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 374: The Last Word

purposed worKING 1 Comment

We all know what an argument at work feels like. When someone is trying to get their point across and someone else disagrees and has just as strong of a counter point of view, then eyes lock, voices can raise and each person goes to their corner. This is when a good manager will intervene and find the commonality in the arguments and bring the two people to at least a consensus. That is, if the argument happens in real-time and in person. In today’s business environment those arguments happen over email and there is no arbitrator and when an email string of arguments gets going, then watch out! The additional courage that people have to argue and write things in email that they would never say face-to-face is a phenomena that all of us have had to learn to manage and live with over the last 20 years. Two strong-willed people get going on an email string late at night and before long the words that have been written, that can never be reeled back, become hurtful and can have long-lasting damage. Along the way there are others who are added into the email string to observe and also to help reinforce a position and there are those who are being blind copied too so that the arguers are both covering themselves politically. It’s not a pretty sight and the best advice to be given is just don’t enter the fight. Arguing one’s point or trying to win an argument over email never ends well because someone feels like they have to have the last word. If we just don’t engage in these arguments, then we can save ourselves time, energy, one less lost night of sleep because of worry about tomorrow and also strengthen our reputations. Yes, those who don’t argue and don’t get caught up in any of this are usually thought of as being more even-handed and cool-headed. Paul tells us in Philippians 2:14 that arguing is senseless; “In everything you do, stay away from complaining and arguing, so that no one can speak a word of blame against you.” Notice that he says, “In everything you do…”. That means work too. Today, you will invariably be faced with a situation where you could take the argument, fuel the fire and push on a topic and person until a full-blown argument ensues. When faced with that today, try a different approach. Don’t respond on email, pick up the phone and talk or walk down the hall. Don’t dig your heels in for the fight but find the common ground to build from and when that voice inside you says, “Argue for this”. Back away and let the argument go somewhere else and fell okay by letting someone else have the last word.

Reference: Philippians 2:14 (New Living Testament)