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 587: The Foolish Leader

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I have always been amazed at the leaders who are willing to look foolish in order to get things done within their company. The best example I can think of was Herb Kelleher the founder and long-time CEO of Southwest Airlines. Mr. Kelleher became famous for dressing up in costumes, playing along with jokes and becoming the symbol of good, clean-loving fun for his airline. Later, another airline executive has tried to do the same as Sir. Richard Branson brought his own style of foolishness to his company. I had the opportunity to work with David Novak, the current (and only) CEO of Yum! restaurants. David was not a prankster or one who would don a costume, but he was not afraid to put on a Green Bay Packers (congrats by the way) cheesehead as he was rewarding and recognizing Pizza Hut employees or carry rubber chickens in his briefcase for recognition to KFC restaurant workers. What strikes me about these leaders is that they so love their work and are so passionate about their companies and their employees that they let down their guard and allow themselves to be human and yes, sometimes foolish for the sake of relating and being proud of their companies. Too many leaders get caught up in their own position and lose their humanness and the special touch with those around them. Our own King David was one who was not afraid to be foolish in his leadership and love for the Lord. We read in 2 Samuel, “He appointed me as the leader of Israel, the people of the Lord. I am willing to act like a fool in order to show my joy in the Lord.” Maybe what we need to do is allow ourselves to fall back in love with what we do and then let our joy and love show through in real emotions and maybe even what we once would have thought as “foolishness”.

Reference: 2 Samuel 6:21 (New Living Testament)