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 291: ‘O Brother, Where Art Thou?

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It’s not unusual in most religions to hear someone call someone else, “brother” or “sister”. The Catholic religion formalizes it with people who are “brothers” formally established from an order. We don’t call each other brothers or sisters at work though. That would be strange. But not so strange for the military where a troop will be thought of as a “band of brothers”. At work, we just aren’t that close nor dependent on one another to establish that we can or will treat each other like brothers or sisters. Although, when we step back and think about it and all that we go through together and put each other through, there is no reason why we shouldn’t be establishing relationships that are that close and that important. I am fortunate that I have some lifelong friends who have come from the places where I have worked. A few I would even call “brother”. In each of these friendships we shared an experience together where it was hard and/or we both went through something individually that was the same, in essence, and we can share and reflect on that moment in time. This is not unlike the military where soldiers who share a foxhole in battle become lifelong friends, companions and brothers. The Bible speaks of this in Proverbs 17:17; “A friend is always loyal, and a brother is born to help in time of need.” There in lies the difference between a friend and a brother. When someone is there for us so they can help us in our time of need, they feel like a brother/sister and oh, how we need these people often in our careers. If we miss the opportunity to know those brothers and sisters at work, who are there for us when we need them, then we are missing out on a big part of the positive experience that can come from work. And just as bad, maybe worse, is when we aren’t establishing ourselves as brothers and sisters for others because we are too caught up in us and our own thing. Today, take a moment and think about the people who you work with and think about who might call you brother or sister and why? And, who wouldn’t, and why not? If you are there for others in their time of need, you are more likely than you think to be thought of as the big brother/sister that you never imagined. We all need a brother/sister. Can you become one today?

Reference: Proverbs 17:17 (New Living Testament)