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 769: Do The Right Thing – Part 1: Transparency

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“…Stand on the side of good.”

We are in an age where doing the right thing is more important than ever. Transparency has opened up an opportunity for anyone to reveal anything, about anybody, at anytime. Since none of us are perfect, we can all expect that someone might dredge up something we did in our past that could be hurtful, or at a minimum, embarrassing. In the business world, this becomes even more important. Decisions made today are even more important than ever that they are made with doing the right thing as part of the decision making process. Again, a miss, or a shaded truth, or a cut corner, or not touching every base, can come back to haunt. In this day and age, overdo it. If our gut tells us that we need to inform someone else about a decision about to be made because we don’t think we have enough eyes and minds on the decision, then don’t hesitate to bring in others. Transparency goes both ways. If we shine enough light on a decision and we make that decision in the open, then when transparency comes back to question the decision, then there won’t be any problem.

Let’s be honest with ourselves too. It’s not only about our business decisions, it’s also about our personal decisions and choices. What we do today, or did yesterday, sticks with us and can become a part of our ongoing reputation. We know that God forgives us and can allow for us to put things behind us, but people are not as forgiving. As we move through this life, day to day, let’s take seriously our responsibility to do the right thing. Others are watching. God is watching. All around us is transparent, so let’s be sure that what can be seen, is as much on the side of good as we can be.

Reference: Romans 12:9 (New Living Testament)