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 417: Don’t Go It Alone

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It is a tendency within our jobs to find ourselves going it alone. As I have written a number of times, I believe this is largely a function of how business and organizations are architected to operate and how they compensate. We work within hierarchies and teams bottle neck around a leader who may or may not truly recognize or care about the overall strength and health of the team versus the work just getting done. These are the leaders who say, “You, just go get it done and I will reward you for it.” They may not be that blatant, but that is the tone and the gist of the message. So, from there what do we do? We run off as individuals and we do whatever we can to be sure that we succeed and achieve personally in the eyes of our superiors and while we say we care, we actually don’t spend too much time worrying about the overall team. This is why it is so hard for us to hear someone else say, “It is important that we/you work within the team.” We understand it and it makes sense but in the next hour someone will be recognized, rewarded and/or given more responsibility because they took on the load themselves and made it happen in solo fashion. It is very situational but I do believe that part of what we are supposed to leave behind is that we have made others better along the way. Unless we are willing to let go of some things and get out of the way, then we will have missed this opportunity and potentially missed the greatest impact we can make within our careers. Let’s be honest, if at the end of our work days all we have to show for it is our own success and not the success of others there won’t be many reunions or phone calls in the future about the good old days. Plus, the burden that we carry by ourselves is likely to shorten our work-lifespan versus sharing the work with others. Jethro told his son-in-law Moses this in Exodus 18:22; “…So it will be easier for you, for they will bear the burden with you.” Today, you may find yourself in a place where you have been going it alone for too long. Today could be a great day to start looking around and letting go of some of what you like to do, so that others may grow. A little sharing right now and not going it alone could be the beginning of something great for you.

Reference: Exodus 18:22 (New King James Version)