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 3K209: With Or Without Training

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“The members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, for they could see that they were ordinary men who had no special training”.

Training. The definition of the word is; “1. the education, instruction, or discipline of a person or thing that is being trained: He’s in training for the Olympics. 2. the status or condition of a person who has been trained: athletes in top training. Training is about being trained for something different to occur with the outcome not being the same and where improvement happens.” When we are “in training” for something we are doing so so that we reach a higher level of performance and in most cases for a specific event or occasion. But, at work, its not always that way. People go to training all the time but who expects something different from them when they get back or who measures the difference in their performance? Unfortunately it doesn’t happen often, if ever. That is why I am not a huge fan of training for the sake of training. There is some underlying message in the world of work that if you are being trained that you are special, good, or better than others. It’s an interesting irony in that those who do go to training should be the ones that need it the most…not the other way around. That said, we all need coaching, but that’s a different subject all together.

I hear all the time, “But, I’m just not trained to do that.” Unfortunately, this attitude leads to just not trying and giving up. This is true in the realm of people, like ourselves, who are trying to work to God’s purpose but don’t always feel adequate to minister or think that because we don’t have the “training” that we aren’t as effective or as “called” to be on the front line for God. In Acts Chapter 4, Peter and John had to do some things that they weren’t trained to do and they did just fine, and it was all because of their attitude and their courage to ignore their lack of training and just do what God asked them to do.  Peter and John’s large impact was partly based on the fact that they were untrained but could still do the job regardless and they did it boldly. What is it in our life that we are untrained for and we have been holding back because we think that without the training others won’t appreciate or take us seriously? A different attitude and a little boldness and we may find that God wants to let us do something remarkable and yes, all without training.

Reference: Acts 4:13 (New Living Testament)