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 436: Freedom To….

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Much is written about freedom and autonomy in the workplace. Having spent the last decade plus with people in the entertainment industry there is nothing more sacred to someone who is a creator than having creative freedom. This also is true for software engineers who if they feel don’t have freedom to code, then they rebel or shutdown. Actually the desire for freedom to work and operate without being watched over or micro-managed is universal. In order to be at our best we need to feel a level of trust that is sent our way that can translate to a feeling of freedom to express ourselves in our work. We have all been on the other side of the coin and the day we start to feel like we are being put on auto-pilot or being robotic in what we are asked to do, we begin to get frustrated and if it happens enough we begin to look for another job. Japanese style management in the 1970’s even began to give people on the assembly line freedom over decisions and how they worked. That was successful then, and it is successful now, if we will practice it with those who we work with and around us. If we are in a situation where we can’t find that freedom and we are stuck in the job and in our place of work, then we must look elsewhere for that feeling of freedom and not let our jobs be the defining force for our attitude or outlook on life. In 2 Corinthians Paul tells us where real freedom is found; “For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” If you want to bring a freedom to your work, then try today bringing along the Spirit to what you do. Ask God to fill you with His Spirit and to allow that to pervade within the work that you will do today. See if there isn’t a freedom that comes from Him that you cannot gain in any other way.

Reference: 2 Corinthians 3:17 (New Living Testament)