Kelly R. Rasmussen

Who do today’s leaders call for help? Kelly!

As a leader of 9-1-1 centers, and a Successful CEO of Success Communications, Inc., Kelly has the answers, the strategies and programs to help today’s leaders. She knows conflict resolution at its core having worked in emergency communications for over 25 years. She reads people, and helps them refocus towards a win/win for all. She can train you on how to do this at her leadership events!

 

 For proven results from a scholar and a practitioner. Call Kelly at 517-543-1449 or email at more@KRRproductions.com

Kelly has been with the 9-1-1 industry since 1986. She rose through the ranks from Dispatcher to Director and is now an International Speaker and celebrated Author on using words to change lives.

Retreat

Sometimes you just need to step back a minute and regroup yeah? In a recent coaching call, this was one of the things that everyone agreed we need to do more of. Too often we jump to conclusions, we dive right in (sometimes the deep end) and plow head first into something. That’s okay if it needs a gut reaction. It’s okay if you have trained yourself to have the courage AND the knowledge of what it is you are jumping to (besides conclusions!).

Maybe retreat is a good word in that we can also leave things well enough alone for someone else to handle or fix. How many times do we rush in and try to fix something that isn’t ours to fix. Pull back, pull out, maybe let it go! Heed the words of a wise man who once said to me, “What will happen if you do nothing?” Most times, it works itself out. Afterall, I’m not some superhero with super human tendencies that can fix everything.

I think I’ll step back and let others fix what and how they want to fix things while I sip my tea and take a little time-out!

Kelly

www.KRRproductions.com

Flexible Leadership

We just wrapped up the Leadership Reality Adventure 2012 and what an amazing SUCCESS it was. We sent various leaders on tasks with their teams to realize their role on a team and how they perform when they need to become a more flexible leader. This was an amazing week of tasks, leads, and LIVE adventures in the Las Vegas area. Watch for news about our event for 2013!

What’s right with our world?

The news will tell you that the world is all wrong, upside-down, and drastically desperate. Likewise, the same messages can come across the world wide web. At least there I can hide a story or delete a friend with a push of a button.

As a people, we tend to be grabbed by a headline, or taunted by tragedy. Ask anyone why they slowed down to gawk at an accident. As a 911 dispatcher, I cannot tell you how many calls I received from people suspecting the worst, enmeshed in the muck and mire of life and when challenged or questioned to see the other side, it was just too comfortable to remain in their status quo.

I want to know what happened to our world? And how do we get back to a life that was fun, funny, and challenging in a positive way? Why can’t it be as easy as an episode of Gilligan’s Island or Happy Days?

Are we so desperate or scared that we have built this impossible image of who we have to be (or have become) and now we cannot detract it? I help people plan their future steps and achieve goals. I know people who are taking tough circumstances and making one heck of a good time of life because they see what is right and what works!

Try this for me this week – start saying what you want and not what you don’t want. Try it! Instead of saying,” I am out of this”, or “I lack that”, or “I can’t help”, or “You don’t know”, or all of those disempowering messages, turn it around to say “I can do this”, or “I will have that” and “here’s how you can help!”

My favorite example recently; in the world of living paycheck to paycheck, a friend told me she was struggling to make ends meet and frankly she couldn’t find one of the ends. I told her to start calling them “beginnings” like on a loaf of bread. Then – she said her hairbrush broke and she didn’t have enough money to buy a new one. Luckily she dug down deep in her drawer and found an old one. Now she tells me, “Thank the heavens I’ve got a backup brush!” The rest of the world can fall down around me, but I’ve got a backup brush baby!

It will get better! Hold onto your backup brush and smile! Next time I’ll tell you her “mayo” story!

Kelly@KRRproductions.com

The end of 9-1-1…

With the downsizing and bankruptcies of so many services, could it be true that 9-1-1 could close its doors? Remember Hurricane Katrina and how people could not call 9-1-1 because either it wasn’t there or there was no access to get to the 9-1-1 professionals (lines down, power out, no connectivity).

