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 1479: Influence

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“None of them could stand against the wisdom and the Spirit with which Stephen spoke.”

Yesterday, I wrote of persuasiveness.  Today, I want to talk about what can make one persuasive, and that is influence.  In the business world, those who are most influential are the ones who get their way and have their ideas adopted. While one can learn influence skills, I’ve always felt that some people have it, and others don’t.  Those that have it are like a baseball pitcher who not only has many different kinds of pitches to use, but more importantly, with the advice of the catcher, has the judgment of when and how to throw what pitch to who, when and where (sounds like Abbott and Costello’s and  baseball comedy routine).  Having more than one method of influence is critical so that one can maneuver in many different situations with different types of people.  When we need to hire those who can influence others, we should be sure and go deep on their different skills and ways of influence. Because someone can influence you, doesn’t mean they will automatically be able to influence others.

A new acquaintance sent me a note after our first lunch and gave me the above verse in Acts.  I have read that verse many times and I never saw that Stephen’s ability to influence was rooted in not only his wisdom, but also in the Holy Spirit from that he was filled.  How great is that?  If we allow God’s spirit to flow through us, then  there isn’t anyone that we can’t influence for Him.  Think about this today as you encounter those you think you can’t break through!

Reference: Acts 6:10 (New Living Translation)