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 512: Those That Really Help

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I work with a CEO who is a great person but doesn’t have much of a soft side. This CEO can be known to get right to the point and sometimes to be a little fast in cutting to the chaste. This puts off other people and it can confuse them about the intention and the meaning behind the words. What is meant in all sincerity and caring can come across as dictatorial or worse yet as insensitive and uncaring. It’s the difference between a few words and how the words are delivered. Since I know the person well, I also know that there is a lot of caring, empathy and appreciation inside, it just doesn’t come out right. As we know, communication is a skill that must be honed and developed over time and it is also a skill that must always be evaluated and improved. This CEO is fortunate in that there are others around the team who can “interpret” for others the real message. After a message is delivered there are others who the team go to to get the reassurance they need and in some cases, some healing and understanding words. This is by no means the best case scenario, but fortunately as the CEO is developing and getting better at communicating, there are others to help. Someday those training wheels of other people having to be the ones who intercede will go away. And if he doesn’t improve, then the CEO won’t be CEO for long. Communication and words are that vital and that important. What anyone of us who are in leadership positions, or even as teammates, need to recognize is what Solomon tells us in Proverbs; “Some people make cutting remarks, but the words of the wise bring healing.” It’s time that we each begin to take accountability and responsibility for our words and be sure that while we are in this pressure-cooked time of business and work, that we check our cutting remarks and we ensure that we are balanced with words of understanding and healing. Our people, our co-workers and our friends are depending on us and if not us, who?

Reference: Proverbs 12:18 (New Living Testament)