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 804: Negotiating Principles, Part 3 – When It’s All Over

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“And the Lord said, “Then, for the sake of the ten, I will not destroy it. The Lord went on his way when he had finished his conversation with Abraham, and Abraham returned to his tent.”

It’s not easy to conclude tough negotiations and then want to head out for dinner together or celebrations afterwards. Sure, there is that moment when we shake hands, smile and maybe for large-scale stuff, take a picture or two. But, there usually needs to be a little space after it’s all over. It’s not a bad idea to take that moment and go our separate ways but not without being sure that we have our next steps defined and it’s usually a good idea to have that first goal/milestone defined so we have a set time to come back together. But, at the moment, it’s okay to step way and not force it.

Even Abraham and the Lord went their separate ways after they had completed their negotiations. We read that they separated and the Bible doesn’t indicate that there was any emotion associated with it, they just went their own way and back to where they felt the best. As we go through tough conversations and negotiations it’s okay to recognize that we all need some space and to give it to each other might be one of the best deal gifts we could provide. This is a good reminder that getting to yes is hard. Compromise has to happen and with that comes a healing of wounds. Time takes care of those wounds and a little air can help too. Something to think about if you are trying to bring to close a hard negotiation/deal this week and you want to do it in a way that leaves the best impression and jumping off point.

Reference: Genesis Chapter 18