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 481: How Bad Is Lazy?

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It’s hard to call those who we work with as lazy, since everyone is doing something and few are just sitting around doing nothing. But, comparatively, we do know that sometimes there are those who just don’t pull their own weight or don’t give it their all. If grading on the curve it can feel like there are those who are being lazy. It is not ours to judge, but it is ours to ensure that we are not being lazy ourselves. I have worked with many people who just because they did not push themselves or work as hard as they could have, ended up squandering their potential and many opportunities. I remember someone who I once worked with who we all saw had the potential to lead the company someday but he never wanted it badly enough to break a sweat. It seemed he always tested the limits of just how hard he had to work. Before long, the rap on him was that he was at his core, “lazy”. It was a shame to see. For those who he worked directly, it got to a point that they just didn’t want him working on their team. In Proverbs Chapter 10:26 we read; “Lazy people are a pain to their employer. They are like smoke in the eyes or vinegar that sets the teeth on edge”. As we think of how we each work individually and how we make the decisions on how we are to follow up or follow through, then we should test ourselves to be ensure that we never send the lazy vibes to anyone else with who we work. How bad is lazy? Lazy is bad enough that it ruins reputations and destroys the image that we are working hard to develop.

Reference: Proverbs 10:26 (New Living Testament)