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 3K259: The Watchouts – Wannabes

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“For wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and evil of every kind.”

Have you ever been in a meeting where you saw another person clearly undercut their co-worker so they would look better than them?  Likely, we’ve all seen it a bunch of times and it makes us nauseous each time it happens.  We might have even been on the receiving end of this and so put back by it that we didn’t know how to respond in real time.  It’s a terrible feeling.  CEO, Jim VandeHei calls these people the “Wannabes”.  They are so ambitious, or insecure, or both, that they will take credit, put down someone, cut a corner or even misrepresent something just so they can get the upper hand or get ahead.  We can forgive those that are immature or haven’t been taught better, but if we don’t nip this in the bud then these people could tend to grow up into Weasels (which we learned about yesterday).  You might be reading this and saying, “Why do we always have to be ones who step and up and don’t let these people get away with their behavior?”  Well, we don’t have to do anything.  But, if we want a healthy workplace that we want to be in, then we all have the responsibility to point out what isn’t right and isn’t working for us.  It’s the adage, “See something, say something”.  If we have the courage to do so, everyone around us will be happier, ourselves included.

We are all ambitious.  I’m not sure there is anything wrong with wanting to progress and achieve in our careers.  Where things do go wrong is when we let that become the driving force within us and we put aside our values, principles and true inner purpose, just so we can get ahead.  This is a slippery slope that can start with the small and then one day turn into the big, so it is imperative that we are always checking ourselves to be sure that our motives are pure well before we take actions that are self-serving.

Reference:  James 3:16 (New Living Translation)