Even when I was younger I was always questioning the process of everything. This habit led me to seek out and follow the process and those implementing the policies & procedures around me.

Who were these people in charge?

Whether in university leadership programs or professional associations I have taken an interest in the steering mechanisms behind my surroundings. By following the paths of leaders I have found the movers & shakers in my communities and given myself the opportunity to analyze the process & situations within each.

Ghandi said, “Be the Change”- I say, “Be the Challenger”- question the working parts, analyze the tasks at hand, look for and recognize inefficiencies in the process and address the policies and procedures that are not working.

Being the Challenger isn’t about pointing out the negative. It also means recognizing and building on strengths. Your own strengths, the strengths of others and the strengths of the situations. Bring these together and focus on those few things that work well and function best.

What do you challenge?

-Mike Toner

www.miketoner.com

My thoughts have been all over the place recently. From life & love to business & new media and how leadership and communication fits into it all this?

The conclusion: it’s easy for your passions to become your distractions. If I spend all of my time watching and reading what others do…then what will I do, what will I add?

Almost every moment of a recent car ride down I-95 I was thinking, “I should write about this or that…” with no real purpose or direction.

This is the difference between doing and dreaming, practicing and playing. Or as Robin Sharma puts it, “Ideation without execution is nothing more than delusion.”

Leadership is about dealing with distractions and staying focused on what’s most important. In your work and within your life, have the motivation to deliver with passion and execute with clarity.

-Mike Toner

www.MikeToner.com

Sometimes a case of writers block takes a change of scenery, a new journal and a nice pen to get my thoughts and ideas onto the paper.

As you may have noticed, I write with a rational, cause-and-effect tone. This is me, this is how I write, but often I get stuck in this cause and effect mindset.

It makes sense- we all find a way to do thing things we’re good at. We all like to practice the things we enjoy and we continually do the things which we know we can complete, right?

“Practice means to perform, over and over again in the face of all obstacles, some act of vision, of faith, of desire. Practice is a means of inviting the perfection desired.”- Martha Graham

So, I’m gonna step out of my comfort zone and start practicing the hard things.

Writing with emotion is hard for me.

College students about to enter the workforce during these weak economic times have an opportunity to control what their potential employers will know and need to know about them- at least more than a paper resume could ever show. It wasn’t so long ago that I was applying for my job and I relied predominately on a piece of 8 1/2 x 11 1/2 piece of paper.

I crammed as much text as possible onto that resume. My reputation lay in the hands of the information I presented here and maybe the three individuals I list at the bottom as references.

If Barrack Obama taught us anything over the course of his campaign it was how influential an online resume can be. He built an online network unlike any other and used it to supplement his traditional campaign.

In the end, he used social media to get the job, so-to-speak.

The blending of real world networking and online social networking can be the difference between getting your first interview and getting your first job.

For the seniors in college, I encourage you to think about hard your facebook profile and yes, delete pictures that put your reputation in question. Share your life online, share your experiences, but share wisely.

Your employers will google you.

Those results are your new resume.

As I headed to the Kennedy Center last night for a show, I began thinking about the preparation involved in stage production and what an immense undertaking it is. The behind the scenes work takes months to produce a seemingly effortless result; the performance.

I was always taught that the trick to acting is to make each performance seem like the first time. To make each word and motion authentic to the moment, current and un-contrived.

I believe the same idea applies to real life and to business, especially from a customer service standpoint. Each interaction with a customer or client should feel real, not a canned corporate answer and definitely should not sound like a rehearsed script.

No matter the interaction, act as though you are the only personal contact that the customer has with your company. Be prepared and behave as though the entire company’s image depends on you.

More on this tomorrow…

Photo by: Beck Exposed

Welcome to the totally redesigned MikeToner.com! This is the third redesign I’ve been through. The first website I created back in June 2002 was a static iWeb site hosted via godaddy with a blog that was really hard to update. I was having to manually update blog posts to my site via FTP. This made things way too difficult!

I made the decision after graduating college to move my blog to a blogger site that was much easier to update. The link to my blog was sort of cheesy though. It was hosted on the static site (as shown above) but linked to the blogger website- http://mike-toner.blogspot.com/

It made my life easy, but I felt like I was sacrificing design for convenience. I wanted the ability to really customize it.

So, here we are… Welcome to MikeToner.com version 3.0. I have upgraded to wordpress, designed a logo and created a custom theme with the help of Tony at Razolution. Bascially, I wanted a design that demonstrates my unpredictable style but kept the business of the blog in the forefront. What do ya think? Did we accomplish that?

With the redesign comes a re-focus. I have “re-thought” my use of this site and made a conscious decision to be more involved with my friends, colleagues and clients via the internet. I have begun to realize a fusion of my work life and personal life and hope that I can help facilitate the integrations of work and play via my website.

I know that my positive outlook on life is something I want to share. I know that my relationship is something I want to be open about; I know that that I love my job and want to talk about the lessons I learn and share my knowledge of marketing and social media with you.

This is going to be a hard balance to achieve- so stick with me here. Perhaps think about signing up for the email subscription at the top?

On Thursday I’ve got a video which I think you’ll enjoy.

-Mike Toner

www.MikeToner.com

I just finished reading “The Four Hour Work Week” By Tim Ferriss while on vacation with my girlfriend and best friends from home. Now -I don’t know whether or not it was necessarily because I was on vacation- but it was- that the entrepreneurial side of me came out in full force. Something about being on vacation makes you want to be “away” from the real world stresses of life and work. In his book, Ferriss outlines a plan to fulfilling your dreams (what he calls dreamlining) and how anyone can achieve success and happiness- you just have to make it happen for you.

One of the main chords that struck me so effectively was Ferris’ description of retirement dreams. He explains that when most folks think of retirement, they imagine having X amount of dollars in their bank account and traveling and or taking care of their families, right? What Ferriss explains is that, life doesn’t have to be a beginning to end; start-to-finish race, it can be a series of high points: I’ll call them Life Rushes- you know, those moments when you feel alive, those times when you are being who you imagine yourself to be?

Who are you? 

I’ve been thinking and talking a lot about self-responsibility lately. I think we can all agree that the things we choose to do each day are all to often the result of a habit. I could outline my entire morning routine, you could too I’m sure. Our morning routines are made entirely out of habit. Alarm, Snooze, Shower, Brush Teeth, Coffee…etc.

Now, what happens when something affects your routine? What is your first response if the shower is cold? What about if the alarm didn’t go off? Do you think negatively? Is it someone else’s fault?

Life has its daily challenges and while we are all faced with difficulties, I believe we must find ways to understand that life is not meant to be a struggle. Life should be enjoyed and you have the opportunity to succeed everyday.

I realize that avoiding negativity is hard. Change is hard, even if it’s over quickly- but the more you know what your larger goals are the less the little defeats will affect your overall mindset. You can always choose to focus on the positive

“It’s All Good!” is meant to outline my daily experiences and hopefully offer some insight into the way I approach and learn from the people and situations I encounter in my daily life.

It is a true learning experience to understand and believe that methods affects effect and outcomes depend on actions.

How you live your life everyday is determined by the goals you set and how you hold yourself responsible for meeting those goals, despite any small bumps in your path.

Be responsible.