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 1410: Of Course I snapped At You! What Were You Thinking ???

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While on a pilgrimage walk on the Camino de Santiago (St. James Way) in Spain, I asked some of the most committed and courageous faith-driven business leaders I know to guest contribute to Purposed worKING.  Enjoy! – Rusty

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“We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and who are over you in the Lord and who admonish you, and to show esteem them with special love on account of their work. Be at peace among yourselves.”  

“It is good sense to be slow to anger, and an honor to overlook an offense.”
Holy moley! How can the people we work with make so many mistakes?  I mean, don’t they think before they act?  Am I supposed to just smile and say, “It’s okay, no worries”?

The answer is kind of, “Yes”. Of course, at work (and in broader life) we are expected to provide criticism – constructive criticism. But occasionally I fail at this. I get frustrated and can “snap” at people on my team. Fortunately, sometimes they tell me that what I did didn’t feel good. Although it confronts me with a mistake that I have clearly made (and I don’t like making mistakes). It is a gift because it gives me the opportunity to “recover”. It gives me a chance to give them back respect, to make a sincere apology, and hopefully to increase my awareness of my weaknesses so that I can improve. There are so many lessons and opportunities in these type situations.

First and foremost is that God wants us to love each other. Sometimes it’s hard to love people (some harder than others!). These are great opportunities at work and home to live our love.

Second, it is so important for us to be examples of Jesus love, patience and goodness. Every test like this that God gives us is an opportunity to emulate Jesus. People notice and are influenced.  Finally people deserve the “best” from me. When I fail to be patient, kind or respectful, they are not getting the best of me that they deserve.

Reference: 1 Thessalonians 5:12-13 (New American Bible)  and Proverbs 19:11 (New American Bible)
Tom Koch