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 1970: Growth Mindset

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“So encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing.”

Carol Dweck, a Stanford University Psychology Professor defines a “Growth Mindset” as this.  “Individuals with a growth mindset believe that a person’s true potential is unknown (and knowable); that it’s impossible to foresee what can be accomplished with years of passion, toil and training”.  I like to believe that I see the world that way too and look for the untapped potential in people and ideas.  I once worked for someone like this and I can tell you that it was not only refreshing, but it was motivating and made all of us want to follow that person to the ends of the earth.  I had a meeting once with Steve Jobs where he asked me my ideas on a topic.  When I was done with what I thought, he did what Steve always did, he built upon the idea and he took it to a whole different (in a Jobian way – audacious to most) level.  I could only be inspired and in awe because he broke my thinking out to a level that I wouldn’t have dared to go.  It’s implausible to think that everyone can have a growth mindset, but it’s not crazy to think that we can all try.

One way God describes how we should bring forward a growth mindset is in how we encourage others.  When we provide encouragement we are being additive to ideas and efforts.  If we can find a way to be more like this then we can be the people who are known for caring, helping and supporting others.  Is there someone in the office who needs encouragement today?  Someone who needs to know that another cares about their growth?

Reference: 1 Thessalonians 5:11 (New Living Translation)