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 344: Leadership Steps

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It is not uncommon to hear the advice and coaching that we need to step forward and become a leader. All of our development programs and leadership classes are geared towards us stepping into the leadership limelight and taking the mantle from someone else. But what if true leadership was more about stepping back versus stepping forward? How can that be, you might be asking? We have ringing in our ears the words that to be a great leader we must be proactive, take initiative, be better than those around us, set the pace and the example for how hard to work, etc. But that is different than what we can learn Biblically about what true leadership is about. In Matthew 20: 26, Jesus is trying to teach His disciples what it takes to be leaders for Him. Just after the mother of James and John had tried to secure heavenly seats of honor for her sons, Jesus provided some straight talk to His disciples when He told them that being a leader who “lords” over others, might be fine for a king, but for them, they would have to provide a different example and lead in a different way. He says; “But among you it should be quite different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant…” This is one of the great verses that teach us about servant leadership. To be a true leader in the eyes of God, we are to be servants to others and ensure that we don’t worry about being first, but learn to be fine with being least. Is God trying to teach you this lesson right now? Is it time to sit back and care for others for a season and worry about the leadership position later? There are no shortages of people who want to be led from a place of service, caring, respect and real support. Now would be a great time to begin practicing a form of leadership that seldom will be taught to you in a corporate classroom, but comes from the greatest instruction guide of all time.

Reference: Matthew 20:26 (New Living Testament)