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 643: A Simple Choice

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“You both precede and follow me”

One of the earliest leadership lessons I was taught was to either “lead, follow or get out of the way”. Seems simple on the surface but very hard to do. Much of the confusion in the workplace has to do with us not knowing which of the three we should be doing at the same time others are also figuring it out. Many a toe has been stepped on and ball dropped because we are confused on which role we should be playing. Lots of consultants have made a ton of money trying to teach people and organizations on the differences. However, we can all get better at this just by asking the question when we are unsure and then listening for the direction and following from there. We like to make that mistake too in once we hear what role we are supposed to take we fight it and rebel instead of falling into the lane we are supposed to be in and getting comfortable with it. Do you know what role you are supposed to take today on each project or task you have in front of you? It’s not always the same and even if you are the boss, you are sometimes meant to follow or get out of the way.

King David describes the One, and the only One who leads and follows consistently each and every day in our lives. How wonderful it is to know that in all that we do that the Lord both precedes and follows us and even more glorious to know that He never gets out of the way even when we elbow Him out. Let’s go into today allowing Him to lead and thanking Him for following so closely. In that time of thanks also ask Him what role He wants you to take today with others. Because He precedes us He will show us the way we are supposed to take.

On another note, it is a sad day in that a true servant and soldier of our Lord passed on to heaven last night. Since at 12 years old when I first read his book, “The Cross and the Switchblade”, Reverend David Wilkerson, has been a voice in my life. I never had the honor of meeting him but felt like I knew him. In recent years his daily devotional has touched me and his words have found their way into this blog many times over. Please add his wife who was injured in the car accident, the rest of his family and his church into your prayers today.

Reference: Psalm 139:5 (New Living Testament)