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 1547: Online Etiquette: Part 1 of 7 – Do I Care 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.

“For she cares nothing about the path to life.She staggers down a crooked trail and doesn’t realize it.”

Social media loves to invite a fight.  By nature of trying to get someone’s attention in a short message, social media experts have learned that by provoking conversation, debate, or an argument is the best way to get something shared and commented upon.  So, we read some pretty inflammatory or argumentative statement and topics on social media.  But do we have to engage?  Do we want to and if we do, for what purpose?  Do we even care? I can’t argue with using controversy to attract attention, but after the attraction has happened, then we have to make a choice in how we respond.  I know someone who is trying to use his influence and organization to reform campaign finance laws.  He has learned that in order to get anyone’s attention on the topic that he has to use words like, “corruption” and “criminal” to describe the actions of politicians.  And those words invite a debate and in some cases a fight online.  I get that no one reads or cares about a dog biting a man but a man biting dog works every time.  But with each post that we make online, let’s consider what the overall tone that we are setting and what effect could come from our cause. So, before we engage, let’s be sure that the topic is something that we care enough about to enter the fray.

How we manage our persona online has just as much effect and impact on others as we do live and in-person, or maybe even more.  I know some great people, faith-filled and God-led people who when they get online they take on a new personality and one that is far from filled with grace, love and mercy.  Controversial topics online are like the back porch light, drawing in all kinds of insects. Those posts and chain emails can be the crooked trail that takes us off the right path. Let’s not be drawn to the wrong light or path, but stay focused on the real things that matter.  We can leave alone the things that we can’t say with strong conviction that we care.  It’s the safer and more mature path.

Reference:  Proverbs 5:6 (New Living Translation)