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 3K131: Know Who Is Asking

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“The traitor, Judas, had given them a prearranged signal: “You will know which one to arrest when I greet him with a kiss.”

I”m amazed at how many times that people will do things that are requested of them but yet they don’t understand why or even who is asking or requiring it to happen.  Someone who works for a Supervisor who sets out a task or makes a decision, may or may not know, or need to know if the next level of management, or even the top management agrees with this direction or not.  Too many times it is just assumed that everyone is aligned and that what we hear is coming from the top down.  Sadly, this misalignment happens more often than not and it’s those who are making the work happen that find their time wasted or even worse, they get caught up in working on something that causes the organization to drift from direction or schedule.  It should always be confirmed that what we are doing aligns with the larger goals and purpose.

Imagine the longer lasting impact of what happened on the night of Jesus’ betrayal by Judas and Jesus’ capture.  Judas brought along a gang whom were are told were some of the religious leaders, who apparently had no clue who Jesus was other than what they had heard about him, as Judas had to tell them Jesus would be the one that he kissed. They likely went about their role that day assuming that what they were being asked to do was right and just.  Little did they know.  Fast forward that after the resurrection of Jesus that these same people may have realized that they had been duped by their leaders and peers.  Did they tell their story to their family?  Were there generations to come that told their children that their grandfather was one of the men who apprehended Jesus and handed him over for an unjust death?  What impact did that have?  What we do in our work matters.  What we are asked to do, matters.  How we carry about our duties and responsibilities and that we understand the full reasons and ramifications, as best we can, matters.  There will be times when we must make a stand because we know what is being asked is just not right.  When faced with such a decision call on Him to help us know the right thing to do.

Reference: Matthew 26:48 (New Living Translation)