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 737: Words Are Cheap…Performance Counts

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“Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new being, by changing the way you think.”

“Words Are Cheap…Performance Counts”. This is one of the those signs that hang in the office of executives to remind anyone who graces that space that there is a philosophy to be followed. The signs work as they can create common language and thoughts. What I like about this one is that it says so much about what a business is supposed to be and also what not to be. Businesses that talk a good game about their products and services but never deliver, don’t really matter and won’t be around long. It is true performance that counts and the words become strong at that point. It’s always easier for a marketer or PR person to put the words on top of the cake versus trying to have the words be the filling and hoping that the rest happens. In our businesses, both internally and externally we should worry less about what we say we are going to be and do and more about are we doing it?

The same is true in our lives and how we work. Others are looking at us to today to see if our words and actions match. There are co-workers who know that how we spend our weekends include time in our church and fellowship with other believers. They expect that we don’t waste that time but instead learn and become better with who we are and ultimately, better with others. If we roll back into the office today and our actions (our performance) doesn’t count up to who we say we are or who we want to be, then our words are cheap and worthless. We each know what are own issues to overcome to make our words not be cheap. Today is a day that we can make our performance count. God promises that we can be new in who we are and then challenges us to take our newness and not copy the rest of the world. Let today be an original day and let today be a day where our performance counts in His eyes and the eyes of others.

Reference: Romans 12:2 (New Living Testament)