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 683: Inside The Boardroom

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“I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.”

We often wonder what those Boardroom conversations must be like. We may know who the Board of Directors are within a company, but we probably never get a chance to meet many of the Directors or get to know them beyond a superficial level. And what really happens in this Board meetings anyway? Especially, in the closed door sessions? Along with keeping the company business going there is a lot of peace-making that happens. CEOs and Chairmen of the Board have to always be thinking about how to keep everyone aligned, on agenda and at peace. This is hard because each person on a Board comes to the body with their own personal level of knowledge and understanding of the business, their own experience filters, their own personality traits, and their own likes and dislikes of the management team and other Board members. At the core, each person is just a normal person from their own walk of life, but still this has to be managed to keep the group cohesive. The bottom line is that if we have any group of people who share a core set of common values and principles then things become a whole lot easier. I remember reading about Alfred Sloan when he was the Chairman of the Board of General Motors and how he would never allow a unanimous vote of approval from his Board because he felt if that happened then somewhere management had not presented the full story to the Board, so he would take preliminary votes and if it was all one-sided he would send management off to come back with a better and deeper understanding of the issues for a real vote later. That was gutsy because he trusted his Board so much that he was willing to give up peace for an open conversation that included dissension. Any of our Board meetings, or any management team sessions would be best served to get to this level of working.

Maybe the most influential group of people to ever gather into a “boardroom” were the Disciples that Jesus gathered. But even them, like all of us, had a hard time coming together, operating, believing and staying aligned and in peace. The late David Wilkerson gives us his take on this group:

“You would do well to consider the men to whom Jesus first gave his peace. None of them was worthy, and none had a right to it.

Think about Peter. Jesus was about to bestow his peace on a minister of the
gospel who would soon be spewing out cursings. Peter was zealous in his love
for Christ, but he was also going to deny him.

Then there was James and his brother John, men with a competitive spirit,
always seeking to be recognized. They asked to sit at Jesus’ right and left hand when he ascended to his throne in glory.

The other disciples were no more righteous. They simmered with anger at James and John for trying to upstage them. There was Thomas, a man of God who was given to doubt. All of the disciples were so lacking in faith, it amazed and stressed Jesus. Indeed, in Christ’s most troubling hour, they would all forsake him and flee. Even after the Resurrection, when the word spread that “Jesus is risen,” the disciples were slow to believe.

But there’s even more. These were also confused men. They did not understand the ways of the Lord. His parables confused them. After the Crucifixion, they lost any sense of unity they had, scattering in all directions.

What a picture: These men were full of fear, unbelief, disunity, sorrow, confusion, competitiveness, pride. Yet it was to these same troubled servants that Jesus said, “I am going to give you my peace.”

The disciples weren’t chosen because they were good or righteous; that much is clear. Nor was it because they had talent or abilities. They were fishermen and day laborers, meek and lowly. Christ called and chose the disciples because he saw something in their hearts. As he looked into them, he knew each one would submit to the Holy Spirit.

At this point, all that the disciples had was a promise from Christ of his peace. The fullness of that peace was yet to be given to them, at Pentecost. That’s when the Holy Spirit would come and dwell in them. We receive the peace of Christ from the Holy Spirit. This peace comes to us as the Spirit reveals Christ to us. The more of Jesus you want, the more the Spirit will show you of him—and the more of Christ’s actual peace you will have.”

And to that, I say, Amen!

Reference: John 14:27-28 (New Living Translation)