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 857: Handshakes (Redux)

purposed worKING 1 Comment

“Yes, this is the sign of my covenant with all the creatures of the earth.”

Most of the agreements we make at work within the company are done on the equivalent of a handshake. Many a business person from the past has said that they did all of their business on a handshake and the handshake agreement was a contract that wouldn’t be broken among honorable people. Few external agreements in today’s business are now made without having a written and signed contract. So, the handshake agreement is really only used within work and with our peers and we count on those type of agreements so that we can get our work done predictably and consistently. This is the essence of teamwork; being able to count on each other and know that we each do what we say and can count on each other to follow through. The handshake is a sign of a covenant that we make with each other.

God did this too in Genesis 9:17; “Yes, this is the sign of my covenant with all the creatures of the earth.” God’s handshake with His people comes in the form of a rainbow in the sky. We each can use God’s approach with others by ensuring that the commitment that comes with our handshakes of agreement are bound tightly and are as good as any written contract. If we can establish ourselves as being this consistent then when we speak of our faith others will know that when we say something we speak from a place of truth and integrity within our hearts. To work God’s purpose on our jobs we must come from a place of our handshake being as true to our word as any legal contract. The long-term impact of our followed through on handshake can be a real difference.

Reference: Genesis 2:17 (New Living Testament)