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 422: Allowances

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We make allowances for things at work, all day long, every day. Few projects are on time and perfect. No deal doesn’t have allowances made and compromises taken. Even new buildings have value engineering allowances taken so it doesn’t quite end up being the same as what the original design held for the facility. We are used to making allowances to get things done and have others see our point of view. We give, we take, we give, we take. It is the way of business. The same is true with our bosses and co-workers. In order to get our way, sometimes we have to make our own allowances to be sure that others side with us as we go forward. Allowances are an every day part of work. However, we all know people who make allowances with everything but when it comes to other people. These are the people who fail to see the human side of an instance, or they see it and refuse to acknowledge the weaknesses and fallibility of people. With them, one mistake and you can be marked. We all know these types of bosses and co-workers. I was doing a reference recently for an executive and I had to come clean and say that I felt the one real issue with this person was their inability to give others a break, or allow them to work to high but not perfect standards, standards that not even this executive could claim to meet. Yes, the executive wanted to hold others to a standard that they can’t even uphold. Somewhere in here is, “don’t do as I do, or say….do as I think you should do.” We all need to have someone give us some allowance in our work. None of us are so perfect that we aren’t going to stub our toe or slip up once in a while. Paul tells us in Ephesians that by being people who can look past the current issues and focus on the good of people, etc.; that we can also still be successful; “”Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love.” You see, if we truly loved as Paul says we should, then it would not be hard to allow the faults of others. But because we love something else more; ourselves, our career, the money that comes from the job, the power, etc. we don’t allow ourselves to accept the weaknesses in others. Today, think about who others think you are. Are you one who is known by others for the allowances you will take, or the hard-liner who is just waiting for the first slip up? We know that God has high standards when it comes to work and excellence at what we do, but He is not a God who doesn’t at least give us an allowance a day. He is the God who wants you to turn over yourself to Him so that he can assure that the right allowances are given and taken.

Reference: Ephesians 4:2 (New Living Testament)