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 1382: Chef or Short-Order Cook?

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“You are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt if it has lost its flavor?…”

For most things at work, or in life, we can approach things in one of two ways; as a Chef, or as a Short-Order Cook.  A Short-Order Cook takes orders and fulfills the assignment just as it is given to them.  They operate quickly, efficiently and can be counted on to deliver on time.  A Chef sees things differently, always considering options and other ways to achieve the order.  Creativity trumps efficiency sometimes and there is an anxious anticipation of the customer of what might arrive.  Because of this, a Chef gets a little more time and more leeway than the Short-Order Cook.  The similarity is that both know their customer.  For the Short-Order Cook; it’s the waitress/waiter who is standing at the hot table waiting.  For the Chef, the wait staff are just a delivery vehicle to their ultimate customer; the diner.  Seldom does someone ask the Short-Order Cook to come out and meet the table to receive their lauds.  But, also seldom does someone applaud the Chef who makes the table wait too long for their food.  The balance is tricky and it all gets messed up when someone tries to take the opposite role when to everyone else it is pretty clear what is expected.  Which are you?  Which does your company reward and recognize?  Is your organization in balance with the right amount of Chefs and the right amount of Short-Order Cooks?

God always calls upon us to take the long-view and see the biggest picture imaginable and then bring it all together to apply to the smallest moments and actions in our lives.  I consider God as the ultimate Chef that asks us to stand alongside Him and carry his creation and message into the world with every word, action and move that we make.  His ingredients are well known and can be found in the world’s greatest cookbook. We are His masterful dishes that are served up on the menu of life.  There is a reason He challenges us to be the salt of the earth!  Are we delivering on the Chef’s creation today?

Reference: Matthew 5:13 (New Living Translation)