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 3K146: Aspire to be a Doyen

“Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.”

We should always aspire to be a “Doyen”.  A doyen is “a person considered to be uniquely skilled and experienced in a certain field”.  We might just call someone an expert but I like that being a doyen makes one “unique” in her/his skill and experience.  To be a doyen one has to seek out what can make them different in their work.  What is really cool in this aspirationis that there is nothing limiting someone from seeking out and learning something unique and different about their job. It doesn’t mean the “best”.  It means “special”.  Imagine a company that is filled with doyens.  Dozens and dozens of doyens could be the difference between you and your competitors.

Why would God want us to be a doyen?  Well, He already tells us that He recognizes as unique and cares about what makes us complex and special.  And, He will go out of His way to be sure that we remain found in Him. God’s Word is filled with instruction and ways that we can be a doyen for Christ.  He asks us to daily bring what is unique about us and our experience to work for His glory.

Reference: Psalm 139:14 (New Living Translation)