lift your logo off your site. In fact, maybe even offer different sizes and shapes of logo. Why? Because your logo is your identity. When people talk about you, they’ll often want to use your logo to go along with their comments. You can either make it easy for them to properly represent your company or you can make it difficult and force them to represent your brand in some other, non-approved way. I’d opt for the former.

5. Ask!

If you want to encourage people to share your content, not only should you make it easy for them to do so with appropriate widgets, but you should also remember to ask. One place where I think the “asking” technique is very underutilized is with e-mail newsletters. Are you asking people to forward your newsletter to their friends who may find it useful? If not, why not? Your e-mail newsletter goes out to people who have taken the time to opt in to what you’re doing. These people have told you they want a closer relationship with your company. Use that to its fullest. Also, you may find customers are more inclined to forward an e-mail than to share something on Twitter because it’s just one extra click and a process they’re already very familiar with. Don’t force them to learn new tools.

Note that none of this is to say that you should randomly litter your Website with different sharing plugins and applications. Instead, find out how people are sharing your content and then make it easy for them to do that. Empower them to do that.

If you’re not sure HOW people are sharing your content:

• Check your analytics. What are the top referrers? If you’re seeing a large amount of traffic from sites like Twitter or Delicious, then you know those are popular in your community. Make sure you’re using those buttons on your site.
• Use SEO for Firefox to see where your best content is already being shared and the kinds of stuff people like sharing. Any surprises?
• Go to Quarkbase and put in your URL. Then, take a look at how people are sharing your content, what sites/types of sites are most popular and who’s doing the sharing. Put in a URL for one of your competitors and note the same thing to spot favored sites in your industry.

Those are some of my preferred ways to encourage users to share content that I’ve written. What methods do you swear by?

Today is your weekly staff meeting. And since you just read a blog about the importance of dialogue, you notice that your team members are just sitting around the table, not speaking up. But even though your employees are quiet, you can bet they have thoughts–lots of thoughts:

• Some thoughts are negative: “Why do we waste an hour every week on this?”
• Some are irrelevant: “I wonder how he gets his hair to stay like that.”
• But other thoughts–the most valuable ones–are the thoughts that could transform your business.

How can you encourage employees to share their thoughts in a way that will stimulate innovation and problem solving to help your organization succeed? Here are 5 effective techniques:

1. Make dialogue an objective for your team or group. If you’re serious about creating an environment in which employees are encouraged to speak up, then openly declare that, and make it clear that dialogue is a priority. At first, team members may wonder what you mean (and how serious you are). So start by asking for team members’ ideas about how your organization can change from focusing on one-way presentations to talking with each other to solve problems.

2. Foster a spirit of openness. This one’s difficult because it’s a little squishy, but here’s what author Bruce L. Katcher (30 Reasons Employees Hate Their Managers) advises: “Ask for opinions and then listen carefully.” If you listen more than you speak, says Katcher, it will increase the probability that your team members will bring new ideas.

3. Share your personal perspectives and stories. Wait, didn’t I just advocate listening more–which implies talking less? Pay attention because this is a subtle difference. When I talk to employees about what they need from leaders, they never say, “More financial PowerPoint slides, please!” But employees would like to hear leaders’ personal perspectives. And stories of how you’ve dealt with challenges, solved problems and learned new things help open the floor to encourage employees to share their stories.

4. Encourage suggestions–and then make a point to recognize every suggestion and celebrate the ones that are implemented. Katcher gives a thumbs down to suggestion boxes because he says they actually discourage contributing ideas. But he writes that positive reinforcement works well. “When employees make suggestions, go out of your way to acknowledge the remarks.” Continually thank employees for their ideas, and make sure to tell employees their suggestions were heard, appreciated and, whenever possible, acted upon.

5. Break out of the meeting box. Defy your team members’ expectations of how the typical team meeting will unfold. In their book The Power Of Moments, Chip and Dan Heath recommend creating a “strategic surprise” that jars employees’ thinking a bit and encourages them to act differently. For example:

• Ask a question instead of presenting information. Brainstorm to solve a problem.
• Take the meeting out of the meeting room. Give team members an assignment –find new ideas/products that we can apply to what we do–and take a field trip to a coffee shop, a mall a gym or a supermarket.
• Make a poster. Gather old magazines, poster paper, glue sticks and markers. Break out team members into groups of two or three, and ask them to make a poster on a key topic–our objectives, a priority or an initiative.

