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 695: Aligned Interest

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“Workers who tend a fig tree are allowed to eats its fruit. In the same way, workers who protect their employer’s interest will be rewarded.”

Aligned interest is a big deal these days in business. Shareholders demand aligned interest between their investments into the company and the rewards that management receives. The same is being driven from the top to the bottom in organizations as senior management looks for ways to align the interest of the front-line employee with their interest. There are all kinds of incentive and alignment systems and tools, but nothing is better than everyone believing, deeply, that they are all working toward a common goal and if this goal is achieved then they know that they will receive commensurate rewards for that achievement. Call it what you want, profit-sharing, bonus pools, etc., but whatever it is, pure alignment goes a long way. I was speaking with a senior executive about how this level of alignment can also reinforce accountability, which only assists in ensuring that goals will be achieved. He told me, “it’s one of the hardest achievements in any business.” He is right.

As workers, who are also working to bring glory to God in all that we do, let us also ensure that we are doing our part to earn the rewards. As Solomon says in Proverbs, the prelude to the rewards is our tending the fig tree, and doing it well. Let’s be sure that we are doing our part so that the rewards we receive are well-earned and deserved. When we work hard and pull our part, our interests become aligned with our employers who expect such. Let’s be sure that we are always aligned in that way and that we protect those interests.

Reference: Proverbs 27:18 (New Living Testament)