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 3K216: Those Goalposts Moved Again…

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

Yesterday, I wrote of how it is tough to know what success is when the goalposts keep moving.  Well, just as bad, if not worse, is trying to find happiness in our work when we keep getting the goalposts moved on us and we never get a chance to celebrate any success.  I was guilty of this as a leader (note, “was” as I learned my lessons) that as soon as we’d accomplished what we said we wanted to achieve, and in many cases right before we achieved, I’d set a new goal, raise the bar, move the goalposts.  And then, I wondered why people on the team never felt fully recognized or in more than one case, happy.  The best moments are when real energy is put into stopping, celebrating and resting before anyone sets a new goal.  No one minds striving for more, as long as they have a chance to bask, be recognized and rewarded for achieving what they set out to accomplish.

Want to be the most helpful person in the company for when the goalposts have moved?  Here’s the secret: listen to Paul.  He told us to “encourage each other and build each other up.”  Encouragement doesn’t guarantee happiness, but it is great medicine for what ails us when we are feeling overwhelmed, discouraged and unrecognized.  And, if we are the ones doing the encouraging, we can expect that we will be called upon again and again.

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