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 765: Standing up

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“Fight the good fight for the true faith. Hold tightly to the eternal life to which God has called you, which you have confessed so well before many witnesses.”

Standing up for what we believe, who we are, what our values and principles are, and being able to express confidently to others our core and our essence is just as important to a company as it is to a person. This week I am presenting at a conference where part of the challenge that companies face is how to deal with transparency and their branding, in particular, their employment branding. In today’s world, it is impossible to say who you are and not be that, unless you want to spend a lot of time defending the contradiction. It is much better to truly know who you are, be that, and then operate daily that way, and then use examples and stories to reinforce the message. Too many companies are still trying to say what they want to become, while at the same time being something else and that is causing them problems. To secure the best talent, we need to have an employment brand that is truthful, clear and can stand up to the scrutiny of transparency.

God’s Word tells us to fight the good fight for the true faith. Paul calls it a fight because he knows that it is a real fight and struggle that we have to have with ourselves (our nature) and with the forces that want us to fail and turn from our faith. Sometimes, those forces can be so strong, and all around us, that it is only with the support of God and the Holy Spirit that we can stand firm. In the news now is lots of discussions about “he said” vs. “she said”. It is times like this that even the slightest word of untruth can ruin a reputation. You and I are faced with these kinds of challenges each and every day. It’s easy at work to cut the corner, degrade another, shade the truth, etc. But, we must remember that when we are standing up, that all the messages and actions must match, as best we can. Let’s today pray and ask for His support to allow us to stand up for Him with our best foot forward for others to see.

Reference: 1 Timothy 6:12 (New Living Testament)