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 348: Show Versus Tell

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The other day I met with an executive who was new into her job and she was so excited about her new company that she could hardly hold back her enthusiasm. As she talked about the company she quickly described the business and got to what was so exciting to her; the people and the way the company worked. She described the organization as a place where people really meant what they said and it was evident through the values and principles of the company and more importantly how the values were not just words but real actions. She had a great reinforcing story for each of the values and before too many minutes I could see and feel exactly what kind of good, well-run company it was. She then gave me a quick tour of the office and in each of the conference rooms was a large picture that was one of their print advertisements that told the company’s story externally but each was another strong reinforcement of the values. This company clearly understands the power of show versus just tell. This meeting reminded me of what God was telling Abram (later Abraham) about what he could expect in the future when God took him outside and told Abram to look into the sky and count the stars; “Then the Lord brought Abram outside beneath the night sky and told him, ‘Look into the heavens and count the stars if you can. Your descendants will be like that – too many to count!’ And Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord declared him righteous because of his faith.” It’s one thing to tell, it is another thing to be able to show while telling. Being able to back up who you are, what you want to do, and what others can expect from you, with a real-life story and something to point towards to show someone else what you say can and will happen is very powerful. If you can show versus just tell it is only making true the adage, “actions speak louder than words”. As we all know, we are judged and evaluated by our actions way more than our words. As you think about today and what you have on your agenda, what is it that you can point to and show versus just say and tell? You may find that the more you show the stronger the message and the more others will look to you as one who follows through and lives your words out not just through your words, but through your actions. That level of credibility opens up all kinds of possibilities for you.

Reference: Genesis 15:4-6 (New Living Testament)