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 3K202: Lending A Hand

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“Though they stumble, they will never fall, for the LORD holds them by the hand.”

“We’ll walk hand in hand through this”, said the boss to her subordinate as they talked about the hairy project they had in front of them. The subordinate thought about that statement as he logged off the Zoom call, knowing that his definition of hand in hand was far different than his bosses. As the one who was going to be doing the work, putting in the long hours, formulating the presentation, and putting his neck on the line if they missed the deadline or didn’t succeed in completing the project, what he wanted from hand in hand was someone who would be there for him each and every move and someone to help with the real work. His suspicion that there were differing definitions was correct, for his boss was thinking that hand in hand meant that as a good manager she would get out of the way and let her employee work independently and she could be there as support, guidance and air cover in case anything came up. And at the end of the project, the employee would get the credit, but everyone would see that she had managed the project well. As far as those long hours, days and weeks, she could check in on the employee regularly and offer to provide any help needed, knowing that with this employee, there would never be a request. Hand in hand meant two very different things to these two people. Work is like that many times. We desire a level of support, partnership, and comradely that is an unrealistic expectation. Yet, we long for that tight-knit, side-by-side, deeper working together. The truth is that it rarely happens and when it does, it is a gift. So, we have to look beyond people for that level of support.

David says in Psalm 37:24; “Though they stumble, they will never fall, for the LORD holds them by the hand.” The only hand in hand relationship we can expect without any fear of disappointment or letting go is the one that comes with a personal relationship with God. Today, you may feel like you are in hand to hand battle at work, when all you want is hand in hand working. Move your expectations away from the people around you and claim a hand in hand relationship with God and watch what happens. He wants to be hand in hand with you everyday, all day, and with you as much at work as anywhere.

Reference: Psalm 37:24 (New Living Testament)