As Daniel Yankelovich writes, Dialogue creates a dynamic in which colleagues “find it easy and natural to cooperate with one another” so they know “how to create the common ground on which successful cooperation depends.”

Author

Instructor, University of Calgary

Disclosure statement

Ofer Berenstein receives funding from the University of Calgary and the Government of Alberta.

Partners

University of Calgary provides funding as a founding partner of The Conversation CA.

University of Calgary provides funding as a member of The Conversation CA-FR.

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Despite a cumulative increase of nearly 10 per cent in voter turnout in Canadian federal elections between 2008 and 2015, the country’s voter turnout rates remain moderate. And they’re about 20 per cent lower than they were before the 1990s.

This current rate means governments are being formed with the support of a minority of the population.

While encouraging political participation to young voters aged 18 to 34 has been somewhat successful, two problems remain as a Canadian federal election approaches:

1) Young people still vote at a relatively lower rate than older voters did at their age;

2) Political socialization efforts via education systems do not target voters aged 35 to 54, so the rate of abstention in these groups remains constant.

One possible way to increase turnout is non-partisan campaigns to encourage people to vote. However, these campaigns are often ineffective. As someone whose research has examined efforts to encourage people to vote, I believe they’re ineffective because they make the wrong appeal.

Problems with voter encouragement campaigns

Voter turnout campaigns are often produced by organizations and people that consider voting and political participation as acts that are required of any citizen in a democracy.

An example of a voter turnout campaign in the 1990s that didn’t appeal to some occasional voters. Elections Canada , Author provided

But their target audience of non-voters probably don’t feel the same way. According to my preliminary research, non-voters perceive such campaigns as insincere moralization drives — some believe there’s a political involvement and what politicians really want is people voting only for them, not their opponents.

Non-voters also stress the fact that voting is a voluntary act. If you have the right to vote, they argue, you also have the right to abstain, so their decision to stay home should be respected.

So what can be done to improve how to communicate the importance of voting to non-voters?

My research suggests the solution lies in changing the messaging. Instead of arguing that voting is a moral act or a manifestation of a civic duty, we should encourage non-voters to think independently about the personal benefits and motivations of participating in elections, and to come up with their own reasons for wanting to vote.

Anyone who engages in public conversations about voting should be trained to consider these arguments, instead of the moralizing that may come more naturally to them.

Engaging ‘non-habitual’ voters

Based on my findings, I propose five basic recommendations that may improve the effectiveness of non-partisan campaigns aimed at encouraging voting, mostly among a segment of the population called non-habitual voters — people who vote only occasionally:

1) Localized content is preferable to imported content. Many campaigners import ideas and even full campaigns from other countries. But non-habitual voters react negatively to imported content, perceiving it as artificial and dishonest.

Instead, they react more positively to content produced within their political system and that reflects their political reality.

This recommendation is especially important to multi-national non-governmental organizations, such as Rock the Vote or other civil engagement groups that run campaigns in multiple countries.

2) Non-habitual voters shy away from factual statements — which they perceive as condescending and preachy — and react positively to open-ended questions that invite them to think and discuss matters on their own terms.

An example of a positive campaign, and a clean, simple display, favoured by occasional voters. StudentVote.ca , Author provided

The wording of voter turnout slogans should also be positive, rather than negative, so the occasional voter doesn’t feel they’re being guilted into voting. Negative language will only make non-habitual voters feel guilty, and slogans like: “If you didn’t vote, don’t complain,” are among the worst things they can be told, my research determined.

In contrast, a StudentVote.ca slogan: “A Million Reasons to Vote. What’s Yours?” is a positively worded question that received the best reactions from voters and non-voters alike.

3) Non-habitual voters react better to language that does not address elections specifically (think, imagine, wish) than they do to language that is more political (choice, count, vote). Indirect wording encourages interaction, engagement and consideration of the appeal, while direct language is perceived as empty promises by voting advocates.

To illustrate this point, consider a typical non-voter’s response to the slogan “Your Vote is Your Say” — a 1990s Elections Canada poster. In my research, a 39-year-old woman from southern Alberta had this to say about the ad: “Like they really care what I think.”

4) Simple, straightforward designs work best. My research findings are consistent in showing that many people, not just occasional voters, prefer clean and comprehensible designs over visually complex ones. As well, voters aren’t fans of whimsical word puns. That’s not to suggest people don’t want to see images or symbols at all, or that all wordplay should be dismissed. They just need to be used in moderation.

