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 3K178: Try A Little Kindness

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“But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!”

Yesterday, I spoke at the Sunday services of our local church here in Rhode Island.  As I was meeting and talking to the attendees before and after the service, I was reminded of what true community is about.  Community consists of people who demonstrate and live out what we call the “Fruits of the Spirit”. Yesterday also reminded me of a man I knew who died back in 2013. His name was Bill Mahoney.  Bill was the first sales and marketing leader for Bridgewater Capital.  He died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 55.  Patti and I attended his Memorial service back in 2013. Among his many accomplishments and achievements in life, what stood out for everyone about Bill, was not “what” he had done in his professional and personal life, but “how” he went about conducting his life and business. After all was said about him and the love and accolades expressed, it all came down to two words that Bill lived by and was the memorial’s focus; “Be Kind”.  Kindness is a great word that we don’t use enough of in business.  Sometimes we pass over those who are too kind, as in, “He’s a kind person, but maybe not tough enough”.  The antonyms of kind are: cutting, edged, stinging, harsh, rough, hurtful, unkindly, and unsympathetic.  There is nothing in these that are positive traits to successful people.  Kindness is a trait we can adopt and establish as a part of our corporate cultures, if we so choose.

As followers of Jesus we know that kindness is a fruit of the Holy Spirit.  Today, the question is as simple as this; “Are we showing kindness to others in our work?”.  What ways can we do so?  In all ways. In every conversation, in every negotiation, in every interaction, we can, if we choose, demonstrate the fruit of Kindness.

Reference: Galatians 5:22 (New Living Translation)