Unfortunately many times we don’t take action on what we know.

We can change our habits about encouragement – we can choose to become a more encouraging person. This will have a positive impact on our results and satisfaction in a variety of roles we play in life – from leader to co-worker to team member to parent to family member.

Below are five specific ways that you can become more encouraging starting as soon as you finish reading this article.

Encourage with your eyes. Don’t underestimate importance and value of solid eye contact. Think about people you know who always seem to make good eye contact with you. How do you feel about them? Do you feel that they support and believe in you? Do they seem to care more? This is a glimpse at how powerful good solid eye contact can be. Perhaps these people haven’t said anything to give you encouragement, but their presence and eye contact show you anyway. Use your eyes to be encouraging – make eye contact with people.

Encourage with your face. This is perhaps easiest of all. Smile. A smile is a powerful encourager. It tells people that they are ok. It tells people that what they are doing is ok. For some people smiling comes naturally while others need to be more conscious to smile. You know which you are. Either way there are probably more opportunities and more situations where you can flash your pearly whites. Smile. You will be encouraging when you do and you will feel better yourself.

•Employees juggling job responsibilities with care giving are a reality in workplace of today and future. Workers are torn between demands of their job and ability to provide quality care to their relative.

•One out of three American workers is also managing care of an older relative.

•Loss of productivity resulting from time off to care for an aging relative is estimated at $6100 per employee per year.

•Caregiver stress accounts for a 27% increase in use of company health insurance benefits.

Seventeen percent (17%) of caregivers quit their jobs to provide care for aging family members, and another 15% reduce their work hours to assist their loved ones. This shocking loss of employee productivity is hitting South Florida businesses very hard as more Boomers have senior parents who require caregiving.