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 813: Command And Control

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“Anyone who doesn’t love me will not do what I say.”

There are many leadership styles that we can learn about and adopt. The one that comes most easily to lots of people is the style of “command and control”. We learn it from growing up when we are raised. We learn it in school from teachers. We learn it from examples of authority all around us. Then we go to the work world and someone tries and teach us a new way because “command and control” is not considered empowering, inclusive, or collaborative enough. But, at the end of the day, when the pressure is on, time is short and stuff needs to get done now and right, old faithful “command and control” takes the stage. The irony is that at that moment, none of seem to mind that approach. It’s when the goal is not clear or decisive and we are wandering around trying to figure out what we are supposed to do that we rebel against “command and control”. This is why leadership is situational and one size does not fit all. Like a great baseball pitcher, we have to have more than the high fastball in our repertoire.

Lots of books have been written on the leadership style of Jesus and how we can apply His principles to our business and personal lives. The Bible, as we know from Purposed worKING, is chalked full of leadership and work lessons. Jesus was amazing in that He provided a clear and decisive message that isn’t hard to understand and He was very clear with His disciples in what He wanted done, why, and when. But He was able to do this with a touch that was like no other. Even in how he spoke, which was underpinned with the power of God, He did so with humility and sensitivity to all around Him. He led as a servant, but was very much in control. Our challenge, my challenge, is to find that servant humility, follow His commands, and allow Him all the control of us that He desires.

Reference: John 14:24 (New Living Testament)