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 629: Gracious Conversations – part 1

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“Let your conversations be gracious and effective, so that you will have the right answer for everyone.”

It seems that everyone has someone in their work and life experience that when the other person speaks, it just rubs us the wrong way. No matter how slight the word, it can stir an emotion or cause us to shut down and not listen. I know an executive who has one of those people that they have to work with regularly and no matter what is important that the other person has to say, this executive shuts them down and won’t listen. When challenged on it, the executive says, “I just can’t listen to any of it.” In reality, what the person says tot eh executive is not wrong, but the chemistry is wrong. I’ve seen this many times and I’m not sure what to do about it. I have a couple of people in my life who are this way with me, and I am sure I cause the same reaction in some people too. What I have learned is that it is not what the person is saying or how they are saying it to me that matters. What matters is what and how I say my words back. If I shut down or come back with words that are less than respectful, listening, or gracious then it is me that is at fault, not the other person. While it would be great to have perfect chemistry with everyone, it’s not the real world for that to happen so instead we have to manage ourselves and ensure that we are don’t become the one to fault.

Paul tells us that our conversations should be gracious. Why would he go out of his way to bring this point out? In his line of work, where contention was always present and opposing views was part and parcel for the day, Paul understood the power of a gracious word over one that creates more charge and heat. Since the words that come from our mouths are so important, we can be served well by monitoring and parsing out those words that are not gracious or welcoming. A gracious word goes a long way in having others want to hear what we have to say. Let’s check our words today and replace other words that we might use and see if we can’t add some grace to the conversations.

Reference: Colossians 4:6 (New Living Testament)