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 534: Clearing the Air

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When we show up at a meeting or a presentation and we take stock of the people in the room it is always a more difficult moment if we look around the room and there are people there who we either have some unfinished business, or worse yet, there is someone there who we have a problem with that is unresolved. It can be felt in the air. If we know that one of those people are going to be there, even before we go into the meeting or presentation, it can really throw us off and give us angst. It begs the question why we ever let ourselves get into the situation where we either harbor ill feelings or we allow someone to feel the same about us. I was in a meeting the other day when someone else said something to which I disagreed. I tried to say to her, as politely as possible that I was in disagreement and that I thought we should think of things in a different way. She didn’t say anything back, but it was clear that she did not like my disagreeing with her. We went through that section of the meeting and at the break I could just feel the coldness in the air. I got up and went over to her at the other side of the room to say that if I had overstated my disagreement, that I apologize. In a moment, the air was clear and we were back to the good place we were at the beginning of the meeting. If I hadn’t done that, then I am sure that the rough patch would have gotten rougher and the bad feelings would have not gotten better. It’s a principle we should all follow in that we shouldn’t let any bad feelings be harbored or grow and its nothing new as we can read in Matthew; “So if you are presenting a sacrifice at the altar in the Temple and you suddenly remember that someone has something against you, leave your sacrifice there at the altar. Go and be reconciled to that person.” We may not be going to the altar today, but we are always stepping in the footsteps of our Lord and He does not want us to be the ones who allow for others to have something against us. We are to be the ones to step forward, reconcile, forgive and move on. We are to be the ones who feel the responsibility to clear the air. As you start this week, is there any clearing of the air that you need to do?

Reference: Matthew 5:23-24 (New Living Testament)