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 2124: Chasing Rabbits

purposed worKING No Comments

“By telling these false dreams, they are trying to get my people to forget me, just as their ancestors did by worshiping the idols of Baal.”

When our French Bulldog, Louie, was a puppy he loved to dart after rabbits that he would see in the yard.  We would have to hold him back on the leash or sprint with him to make him feel that he might be able to catch one, and more importantly run right across the road.  He was so obsessed that if we wanted to get him to go outside for a walk, all we had to say was, “Let’s go see the rabbits” and he’d head right down the steps for the door.  That was many years ago and now at 9.5 years old, he doesn’t care much for the rabbits and he can be in the lawn and one will be not that far away and he just gives them a look and goes about it his own business.  I think he knows he can’t catch them now, even if he tried, so he has better things to do with what he can sniff out.  And so it is with our employees, and ourselves.  Young in our career we are intrigued by all kinds of things and we will chase and sprint after them just because they are there.  And our Managers and companies know that so they bait us with those things that they want us to chase.  But then, somewhere along the way, we start to “know better” and with a little wisdom and age, we become more deliberate with how we spend our time and energy.  And if we are fortunate enough we get to choose those rabbits we then want to chase.  if you are trying to motivate an employee today, consider where they are in their employee life cycle and before you just give them anything to chase, consider what might matter to them now, today as important enough to want to chase.

In the oldest of the Old Testament writings we can see where God knows that the human spirit will chase after many false idols and prophets.  We are reminded of this over and over, but we aren’t always as reminded that our current culture creates new false idols and prophets almost daily.  It’s important that we stay grounded in what is His truth so we don’t go chasing the world’s rabbits that don’t matter, or worse yet, the ones that put us in harms way.

Reference: Jeremiah 23:27 (New Living Translation)