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 768: Corporate Privileges

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“But you must be careful so that your freedom does not cause others with a weaker conscience to stumble.”

By nature of how a business runs, there will be someone at the top of the corporate pyramid who gets to lead, make decisions, and do more of what they want to do than anyone else. It’s called power and it comes with the highest rungs of corporate leadership. But, we know that power can cause some bad things to happen. People who get into a place of power begin to feel as though they have privileges. Back in the day, it started with a key to the corporate washroom. Today, it is corporate jets, special compensation plans, expense accounts, and more than anything else, a freedom that others don’t enjoy. It may sound like I am getting ready to slam those at the top and that the 1% must come down. Not at all. Those at the top, have in most cases, earned every bit of it. They were good, maybe they were lucky, but for sure, they worked hard for where they are and they made some significant sacrifices along they way. But, once at the top, the responsibility of what they have been given and what is required is huge and each of us, in any leadership or supervision position, must be cognizant that we don’t lose perspective. We must remember where we have come from, that we don’t take our position for granted, and that we monitor our actions so that others don’t fall into a shadow of our leadership that is bad for them.

None of us are above it all. God’s expectations of us should be enough to keep us in line, but because we are given the ultimate freedom, the freedom of choice, we can forget that what we are doing and how we work and live can be so influential on others. The world is full of followers and not nearly enough leaders. Followers are impressionable and they evolve, or devolve, into the norm. There is no better societal example of that than fashion. It only takes a walk down the street of any city to see where the fashion is trending. One group of kids who are all wearing the same outfit and you can see how the following occurs. Any of us, regardless of what we do or who we are, have an impression that we make on others each day. We must be cognizant of that impression and ensure that the freedoms that we have and exercise don’t cause others to stumble or fall. Where we are strong, others are weak. Let’s start by thinking of others first, recognizing their weaknesses and then ensuring that we are not allowing ourselves to cause confusion or or stumbling.

Reference: 1 Corinthians 8:9 (New Living Testament)