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 213: Persuasive Presentations

purposed worKING No Comments

We all have had to give a persuasive presentation at some point in our work lives. Even if the only one that was required was the time in an interview when you had to sell yourself to someone else, it had to be persuasive. For others, the boardroom is a place where persuasive presentations take place all day long. The room is full of doubters, supporters and those sitting on the fence. In walks the young salesperson who has the big idea on how to increase revenues for the quarter. The salesperson has a presentation deck ready to go and with the launch into the presentation the supporters start to take their rallying positions, the doubters are looking for the flaws and the fence-sitters are watching the room and trying to determine which way the momentum will swing. As the presentation comes to a close the doubters spring forward first; peppering the presenter with one question after another seeing if composure can be broken and if true persistence and commitment is present. The supports wait. They hold back so that at the moment of lull they can shift the tide and bring the presenters boat back up swiftly. And then moment comes when the fencer-sitters start to show their colors and one by one they declare their position. In a matter of minutes a battle has been won or lost all on the persuasiveness, or lack thereof, of the presenter. This is how business gets done. If you are not persuasive and influential in your presentations, then the position is lost. Learning how to be persuasive, how to deliver strong and compelling presentations, and having an arsenal of influence skills are key to success in business. As believers we also have to be resolute in our faith, but we don’t have to worry about being persuasive and influential with God. In fact, He doesn’t pay any attention at all to those skills from us. He wants the opposite. He looks for us to deny ourselves of these when we come to Him and instead allow Him to flow over and wash over us as we stand by and let it happen with joy and acceptance. What is common about how we approach God and how we approach the boardroom, is that with each we must enter without wavering. We see this in Hebrews 10:22-25: “Let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting Him…Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep His promise.” Today, you may have to give a persuasive presentation and win over a bunch of people at work. You should not be afraid to ask God to go into that presentation with you and bring forth His power to help you through that presentation. But, as you enter into that moment with Him know that you can do so with a trusting heart, full sincerity, and the hope that is pure. For God always comes through for us and no matter what we have to present to Him it is like presenting to a room of supporters when we can’t even finish the presentation before someone says, “we get it, you’ve convinced us and we believe in you”. It is that feeling of support that God wants us to allow Him to settle down inside of us today. Let His loving persuasiveness persuade you today!

Reference: Hebrews 10:22-25 (New Living Testament)