Imagine a totally demolished town or part of a state like Joplin Missouri, now imagine a complete power outage like southeast Michigan a few years back. What happens if you cannot dial 9-1-1?

If you are at a big college football or basketball game and terror strikes, will your call go through to 9-1-1? Now ask yourself this – if everyone at the top has “priority” to use the cell phone bandwidth during a tragedy; and let’s say the common person is about twelfth in line of that priority list, (in the words of my pal Ray Parker Jr.) WHO YA GONNA CALL?Good luck!

Here is the plain truth. If people do not understand what and who 9-1-1 is and afford the value of this service, it can be lost. Too many places are questioning whether or not to pay for 9-1-1? Really? Of all the services in this world, please think about this – WHO WILL YOU CALL?

Those police cars, ambulances, and fire trucks do not magically appear. They are dispatched, summoned, transacted, delivered by someone who knows not only how to pool resources but how to prioritize them. So, for all of those “other” services out there stripping, raiding, and stealing the limited 9-1-1 funds that exist – SHAME ON YOU! I hope your phone call gets through if/when you need 9-1-1. And I hope there are enough “bodies in the chair” to answer all of the calls during that disaster!

No matter what, 9-1-1 MATTERS! If you want to know what really goes on behind the scenes in a 9-1-1 center, feel free to read a copy of “9-1-1 Who Will Answer Your Call” by yours truly available on Amazon or at my website www.SuccessCommunicationsInc.com . It is also the keynote address topic for the 9-1-1 conference in Pierre South Dakota May 8th.

feel free to comment to the author – and share this with your community the next time you need the funds for  your 9-1-1 center!

Kelly R. Rasmussen – Kelly@SuccessCommunicationsInc.com

Warning, do not read this!

If you are like most people, you will want to satisfy your curiosity and for exactly the same reason we all slow down to view an accident, you are compelled to open, read, look, and wonder. It is part of us that is curious by nature, and intrigued emotionally. Still, there are those who long for the absence of negative and choose to look away. There are those rule-followers who say, “No, of course I didn’t open it; it said Do NOT open it.”

I am still processing and studying the differences. I gain a great deal of insight through my leadership studies. I also know I have been one of those rule-breakers most of my life; being pretty carefree and of the mindset to ask forgiveness later versus permission up front. I say, I used to be of that regard mostly!

Nowadays, I listen to my heart, weigh the supposed risk, look at things more intellectually (studying for a terminal degree will do that to you) and then actually decide if I so choose to break the rule.

Let’s face it, sometimes breaking rules catches us rule-breakers off guard. You can get viruses, scammed, dumped, duped, and made a fool of. Maybe there’s something to the thinking process of the rule-followers who read the warning labels thoroughly and the instructions fully.  I’m still learning this. There is a great deal of surprise in life that I’ve been missing because of my hurried, attention-deficit mindset to just “go around” it or whatever.

I’m not saying I won’t be daring and let my heart guide me into unknown ventures – that will always be the wild side of me. Maybe it’s age, or wisdom, or being duped too often, that I’ve settled into a routine of sorts lately and think more solidly about dismissing the rules. Either way, it is a good day to be alive. I say, plug your nose and jump in, the water is fine!

Kelly R. Rasmussen

www.KRRproductions.com

Playing the Game

Playing the Game.

Playing the Game

Life is about understanding and following the rules. If you think about it; if you are a fan of any sporting event, you enjoy it and follow along if you understand the rules. I’ve long wanted to play chess, golf,  play tennis, and understand NASCAR, but I don’t understand the rules or the scoring and therefore I don’t play or follow those events

Someday I will catch on or take the time to play, practice, and learn the rules. I might drive a racecar  – watch me! In life, it is the same.

In my case, I chose to become formally educated. Once I learned the “system” and the “rules” and found my way through the first couple of degrees, I knew I was in it for the long haul. That’s why I’m pursuing my “terminal Degree” of a PhD.

