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 438: Performance Feedback

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It’s the middle of the year and a time when many companies will do their mid-year performance feedback or even an annual performance review. Sitting down and receiving a performance review and the feedback that comes from it is never easy. As much as we all want to say that we are open to any and all feedback and reviews, when we are sitting there our hands get a little clammy and our breath shortens a bit and we do all we can to not become defensive when we hear things that we don’t agree with or feels unsubstantiated. The hardest part about all of this is that we always see ourselves different than others and sometimes we aren’t in touch at all with the perception of our boss or peers. So, when we have a sit down and we hear things that we don’t want to hear or we hear something new, then we tend to clam up, get defensive and try to argue and countermand what is being said. The truth is that many times we deserve the feedback and if we would only be open to listening and taking it all in for adjustments, then we actually might learn something new about ourselves that we didn’t know before. The best way to gauge what is actual is to compare the feedback with the actions and results for the period being evaluated. What we don’t always factor in is the real actions that did or didn’t drive results. We get so caught up in our efforts that we lose our objectivity. We would be best to follow and listen to God’s words in Jeremiah 17:10: “I give all people their due rewards, according to what their actions deserve.” If we can accept that our actions are the driver of our rewards then there never should be any reason to fear or be concerned by performance feedback. Even in our performance reviews, God gives us a way to think and react. Who says that God can’t come to work with us every day!

Reference: Jeremiah 17:10 (New Living Testament)