5) Countries like Canada that have ballots should stop using an X and instead use a check mark, both on the ballot itself and in their marketing materials, and allow any marking on ballots. Too many people associate the X with incorrect answers during their school years. In the split second it took my research participants to scan imagery, on the ballot or in marketing materials, many of them made a negative association.

These five principles are the most basic ones to adopt. Any organization — elections agencies, NGOs, even family members trying to convince loved ones to vote — should use them.

Definition and Purpose of Exercise

Exercise is planned and repeated physical activity. It’s used to condition any part of the body. It improves health, maintains fitness and promotes good health and physical wellbeing. It can also be useful in preventing or treating a variety of diseases.

Sedentary Lifestyle and Lack of Exercise

A sedentary lifestyle——a.k.a. the couch disease——is a big factor in the onset of chronic degenerative diseases and though people of all age groups can become couch potatoes, the elderly are easy prey for this condition. Numerous studies have shown a calculated risk for cardiovascular disease due to inactivity. The benefits of exercising regularly are countless, but unfortunately, our elder population fails to enjoy their lives due to poor health and lack of energy.

Immune System Suffers from Lack of Exercise

It’s a proven fact that with age, there is a decrease in the immune system. The health of a parent or elderly loved one may often take a back seat to our own desire to remain fit. The risk of developing chronic disease and increased mortality rates increase with age and body functions are slowing down due to the loss of organ reserve. Exercising regularly can boost your immune system and help fight off any form of illness.

Why is Exercise Important to the Elderly?

Exercise significant reduces the physical signs of again, but is important for other benefits as well.

• Exercise is great for reducing stress and improving the emotional well being of the elderly.
• Because exercise can be considered a social activity, seeing old friends and making new acquaintances can give this population a great emotional boost, thus aiding the release of stress and depression.
• By exercising regularly, our loved ones body functions improve, reducing the risk of diabetes and other diseases.
• Regular exercise during late adulthood, has shown to have profound effects on the body. The National Institutes of Health has claimed exercising on a regular basis greatly decreases the risk of suffering the disabilities resulting from chronic illnesses.
• Exercise improves mobility, endurance and flexibility as well as balance, which in the long run helps reduce the frequency of falling and lessening the symptoms of arthritis.
• Exercising can provide our seniors with longer lasting and more refreshing sleep which in turn improves their overall health. It also helps them fall asleep faster.

Types of Exercises That Best Suit Seniors

There are four main types of exercise, according to the National Institute on Aging:

• Strengthening Exercise is necessary for muscle strengthening and helps reduce muscle loss.
• Endurance Exercise helps maintain joint function. Included in this group are swimming and walking which help improve heart health as well.
• Balance Exercise helps with the normally occurring of loss of balance, so practicing them can help reduce the frequency of falls.
• Stretching Exercise is necessary to keep the lumbar region healthy and flexible…and easy stretches feel good.

Tips To Get the Elderly Moving

Most commercials for exercise programs or machines caution you to “Consult your doctor before taking on any new exercise routine.” This warning is especially important when it comes to seniors. Get their physical examination done and let the doctor know you’d like your loved one to get permission from him/her in this regard. Regularly practice only the exercises the doctor has approved. Because exercise has a lot to do with ensuring a senior’s good health, use the following tips to get them to work out regularly.

• Start slowly. Trying out long edurance or heavy exercises as they begin is not a good idea. It’s always advisable to build up gradually.
• Set short-term goals. This is one of the best strategies to keep your loved one motivated. By setting these goals, seniors are motivated to continue their exercise. Make sure you do not include weight loss in these short-term goals. More important goals could be stress reduction, and energy and mood improvement.
• Take special notice of their symptoms. In many cases, the body may not be able to cope with certain types of exercise. Shortness of breath, chest pain, dizziness, pain and cold sweats may make it necessary to stop the exercise at once and consult a doctor.

Rest During Exercise

It’s always important to rest between workouts, and especially so with seniors. The body needs time to rest and heal itself. Without proper rest, you risk causing injuries. Don’t push too hard…remember…take it slow.

A good, general exercise routine can be achieved in as little as thirty minutes a day. If that’s too hard for your loved one, start with even less time and build up a little each day. Daily exercise can help prolong life and improve and improve your loved one’s quality of life.

Tena Scallan is a passionate healthcare professional, business owner and published with over 25 years of experience in the healthcare industry.

She’s dedicated her life to working in hospitals, running her own in-home caregiving agency and providing coaching and guidance for family caregivers.

Tena firmly believes that both home and lifestyle can be preserved with in-home, compassionate caregiving in the face of aging or illness.