In work, it is the same, you have to know the rules and operate within the system. Many employees will tell me, “it’s all about politics, and I hate politics” and here’s the thing – Life is all about systems, rules, and politics. From the moment you are born, you start learning how to play the game.

I sat at a boardroom table with power suits and powerful people for example and I studied the politics and the leadership styles of each person at that table. Once I figured out their ability and willingness to play by which set of rules; the rest was easy.

You see, life is like a big sandbox. If you want a certain toy in the sand box, you either a) figure out how to share, b) wait until the person leaves, or c) find a new sandbox. There are more options of course and we discuss them at length in my LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT series and at the Leadership Reality Adventure.  My lesson for you is to know your own rules and then decide if you are playing the game where and when you desire!

1st Rule – Each person must know and understand their own set of rules and systems they will follow and abide.

2nd Rule – The more willing you are to engage others to learn how they play, you will have added to your knowledge bank immensely.

Stay tuned for more,

Kelly R. Rasmussen, Leadership Strategist

www.KRRproductions.com

Nixing Negativity in the workplace

People usually ask  “when did you turn negative?” and “how did you turn it around?” I try to explain that the person they see before them is not only a positive, happy person, but one who has been to the dark side and didn’t like it.

Negativity is definitely a learned behavior. It seeps inside you and before you know it you are modeling the actions and behaviors of others as if you are a toddler who learns to swear from a parent who slams their finger in the car door and later ask where you learned such language?

The point is, if you surround yourself constantly with negative messages, negative people, negative language, negative bombardment, then what do you think will happen to you? My answer to the above mentioned question is just this; I was lucky enough to have a loved one look me in the eye and ask what happened to me. She said I was not the same person anymore. And she was right. I no longer knew myself as I had been previously in the absence of negative ©.

Here’s how you can check your level of negativity;  a) step outside of yourself and ask yourself if you are proud of you, b) ask someone else if they think you have changed c) ask a couple of kids who really know you if they think you are different.

The last one is a kicker. You will be somewhat honest with yourself, your loved one will try to soften the critique, and kids can be brutally honest. So, if you are brave enough and curious enough to know how you are doing; ask a kid who’s known you for awhile! Just be ready for the answer, swallow hard, and say thanks!

Say it… Just say it

What do you really want out of life? What are you after? What would make you happy? Most people who join my coaching program have a starting point and an objective. Once I did take on a client who had no goals, had no vision, and was “floating” through life hoping to “stick” to whatever came along. Ick! That’s a fur-ball, or dust bunny, or fly trap or whatever you want to call it.

Have a starting point, have a few check points along the way, and for goodness sake, have a GOAL! Trust me; after 4 1/2 years in the PhD program, there have been plenty of times I’ve felt like that fly trap. I’ve experienced the feeling of “floating along waiting for something to stick.” Boy does that feel crappy!

Let’s go! Me & You and You & Me! The first two letters of GOAL are “G-O” so let’s put one foot in front of the other and GO!

You In?

answering your call,

Kelly

Move on, Move up, or move out of the way!

Do you know someone who you believe really shouldn’t be in charge? Do you believe that when they were promoted it was based on something other than skills?

Did you also know that a lot of agencies, businesses and corporations have excellent training programs for the line level employees and very little for the middle and upper management?

I’ve developed a LEADERSHIP TRAINING opportunity that is based on identification of skills and abilities and subsequent enhancement of those strengths (while working on areas to improve). This LIVE event is tailor-made for total leadership outcome. ALL of the training is built on solid leadership theories and current research for immediate results.

The Leadership Reality Adventure discovers your learning style & your strengths and adapting them to real life scenarios within a team as you race around Las Vegas and complete designed tasks. Once complete, you will receive your new LEAD and move on to the next task to earn points and bonuses. All the while, you will be learning lessons that you must present to me in the boardroom at the beginning and end of each day.

What are you waiting for? Don’t let others tell you that you are not a leader. Let me show you how to LEAD YOUR WAY!

It is so much more profitable! And fun

Kelly

www.KRRproductions.com