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 2301: The Social Code

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 “Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

I was walking on the streets of San Francisco and I overheard a woman speaking to another woman and she said, “I just don’t get the social code of my company.”  The other woman said, “Well, maybe they just want you to speak out more and not stay too much to yourself.  You do that, you know.” It reminded me of the question I was asked last week about someone in a company who wasn’t very outgoing and the rest of the team thought there might be something wrong (different cities, so I know it wasn’t a question about the person I overheard in San Francisco). But, the question summed it up; she is an employee where the “social code” hasn’t been explained, or isn’t explicit enough for one employee to understand how she should communicate with her fellow workers.  And, if there is one person with the question, I can guarantee there are more. We go out of our way to orient our new employees about those things that are in black and white, but how hard do we work to give them the soft side of the business, the unwritten “codes”.  If we aren’t paying attention, we should.

We are quick to forget the social code we were given by Jesus.  Love one another.  It’s clear.  But you know what?  In the workplace, we have to go out of our way to show love.  We have to start with caring and then act. Thinking and feeling without acting isn’t obvious to anyone. So, today, make the code you live by obvious.

Reference: Matthew 22: 37-39 (New Living Translation)