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 2270: Understanding Hierarchies

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“Then the mother of James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to Jesus with her sons. She knelt respectfully to ask a favor.”

Hierarchies are a part of everything around us. They exist in businesses, organizations, schools, government, and yes, even in churches. What is interesting is that some people almost innately find comfort in a hierarchy and others just never can find their way.  The ones who don’t understand how a hierarchy works will find themselves on the outside of how things work and get done.  However, these could be VERY talented people who just need to not be placed where they have to maneuver through the organization.  They can be very valuable as individual contributors who aren’t pressured with who says what, when or how.  The rest of us though?  We might want to spend a little more time with those who seem able to see into the hierarchy and are able to make sense of it all.

The Mother of the disciples James and John understood the power of a hierarchy as she asked if Jesus would place her sons at the right and left hands of the Father?  Jesus had to remind her and the rest of us that it doesn’t work that way.  He told His Disciples: “But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must become your slave.”  And it is the same for us today.  We are to lead by being servants first.  It is in this way of conducting ourselves that we are fitting into God’s hierarchy.

Reference: Matthew 20: 21 (New Living Translation)