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 304: Appropriate Office Gifts

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By the end of this week people will be leaving for the Christmas week, so between now and Friday whatever gifts that are going to be exchanged in the office will likely be given. As such, the business media pulls out their annual stories about the gifts that are given in the office and what is appropriate and what is not. Some companies have their own rules around what can be given to vendors or customers and those policies have to be followed. But few talk about what is okay to pass along to other co-workers, the boss, and subordinates. I was never much of a gift giver but if I did give a gift I played it safe and I would give, for example, the same book to all my direct reports. The reason we have to play it safe is that even a gift can be misinterpreted or worse yet animosity can be created if one person gets one gift and another gets something else. So, whether we like it or not, we even have to think hard about the gifts that we give at work. Another reason, I guess why we call it work. Here is a set of appropriate gifts that you can give to anyone and a set of gifts that can be given all year long, every day, to everyone. No, they are not Harry and David fruits. They are even better. The fruits of the spirit are the gifts that are all age, people and job appropriate. We read in Galatians 5:22; “But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” I cannot imagine a better set of gifts to give to others for this coming year. And how these gifts would multiply if we were able to give them daily and consistently. As we think about what it is that we can give to others, before we go to the superficial and the ones that are soon forgotten, used up, or thrown away, think about the gifts that you have as a believer and follower of Jesus and see if you can’t start giving these gifts away, right away, even starting today.

Reference: Galatians 5:22 (New Living Testament)