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 3K364: Coach Me, Don’t Boss Me!

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“When Jesus had finished giving these instructions to his twelve disciples, he went out to teach and preach in towns throughout the region.”

Give me Ted Lasso as a boss!  Why? Because, Ted as a coach would be a wonderful boss.  As a coach he got the most of his players, dealt with team issues, made tough people decisions, recognized, rewarded and also disciplined as needed.  Granted, he is a TV character, but still. So, why can’t so many bosses learn to be good bosses through using coaching techniques?  I don’t know why really other than we don’t spend enough time studying the techniques and traits of great coaches.  We seem to get lost or hung up on the theatrics and antics of coaches on the sidelines or locker rooms and think because those don’t translate to the Board Room that they aren’t applicable.  It’s not until someone “translates” them into a book on leadership do we begin to take them seriously (think John Wooden and Coach K).  We also might not want to overemphasize sports to those who don’t play them, but that’s a bit of a cop out because the principles of coaching don’t have to be tied to a sport.  As we learned from Ted Lasso, they are tied to life lessons.  So, if we want to better bosses, then let’s become better coaches.  And to do that just look around and listen.  Listen to those coaches in our lives (those who coach our kids, those who coach others, those who just have a coaching and encouraging spirit and yes, some famous well-known coaches) and see what we can pick up and bring to work with us.

Jesus was a great teacher and leader.  And we could say that He was a great coach too.  We know that because of the results of His team that He personally coached.  He taught them. He gave them a playbook on how to handle their ministries. He gave them examples from His own life. He pulled out the best of each one and sharpened them with experience and knowledge. He formed them into a team. He did push them and He did recognize them and He did test them. He was a coach and because of that they went out and changed the world. We have much to learn and much to aspire to become and each and every day He asks us to be all that we can be for Him! That’s an example to follow.

Reference: Matthew 11:1 (New Living Translation)