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 214: Name Tags

purposed worKING No Comments

When I was in high school working in a restaurant, the joke was that if we were still in a job where we were wearing name tags by the time we were 30 years old, we were in real trouble. That was back when we didn’t know any better and we worried that we would end up spending the rest of our working days completing the line, “would you like to have fries with that?” I remember being just over 30 years old and wearing my Pizza Hut name tag with pride as I would go visit restaurants across America as one of Pizza Hut’s executives. As I would put on my name tag, I chuckled at the thought from my adolescence. Even today when I attend some of the best functions and meetings of Boards, etc. we have our name tags that we wear. I don’t think twice about it anymore because a name tag is so helpful. I worked with a CEO who was not good with names and I wished for him that we all had to wear name tags or visible badges. He would stand in the elevator with the same people that he did each day and everyone knew him but he didn’t know their names. What was lost on him was the power of knowing someone’s name and calling them out when he saw them. The pride that wells up inside someone when a CEO or a manager, really anyone within the company, knows them by their name is a pride and feeling of recognition that goes far and is long lasting. We go through the motions so often with each other in the workplace that we sometimes forget that the basics like calling someone by their name is important. I am guilty of not doing it too, but I have tried over the years to get better at that moment when I don’t know someone’s name. No matter how many times they have told me, I try and say, “remind me of your name so that I can remember it.” Yes, even when it is embarrassing to have to do it more than once, it is still better than pretending that you know when you don’t. It’s a small but powerful lesson that can be transferred from what God does for us. We are told in a number of Bible verses that he knows us by name and counts even every hair on our head. In 2 Corinthians 1:22 Paul tells us that God not only knows us, but singles us out for Himself; “And he has identified us as his own by placing the Holy Spirit in our hearts as the first installment of everything he will give us.” As we go to work today we can go to the office knowing that God not only knows each of us personally he also knows a true name that He has given us as He sends his Holy Spirit into each of us as His constant reminder. And as we go through this day, perhaps in how we treat each other and how we make personal contact with our co-workers, they might see a name tag that we wear that has the best name of all written on it. Nothing could be better than to have someone look at each of us and then have their eyes deflect down over our heart and then look back up at us knowing that they have seen Jesus. Today, not only think about the names of others but also think about the name tag that you wear to work.

Reference: 2 Corinthians 1:22 (New Living Testament)