Business leaders manage goals by setting and systematically striving to achieve them. While management and organizational researchers have laid the groundwork for goal management, the emerging field of Positive Psychology appears to offer many additional findings and insights that will help managerial leaders be more effective as they define and pursue goals. Factors such as character strengths, optimism, and resilience can play significant roles in how well goals are managed. In the end, a managerial leader’s ability to make wise choices and to implement pathways that lead to attaining desired goals is critical to success. Drawing from the field of Positive Psychology, this article provides guidance to help you more effectively manage goals by focusing on such factors as personal values, persistence, and confidence.

This article identifies the Trybaby Syndrome as a performance challenge and introduces a "Performance Influence-Importance Matrix" to help managers identify the differences between so-called Trybabies, Spinners, Pass-Timers, and Corperformers. Two real-world examples of trybabies, followed by five countermeasures, are offered to help guide managers, coaches, and employees in handling the performance challenge referred to as the Trybaby Syndrome.

Activity without direction or purpose is simply motion. No more. No less. Traditional job descriptions focus on activity. It is far better to throw out your activity-based job descriptions and replace them with performance profiles that focus on results - not activity.

The opportunity to help others improve their performance arises frequently for individuals at all organizational levels. When these situations call for confronting poor performance, however, those in the position to give potential feedback often lack a clear, concise, and professional way to communicate. This challenge confronts virtually everyone-CEO's and independent contributors alike.

You can close this performance gap between what workers actually do and what they can potentially do. The answer lies in measurement, tracking, recognition, involvement and evaluation. These five elements form the basis for any effective performance management program. The author has developed and implemented in many companies a system called "P.R.I.D.E." that integrates these five cornerstones of performance management.

When endeavoring to improve internal customer service among individuals, workgroups, and departments, it is important to know what questions to address. The key questions should include:
* What do we measure?
* Who do we hold accountable?
* How do we begin to take action?

The assessment methodology and action learning process described here is one way to answer these questions.

Decision making can often result in managerial missteps, even those decisions that involve ethical considerations. Many common themes emerge as we look at these problematic decisions. Most significantly, various cognitive processes that leaders often unwittingly employ and which may be called "mental gymnastics" or mind games may serve to support and sustain unethical behavior.

Values drive behavior and therefore need to be consciously stated, but they also need to be affirmed by actions.

Business leaders who want to create an ethical work environment should first identify their own core values and commit to practicing them.