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 694: Give It All Up, Really?

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“But among you, those who are the greatest should take the lowest rank, and the leader should be like a servant.”

At some point in our careers, we all reach the pinnacle of what we can do and then we perform at that level until we take ourselves out, or get replaced. Father time has a way of ensuring that all of us get to a point where we just can’t do any better than what we have already done, and it is at that point that companies and organizations have to make a hard decision to ensure that they continue on to get stronger and better. Any of us who have had to deliver that message knows how hard it is to send and even harder for someone to receive. Most organizations are not built to allow someone to step back into positions of lesser responsibility and carry on. Up or out is the norm and even if not, usually a person’s ego or familiarity with the way they worked, gets in the way of being able to stick around in a lesser role. I just finished a biography of T.E. Lawrence (we know him best as Lawrence of Arabia) and the British military used to let guys like Lawrence, who were forced to retire by an age standard as an officer, to reenlist at the lowest rank, under an assumed name. For those who all they knew was the military, this could be life-saving. How wonderful it would be for organizations to be this open and welcoming so that someone could continue on and transition in the final quarter of their work life in a way that didn’t leave them waiting for the axe to fall.

Jesus challenges us to never become so full of ourselves that we can’t take the lowest of ranks and for those of us who are leaders to realize that we are here to serve others, not the other way around. When we practice servant leadership, it is not only rewarding to others, it can also be freeing to us. When we subordinate our egos and spend our time to work with all levels of co-workers, we are giving back in a great way. Most importantly, we are modeling the life of our Lord, who didn’t see rank, titles, or authority. The One who had all the authority and power, always gave it away so that others were built up and strengthened. What can we be doing today to be more His way?

Reference: Luke 22:26 (New Living Testament)