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 703: Compassion

purposed worKING No Comments

“I have no one else like Timothy, who genuinely cares about your welfare. All others care about themselves and not for what matters to Jesus Christ.”

In business we are given opportunities each and every day to show compassion and to put others in front of ourselves. While not described in most handbooks as something we should be doing, in fact, it is a well-known adage that we follow when meet customers or strangers. It is in those two instances that we usually show great compassion and put other people’s needs above our own. The customer is always right, after all. And when we run into a stranger asking for simple help like directions or information, we feel good to stop and provide them with what they need. But, why is it that when we work closest to those around us that we lose the compassion and instead expect them to watch out for us, versus the other way around? Something short circuits when we go about our internal work. Another way of thinking about being compassionate is being able to know that we are putting people above other things, like profit. Let us remember that people may be the only true appreciable asset that we have in our business and compassion is a good insurance policy.

As followers of Jesus, what can stand out more about us than how we treat others? Our level of compassion is an indicator to others like no other. There is a popular band today called Mumford & Sons. They have a line in their song “Awake My Soul” that goes like this, “Where you invest your love, you invest your life.” We know that we are to invest our love in Jesus and in others. God wants us to be those that define what compassion means. There is no better place for us to put others in front of ourselves than in our workplace. All day long we have the opportunity to do so. Last summer I had the privilege to hear a pastor named Hal Santos speak. He challenged the group he was speaking “to take 15 minutes for inconvenience each day”. It is great challenge. Can we find 15 minutes today to spend in compassion for others?

Reference: Philippians 2:20-21 (New Living Testament)