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 1548: Online Etiquette: Part 2 of 7 – Do I Really Know Anything About This Topic?

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Last year Jon Acuff, wrote an article for Relevant Magazine, entitled, “7 Questions to Ask Before You Throw Down Online”.  Each of these are worth exploring in the context of purposed worKING and how we handle ourselves in the workplace and online.

“The wise don’t make a show of their knowledge, but fools broadcast their foolishness.”

Jon Acuff calls them, “instant experts”.  The internet has a way of creating them.  I’m amazed at the number of people who post or respond to something that they know little, if anything about.  With a simple and subtle push on their knowledge of the subject, they crumble. They just want to be there because others were either piling on, or it seemed that something was trending and they want to show that they can play in the topic, so they engage.  If you want to have your or your company’s credibility questioned, start talking about something as if you know something about it, when you don’t.  From credibility comes trust.  From trust comes repeat and new customers.  I’ve been online with customer service people who try and show they know what is going on, but don’t really have the right information.  I was tweeting with an airline customer service person who kept telling me that the plane I was on was in the air, flying towards our destiantion and would arrive on time.  I just couldn’t get her to accept that I was sitting on the plane, at the gate with a pilot telling us that he didn’t have a clue when we would be taking off  This was a public Twitter exchange.  For my followers, this airline didn’t bolster their credibility in that exchange.

It’s pretty easy.  If we don’t know what we are talking or writing about, then don’t pipe up.  Even if we do have the knowledge, we are taught that the wise don’t flaunt their knowledge, but instead are quiet about what they know.  Not many people like a “know-it-all” and fewer like those who act like they know something when they don’t.  This gets exacerbated and magnified online.  Much of our living witness is based on our life credibility.  let’s be careful on how we use what we know or don’t know in keeping our witness and life example strong.  The people were amazed by how much Jesus knew for someone who was not educated.  But, we may not able to be like Jesus in this way.  Bottom line – ask ourselves what do really know before we speak or write.

Reference: Proverbs 12:23 (New Living Translation)