Author Archives: Rusty Rueff

About Rusty Rueff

Rusty Rueff, author of purposed worKING. Rusty Rueff is the former Chairman Emeritus of The GRAMMY Foundation in Los Angeles. He most recently completed the successful 16 month leadership role as Coordinating National Co-Chair for Technology for Obama (T4O) for the reelection of President Obama and ten-years of Board service and President of the Board of Trustees of the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. Corporately, most recently Rueff was the Chief Executive Officer at SNOCAP, Inc. until the acquisition of the company by imeem, Inc. in April 2008. Before joining SNOCAP in 2005, he was Executive Vice President of Human Resources at Electronic Arts (EA) from 1998 until 2005. He was also with the PepsiCo companies for more than ten years, with the Pratt & Whitney division of United Technologies for two years, and in commercial radio as an on-air personality for six years. Rusty holds an M.S. in counseling and a B.A. in radio and television from Purdue University. In 2003 he was named a distinguished Purdue alumnus, and he and his wife, Patti, are the named benefactors of Purdue’s Patti and Rusty Rueff School of Visual and Performing Arts. He is a corporate director of Glassdoor.com and runcoach. He is the co-founder and Executive Committee Member of T4A.org, serves on the Founding Circle of The Centrist Project and a founding Board Member of The GRAMMY Music Education Coalition. He is also the co-author of the book Talent Force: A New Manifesto for the Human Side of Business. Rusty and his wife, Patti, reside in Hillsborough, CA and Charlestown, R.I.

day 2309: Cycle Leadership – Weakening

purposed worKING No Comments

“Why are you frightened?” he asked. “Why are your hearts filled with doubt?”

Last month, I was in Jakarta, Indonesia speaking with Christian entrepreneurs.  It was an amazing trip and I got to see the growing start-up community that is emerging throughout the country.  I gave a presentation on the four stages of a business cycle.  The first of the four to explore is “Weakening”.

When a business starts to slow down or runs into a speed bump or two, the overriding sentiment that can creep into the business is “doubt”.  Doubt can be sensed a mile away. I know someone who is an analyst and he spends most of his days listening to earnings calls. I asked him once what he gets from listening to all the calls versus just reading transcripts, etc.  He said he listens for “tone”. You see the trained ear can hear doubt.  And unfortunately, almost all of our ears are tuned to pick up doubt, fear and anxiety.  So, if we are in, or entering, a weakening time of the business cycle, then be overly cognizant that doubt will want to seep into the culture and that we need to do all we can to dispel any of this sentiment.

I don’t think that Thomas would have doubted it was Jesus had not he and the rest of the Disciples been at their weakest and most vulnerable point.  We don’t know, but we can imagine that they were drained emotionally and physically, maybe even not sleeping, or with any appetite.  They had lost the One they were following and with His crucifixion all that they dreamed and expected.  And it is here that we can be like Thomas.  We are easily susceptible to doubt. And when we are in a stage of weakness, our vulnerability goes way, way up.  So, in times of weakening, we have to over-commit and double-down on our time with God.  And, we must not try to go it alone. If we do, we might find ourselves in a worse stage of the cycle….and that is for Monday’s post.

Reference: Luke 24:38 (New Living Translation)