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 1121: Lean In – The Power Seat

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“May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.”

Facebook COO, Sheryl Sandberg’s book, “Lean In” was at the top of the New York Times Bestseller list again last week. All across the country, reading circles have been formed for women and men to discuss Sandberg’s thesis of why women have not excelled and achieved in the corporation Boardrooms.  She shares many lessons and has done a great job of chunking down those lessons into obvious actions that can be learned and acted upon. One of those is when she writes of women not seeking the power seats in meetings. She says that women don’t go for the seats at the table (and I would add, to the middle of the table) and instead will sit at the seats off of the table. In my experience, she is right and this is something that can change and we as men, need to not only accept, but should encourage this shift until it becomes a non-issue. 
As believers, our power seat is not to be in the middle of the table.  Our power seat is to be as close to the Father as we can be, but we get there in a totally different way and for a different reason.  First of all, the reason we want to be close to the Father is not to be powerful in His eyes or in the eyes of others.  It is instead it is to seek to receive His power so that we can give glory to Him in all that we do.  Secondly, we can’t earn or push our way for His power.  Instead, all we have to do is accept and allow ourselves to become powerless. How ironic but how beautiful God’s ways are different than the world’s. The less we are, the more we are given. The least of us are the greatest. Those who spend their lives to humanly excel and achieve, the less God has room to do His work though us.  So, today, consider the power seat that we are seeking. Is it the right one?
Reference: Ephesians 3:19-20 (New Living Translation)