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 272: Ketchup

purposed worKING No Comments

While I am on vacation, I have asked friends, and encouragers of Purposed worKING to contribute. Today’s post comes from Steve Hayes. He is Steve is the Sr. Partner & Founder of The Human Capital Group, Inc. – a Retained Executive Search and Leadership Consulting firm (www.HumanCapitalGroupInc.com).

Constructive (not destructive) feedback is such an important ingredient to a healthy relationship…whether that relationship be at work with colleagues, direct reports, a boss or customers….or at home with a spouse, child or parent. We all know that no one can “buy” trust…it is something we give to those who have shown us that they are worthy to hold our trust. Healthy relationships are nurtured over time and result in trust being earned. Unfortunately, all too often we decide to “avoid conflict” at work (and at home) and choose not to “invest” in each other through the “gift” of constructive feedback. Suppose you went to lunch with your team from work and you enjoyed the best hamburger ever. Unfortunately, you left the restaurant unaware of the fact that you had a nice blot of ketchup on your chin. Everyone else saw it….but you couldn’t see it (it’s like having spinach in your teeth or something hanging from your nose….you know, the most embarrassing kind of feeling). Even worse…no one from your group was comfortable enough to let you know about it – or to make an “investment” in you through the gift of constructive feedback. So you went through your day, conducting meetings, interviewing candidates, making a presentation to Sr. Management…and no one told you about the ketchup. As you got home that night, your spouse made you painfully aware of the fact that you had spent the entire afternoon with a nice red mark on your face. In hindsight, wouldn’t you have preferred that someone had “taken the risk” and pulled you aside to point out this “flaw”? You might have been embarrassed for a moment, but you probably would have been forever grateful to the person who “invested” in you with the gift of constructive feedback. If this was your reaction, then you now have the reinforcement to live the “Golden Rule” as outlined in Luke 6:31 “Treat all people as you would want to be treated!” In other words, take the time to “invest” in others when you see that they have “ketchup” on their face…maybe they said something inappropriate during a meeting, or they didn’t deliver on a commitment, or they are making bad choices of some kind or another. The easy thing to do is to say nothing. The loving thing to do is to give them the “gift” of constructive feedback in the hopes that they don’t walk around all day with ketchup on their face!

Reference: Luke 6:31