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 742: The Masthead

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“You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul,and all your mind.”

While certainly not as prevalent and as important as it once was, the corporate stationary still remains and decisions get made as to who goes on the masthead and who doesn’t. If not stationary, then the same decisions have to be made about the website. Most companies put the most senior person at the top and then work down from there until there is a cut-off. While not really that important, how the names are listed and who is there and who isn’t can cause its own set of conversations and consternation. I was in a recent planning meeting for a conference and even in that session there was a discussion about being sure that the names were listed in an order that wouldn’t upset anyone and the best way to so was to once again use highest ranking titles at the top. What this says is that we still, in a time when we should be able to see beyond titles, we still default into putting the most obvious things at the top and whether or not it is the best way, it is where we end up.

As we attempt to figure out in our own work and personal lives where our priorities should be and what goes at the to of our “masthead”, we have to be sure that we are keeping what is really important at our own personal top. Of course it is so obvious, but we just continue to allow God to slip down the list. In fact, it is so hard for us to lock in and keep our priorities right that Jesus Himself had to tell us what we must do and how we have to lead our lives. Today, imagine that you are creating your personal masthead. What and who would be at the top? As we start this week, let’s ensure our priorities are in the order that we can line up the rest of our lives to work and live to bringing glory to God in all that we do.

Reference: Matthew 22:37 (New Living Testament)