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 1991: Watch What You Say!

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“Don’t use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them.”

What comes out of our mouth is a tremendous force.  Everyday we read and talk of people who say things that they wish they had never said.  Words are spoken that cause people to resign from their jobs, move aside, lose support and employees, and harm relationships, perhaps irrevocably.  So, what are we to do?  We can train, role play, counsel and discipline.  And, we should do all of the above, but the most powerful action we can take is to be sure that the people at the top of the organization, start right now, today, monitoring and controlling their own words.  As that happens, a new tone will be set.

So many times we read Ephesians and focus on “foul” language and gloss over the term “abusive”.  We must be more than careful about this because abusive words can be spoken out loud, not sound like they are abusive to those listening, except to the one who hears the word directed at them with a meaning that is formed by years of experiences.  With the slightest of words, we can hurt those who are closest to us, and that can be abusive to them.  So, while our words may not be foul, they can still be abusive and we must be cognizant and sensitive as we go about doing our best to bring glory to God through the lives we daily live.

Reference: Ephesians 4:29 (New Living Translation)