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 2209: Traps!

“He gave his life to purchase freedom for everyone. This is the message God gave to the world at just the right time.”

Pastor and Author, Rick Warren wrote an article in 2004 that I have hung onto as it seemed timeless lessons for leaders.  While he was writing for leaders of churches, we know that the principles are transferable (to those who are open).  Warren described seven common traps of leadership:

The Leader…

1. …stops growing

2. …stops caring

3. …stops listening

4. …gets distracted

5. …becomes complacent

6. …becomes arrogant

7. …fails to delegate

Any of these look familiar in our own leadership or in the failure of other leaders who we know or have worked with? If we suffer from any of the above, then let’s remember that for each of the traps there is a solution and He is the one to turn to when we need to be released.  God doesn’t set traps for us!  So, if we feel like we are being trapped, then we need to return to Him to be freed!

Reference:  1 Timothy 2:6 (New Living Translation)