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 777: Do The Right Thing – Part 9: Voiding

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“In everything you do, stay away from complaining and arguing, So that no one can speak a word of blame against you.”

There are lots of things that we can void in our places of business. We make a mistake or we lose it and we can void the check and start all over. We can always have an out in the fine print to void the contest or sweepstakes if something goes wrong. Warranties are harder to void but there are even safeguards there if someone tries to pull a fast one. Because of always the ability to void out things we have come to expect that there aren’t many guarantees that we can hold onto. Even in the employment of people to the company we are quick to remind them that they are employees –at-will and we must reserve the right to terminate them and void their employment commitment. But, having to void things is not good business practice. If we find ourselves using this as the excuse then something isn’t right within our business. For sure if our culture becomes one of complaining about one thing or another than causes people to go back on their commitments or even to argue over what is right to do or not, then we have lost our way somehow. We must also remember the first person/people to notice will be our customers or consumers. When we are the purchasers or users of a product or service and things aren’t all together right, we have a sixth sense whether or not things are okay with the company or something else is going on. Last February, Business Week, the magazine, started delivering the magazine on Saturday’s at my home in the same bag as my New York Times. I thought for a while it was a promotion of some sort, but no, it happened every week. I never got any notification as to why this was happening. It just did. It was all fine and dandy until we were gone on a Saturday and we would stop the paper and then never get that week’s Business Week. Not so smart me didn’t ever check on this and it wasn’t until the middle of the summer when we had stopped the Times at our home in California for our east coast season that I realized I was not getting my Business Week any longer. So, I finally got around to calling them and when I told them my story, they curtly told me that I should have read the notice in February (the one I either never got or threw away because how important can “An Important Notice” be when it is printed on the outside of the envelope with the plastic window?”) and that they would send me the last three copies of the magazine. When I told the agent I didn’t need the last three because we had been home then, she said then there was nothing she could for me and she said it in an argumentative way. She then went on to complain about the service and encouraged me to change that delivery option. She was voiding out the offer. Something, or lots of things are amiss at Business Week. So, it’s not easy to tell that all is not well.

We can’t just void our witness to others. If we just stop trying to bring glory to God in our work, as you purpose, and we fall in with the complaining and arguing around us, then we are not living up to the gift we have been given. Jesus gave to us the gift of love and peace and if we can, today, right now, recommit to living to how and what He wants for us, then whatever path we have been on will either be straightened back out, or made better for us. God doesn’t void His commitment to us. He remains steadfast and just wants us to do our best to be the example of what it is like to have the love and life that He can give to us. Today, let’s not be a part of the whining, or the complaining, or the arguing. Instead, let’s do the right thing and stay away from it and do our best to not have anyone else want to void out what they want believe is God’s way for them.

Reference: Philippians 2:15 (New Living Testament)