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 3K358: Authentic Talk

purposed worKING No Comments
“You are blessed because you believed that the Lord would do what he said.”

A slew of reports have been recently released on employee satisfaction and happiness.  Without going into the details, the results aren’t good.  Much of the distress remains focused on in-office vs. remote work. Dissatisfaction and unhappiness is up pretty much in all industries (except for the Construction industry, which I think might be because in Construction they never got to work from home).  I believe the work from wherever factor will figure itself out, but in the meantime we do need to watch carefully for the other factors of employee satisfaction like communication from upper management. Only 40% of entry level employees, according to a poll that General Electric and Ipsos fielded with 253 Senior Executives and 411 entry-level staff, say that they see their CEO’s actually living out their stated values.  Getting under that data, 85% of Execs think they are effectively communicating their values but only 62% of lower level employees would agree.  That’s a big gap.  What the report also found is that employees aren’t just looking for more communication, they want authentic communication from their leaders.  There is no more way to be authentic than showing up live and being open and transparent about the good, the bad and the ugly.  I know; easier said than done, but if we want to win hearts, not just minds, we better being be willing to open up.

I’ve often wondered what the dinner table conversations were like for those who heard Jesus speak live in His sermons.  We know that there were those who were amazed and believed on the spot.  And we know that there were those who brushed him off and never gave him a second thought.  But, there must have been those who questioned at first but with more time and introspection came to believe in Him, much like many of us today who may have become Believers as we learned more and more about Jesus.  Since Jesus taught in Parables there had to be those who had to have others help them understand what He was talking about.  Regardless of how and when people came to believe in Jesus, I am sure that He came across as authentic in how He spoke and communicated.  That was part of the power of the Parables in that He spoke into situations that anyone could recognize.  We become authentic with others when we appreciate, listen to understand, be empathetic and attempt to put ourselves in their shoes. When we are that way with others our standing for what we speak and do brings with it an influence that others want to follow. Striving to be as authentic as was Jesus is worthy.

Reference: Luke 1:45 (New Living Translation)